Gorilla Journal 30, June 2005
Post-Conflict Inventory of Kahuzi-Biega National Park
There are few sites where the potential for conservation of great apes
is juxtaposed with such major challenges and uncertainty as in the Democratic
Republic of Congo's Parc National de Kahuzi Biega (PNKB). At the outset
of the Congo's civil war, nearly a decade ago, this park was the single
most important site globally for the endemic subspecies of the eastern
gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), containing an estimated 8,000
individuals in both sectors of the park. PNKB also supported a nationally
significant population of chimpanzees and it is also a major reservoir
of biodiversity endemic to the Albertine Rift.
During the past decade of the civil war, PNKB has been a constant theatre
of conflict. The park has been overrun by successive waves of militias,
Mai-Mai and Interahamwe, some of whom still have local influence today,
though open conflict and insecurity have receded in most areas. As the
Congolese National Parks Institute (ICCN) lost control of the park during
the war, a wide range of incursions, deforestation and illegal extraction
of resources followed, including mining, hunting, logging, charcoal production,
agriculture, and grazing.
During the war, much of the park's highland sector (600 km²), and all
of its lowland sector (5,000 km²) have been inaccessible to ICCN guards.
In the highland sector, fires, cutting and clearing have led to significant
habitat degradation. Large areas of the corridor (400 km²) linking the
highland and lowland sector of the park have been deforested and settled.
Despite the extreme insecurity and challenges, ICCN, and the park, were
supported throughout the war by GTZ (Gesellschaft für technische
Zusammenarbeit). Further support for park guard salaries came through
the UNF/UNESCO program, and over the past several years other NGOs have
also been able to provide assistance. While a number of highland sector's
habituated gorillas were killed by poachers during the war, including
several well-known silverbacks, the ICCN patrolling
of the gorilla sector, during all but the most dangerous periods, was
certainly critical in ensuring the survival of the habituated gorillas
in the park.
Within the last year security in the PNKB region has improved. ICCN guards
have recovered patrol posts and field teams have returned to the park
and surrounding region. Several important new financial commitments have
been made to the park, including a renewal of the GTZ program, and further
support for the park buffer zone (the area and communities around the
park) through the USAID CARPE program and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.
In November 2004, a break in the conflict allowed WCS (Wildlife Conservation
Society) and ICCN teams to survey the highland sector of the park
where they found at least 168 gorillas. While this number is less than
the 250-270 pre-war population in this area,
it was higher than the estimated 130 gorillas counted in a similar survey
4 years earlier. Chimpanzee numbers (as estimated
by encounter rates with nest groups) appeared to have remained stable
over this same period.
WCS survey teams are now preparing to move into the remote lowland sector
where most of the park's gorillas and chimpanzees occur, but where little
information and essentially very limited patrolling has been possible
up to now. These surveys will also be an important step in recovering
this sector of the park and securing its great apes.
In February 2004, ICCN re-established the park's two lowland sector stations,
Itebero and Nzovu.
In May 2005, the WCS/PNKB site manager, Innocent Liengola, travelled to
Itebero station. He was accompanied by the head park warden, Bernard Iyomi,
who visited Hombo. This was the first visit by park authorities since
1996. During this visit, park guards, supported by selected elements of
the national army from Walikale, conducted a security sweep of the sector,
resulting in arrest of over 50 poachers.
Innocent Liengola with park guards in front of the
former Itebero station
Photo: I. Liengola
Essentially all of the illegal miners had left the sector before the
sweep began. Recruitment of locally based staff to join inventory teams
was undertaken through the local chiefs and church leaders by the WCS
project leader. A camp is now being established near Itebero and training
of field teams for the surveys initiated.
The well-being of the gorillas will depend not just upon patrolling, but
also upon availability of suitable habitat. The highland sector of the
park is currently undergoing an apparent explosion of Sericostachys
scandens, a native but invasive liana not eaten by gorillas or chimpanzees.
The liana has colonized recent openings caused by fire and cutting, and
is now overtopping adjacent canopy, killing trees and bamboo and creating
large mono-dominant prairies that are not favoured by the apes. While
the causal linkages leading to Sericostachys expansion are not
yet known it is evident this represents a threat to gorilla habitat, and
a potential constraint on the recovery of gorilla populations in the highland
sector of the park.
The park's great apes are also confronted by a wide range of potential
health risks, including snare and other injuries from hunters as well
as a number of diseases easily transmitted between humans and apes. These
risks are especially high in the highland sector where human population
densities up to 300/km² occur in some areas bordering the park, and
illegal human movement in the park continues. While both of the park's
great apes are at risk, the danger appears to be more significant for
the more sedentary gorillas.
Recovery of the park, in particular some areas of the lowland sector,
will necessarily require time, as many of the illegal activities, in particular
mining, have become entrenched over the years in which ICCN lost control.
Indeed, even before the war, large areas of this vast and remote sector
were rarely if ever reached by ICCN patrols. As the ICCN moves back it
will be faced with choices on where to invest limited resources and staff.
Accurate and current information on the distribution of important concentrations
of great apes, as well as the distribution and impact of threats, will
be essential to develop a realistic strategy for recovery of the site.
Effective engagement and collaboration of local populations will be required
to ensure that great apes will be protected over such a huge area where
ICCN presence has been so limited.
The next 5 years will be decisive for the survival of the park. Damaged
by war, the park could succumb as peace returns to the region. As open
conflict recedes, PNKB will enter a highly dynamic and challenging period
as the economic and demographic frontier advances on the region's mineral
deposits, forests and agricultural potential. To ensure its integrity,
the park's limits must be secured, and effective protection put in place.
Well-informed decisions, based on knowledge from the field, will be essential
to permit ICCN and its partners to invest in the site and ensure its protection.
John Hart and Innocent Liengola
Previous censuses in the same area: 1991-1996, 2000
Dr. John Hart, WCS Senior scientist, directs WCS-DRC's
inventory and monitoring program and is based in Kinshasa. He has over
30 years experience in field research and conservation in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and has been involved with the WCS gorilla surveys
in Kahuzi-Biega and Itombwe since 1994.
Innocent Liengola is Project Director for WCS's program in PNKB
since 2002. He led the biological surveys, gorilla census and habitat
evaluation of the highland sector of the park in 2004, and is currently
heading the lowland survey in the park. He is trained as a botanist and
has worked with WCS/DRC program since 1994.