Report from Maiko National Park
The task of the managers of Maiko National Park is to protect the rainforest and its biological diversity and to preserve its importance in…
[details]Protective Measures
HOW CAN GORILLAS BE PROTECTED?
Individual conservation measures need to be planned in response to individual threats. In addition, it is very important to know the local conditions and to integrate these into the planning process. Measures that were successful in one place do not necessarily work equally well somewhere else. It is therefore of paramount importance for conservation organisations to work together with people who are very familiar with the local conditions.
Protecting Grauer's Gorillas through Community Partnerships: Sustainable Woodlots in Kagheri
Celebrating Two Years of Community Partnership
In the village of Kagheri, located 15 km from the GRACE (Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation…
Community Projects at Mount Tshiaberimu
Water provision for two schools
For many years the Wilhelma, the Zoological-Botanical Garden of Stuttgart, has collected mobile phones for recycling.…
Revitalising the Management of the Itombwe Nature Reserve and Collaboration with the Local Population
Since 2021, relations between the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN)/Itombwe Nature Reserve (INR) and the local population of the…
[details]The Usala Corridor - a Win-Win for Gorillas and People
There are very few communities left in the world that require a difficult, seven-day trek through dense jungle and across rushing rivers to reach.…
[details]Basket-weaving Training Project for Adolescent Mothers in Mt. Tshiaberimu
Mt. Tshiaberimu, a mountain range on which Grauer's gorillas are protected in the Virunga National Park, is surrounded by several villages. The main…
[details]Are Mountain Gorillas still "Wild"?
Everywhere in Africa human influence on gorillas and their habitats has become common. Interventions are severe everywhere, not only by deforestation,…
[details]Community Development Micro-Projects around Maiko National Park
Maiko National Park (MNP) was gazetted in 1970 by the President of what was then Zaire, Marshal Mobutu. Before the creation of the park, the area was…
[details]A Brief Account of the CoCoSi of Maiko National Park
Activities in protected areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are carried out in accordance with an annual operational plan drawn up by the…
[details]Nkuba: a Community Reserve in Eastern D. R. Congo
In 2012, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International started a unique collaboration with local communities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo…
[details]Electric Fence Reduces Human-Wildlife Conflict
"For the past ten years, we had given up on planting maize. Buffalos could raid our farms a few weeks to harvesting and we could make immense losses.…
[details]Conservation and Management of the Itombwe Nature Reserve: Major Challenges
The Itombwe Nature Reserve (INR) is located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the province of South Kivu, west of Lake…
[details]Great Ape Survey in Tayna Nature Reserve
In 2021, GRACE completed the first-ever great ape survey of the entire Tayna Nature Reserve, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). How…
[details]10 October 2021
A Year of Protection of the Sarambwe Nature Reserve by Trackers Unsupported by Rangers: Results and Lessons Learnt
The protection of protected areas…
[details]Sarambwe: A Year without Rangers – but not without Protection!
On 10 October 2020, a ranger was killed during an attack on the Sarambwe ranger post – we reported it at the time. The national park authority ICCN…
[details]Support Needed!
We now provide regular financial support for patrolling by rangers and trackers in four protected areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since…
[details]Pressures on Natural Resources of the Maiko National Park
Management of the Maiko National Park (MNP) has remained difficult due to the presence of armed groups in different sectors of the park. The…
[details]Restoration of Sarambwe Ranger Post and Current Activities
The Sarambwe ranger post was attacked during the evening of 10 October 2020 by a Mai Mai group operating in the vicinity of Sarambwe. A few days…
[details]Maiko National Park: Site Management and Conservation
Maiko National Park (MNP, BDMAP 1080) was gazetted in 1970. It is located in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is part of the…
[details]The Struggle for Survival in the Maiombe Forest Continues
The Maiombe National Park (MNP) covers a large part of the Maiombe forest component of Angola, an area of some 1,930 km² in Cabinda Province, an…
[details]Deadly Attack on the Sarambwe Ranger Post (closed)
In this article we will give an overview of the management of Sarambwe Nature Reserve (SNR) and a history of the attacks that have taken place in the…
[details]COVID-19 and Gorilla Doctors
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Never before have we understood the concept of One Health more…
[details]The Sarambwe Nature Reserve after the Demarcation of the International Border
In our last article (Gorilla Journal 58) we wrote about our hope that the encroachment of the Sarambwe Nature Reserve (SNR) by Ugandan farmers in…
[details]Itombwe Nature Reserve: Conservation Efforts 2017 to 2019
The East African Albertine Rift is known for its extremely high biodiversity and endemism, the highest in continental Africa, and has been the subject…
[details]Mount Tshiaberimu - the Science behind the Mountain of Spirits
The northern sector of Mount Tshiaberimu is an integral part of the Virunga National Park (VNP), the west is adjacent to Lake Edward in North Kivu…
[details]How Is the EAZA Great Ape TAG Linked to in situ Conservation?
Modern zoos are institutions that contribute towards conservation education through the conservation and research of living beings and their natural…
[details]Gorillas on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
A recent change in the mountain gorilla listing on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from Critically Endangered (CR) to Endangered (EN) received…
[details]End in Sight for the Conflict over the Sarambwe Nature Reserve
The Sarambwe Nature Reserve is well known for its location on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and its contiguity…
[details]Saving Cross River Gorillas in Nigeria through Radio Drama
Hunting, habitat loss and fragmentation are the main threats to the survival of the Cross River gorilla Gorilla gorilla diehli (Bergl 2012; Imong et…
[details]Clubs des Amis des Gorilles in the Ebo Forest
The Ebo forest is one of the largest remaining intact forest tracts in the Gulf of Guinea Biodiversity Hotspot (Morgan et al. 2011) and it is in the…
[details]Law Enforcement in Itombwe Reserve
Conservation approaches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have evolved from fine and fences, top-down approaches to adaptive co-management…
[details]International Primatological Society Meeting in Nairobi
From 19-25 August 2018, the biannual conference of the International Primatological Society, organised by Johannes Refisch (GRASP), took place in the…
[details]Education Efforts Prevent a "Blackback" Cross River Gorilla from Being Killed
In November 2017, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) received a report of a lone male Cross River gorilla sighted near two Nigerian villages (Ofambe…
[details]Conserving the Ebo Gorillas through Community Collaboration
Cameroon is home to many primate species of high conservation value, including drills, Preuss's red colobus, and gorillas (Morgan et al. 2011). Both…
[details]Strengthening Transboundary Conservation of Cross River Gorillas
Restricted to the rainforest region along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, the Cross River gorilla Gorilla gorilla diehli is Africa's most…
[details]Can Micro-Projects Promote Conservation?
The Sarambwe Reserve and Mount Tshiaberimu are two refuges for gorillas near the central and northern part of the Virunga National Park, conserving…
[details]On the Road to Extinction? A Population Estimate of Great Apes in Itombwe
Periodic censuses of threatened wildlife populations of high profile species help us to understand their population dynamics, assess the success of…
[details]Conservation and Sensitization Activities at Sarambwe Reserve: April 2016 to March 2017
In the Sarambwe Reserve, conservation and sensitization activities have been carried out mainly by the trackers and the troops based in Sarambwe (a…
[details]Participation in the World Congress of Rangers in Colorado
The International Ranger Federation (IRF) is an international non-profit organisation that supports ranger groups worldwide who have chosen a…
[details]Participatory Mapping in the Itombwe Nature Reserve
The Itombwe Massif is one of the important areas for biodiversity in the Albertine Region. It is mainly known for the discovery of the eastern lowland…
[details]Implication of Local Communities for the Management of Maiko
Over several decades, humans cohabited with the organisms in their environment more or less harmoniously. But recently, the use of modern tools in…
[details]The Virunga Communications Post Installation
Security problems in the Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been a severe danger for the park's wildlife and its forests,…
[details]The Itombwe Forest is now Protected
The Itombwe Reserve’s boundaries were formally approved by Provincial decree in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a significant step towards…
[details]Clean Water for Cross River Conservation; Rangers on the Frontlines
In a previous article, we documented bushmeat trafficking out of West/Central Africa for sale in underground markets in Europe and North America.…
[details]Improving Law Enforcement Monitoring in the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary
The Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary (AMWS) in Nigeria is the western-most Cross River gorilla site and home to about 10 % of the total Cross River…
[details]Development Activities in the Vicinity of the Sarambwe Reserve
Located close to Virunga National Park, the Sarambwe Reserve and Mount Tshiaberimu are two threatened sites where gorillas still occur. As ecotourism…
[details]Development Activities in the Vicinity of Mount Tshiaberimu
Located close to Virunga National Park, the Sarambwe Reserve and Mount Tshiaberimu are two threatened sites where gorillas still occur. As ecotourism…
[details]Bwindi Apes Conservation Education Partnership
The Bwindi Apes Conservation Education Partnership (BACEP) is a collaborative project of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology…
[details]Going the "SMART" Way in Nigeria and Cameroon
The Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) is new and improved software for measuring, evaluating and improving the effectiveness of wildlife…
[details]The Sarambwe Reserve: Current Developments and Threats
This article documents activities implemented in the Sarambwe Reserve and the almost continuous threats to the conservation of the reserve. It is…
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