Species conservation has a long history in Africa. Traditionally, many animal and plant species, and sometimes forest areas, were protected in accordance with ancestral customs or for religious reasons. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), administrative protection of nature dates back to the time of Leopold II. As early as 1889, Leopold II ordered the construction of nature reserves to prevent the destruction of certain animal species. The first national park created under colonial rule was the Virunga National Park to protect the gorillas. It was followed by Garamba National Park (1938) and Upemba National Park (1939).

Biodiversity is protected by the State in accordance with the conventions to which it is a signatory, and by the international community in accordance with its mandate. Biodiversity protection in the DRC is still fragile despite the existence of support structures. Furthermore, the absence of an international biodiversity protection force makes conservation even more fragile.

Background

The 2000s were very decisive for the Government of the DRC in the fight against climate change and the protection of rare species found in various parts of the country, such as the gorilla and chimpanzee. It was in this context that the daughters and sons of the Kisimba and Ikobo communities in Walikale territory came together, with the support of the Government through the conservation authority ICCN (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature), to create the Bakumbule Primate Reserve, with its head office at Pinga/Nkasa and a representative office in Goma, North Kivu.

Four years later, the Kisimba-Ikobo Primate Reserve (RPKI) was created, located in the Walikale territory, Wanianga sector, Kisimba and Ikobo communities, covering an area of 1,370 km². It is now managed by the communities alone, having been abandoned by the ICCN. The Kisimba-Ikobo Primate Reserve, with its forest, is still intact with over 85 % of primary forest rich in faunal and floral biodiversity. This forest is teeming with a rich variety of primates, including Grauer's gorillas (or eastern lowland gorillas, Gorilla beringei graueri), Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and various monkey species.

Challenges

While the historical distribution of Grauer's gorilla is fairly well documented, its current conservation status remains unclear. The high level of insecurity and the isolation of certain regions over the last decade have prevented the launch of an extensive coordinated effort to assess their status, although preliminary work has been carried out in some places. Several previously unconfirmed sub-populations have been documented in Tayna (Mehlman 2008), south of Maiko (Nixon et al. 2006), Usala (Nixon et al. 2007), Walikale (J. C. Kyungu pers. comm.) and Itombwe (WCS, unpublished data). Several gorilla and chimpanzee conservation initiatives are focused both on sanctuaries and on areas where large numbers of gorillas and chimpanzees are found.

The Kisimba-Ikobo Primate Reserve has been going through a very difficult time since Conservation International, with Disney funding, left around 2014, without any training in governance, financial management or fundraising having been given to the manager of the reserve, which is handicapping management.

The RPKI had 845 gorillas according to the latest inventory in 2015 (Plumptre et al. 2015). The community rangers responsible for protecting biodiversity in the reserve work as volunteers, facing difficulties such as a lack of funding for monitoring, a lack of working equipment, a lack of team mobility, the absence of viable ranger stations, etc. Thus, the securement and viability of the reserve remains uncertain for socio-cultural, commercial and customary conflict reasons.

Today, certain financed local organisations are sabotaging the work and actions of the RPKI, mobilising the local population to exploit the reserve through the creation of Local Community Forest Concessions (CFCL) within a protected area officially recognised by the Congolese Government. This is documented in letters of 29 December 2024 signed by the site chief and customary chiefs who are landowners, addressed to the North Kivu provincial authority.

This issue is currently threatening the survival of the gorillas in the area, and several cases of poaching and illegal logging have been reported. Cases recorded include the killing of a silverback gorilla on Mwehu hill by unidentified poachers, and the killing of chimpanzees in Kahuwe, Kampongo and Tuwa/Ihabura by poachers (according to Community Rangers). Gorilla habitat is being ravaged by loggers in the villages of Pety, Kiriba, Mpombi and Kakanga (Service de l'Entité D Décentralisée poste Kisimba et poste Ikobo). Our investigations are continuing to document the facts and identify the perpetrators.

The Community Rangers confiscated several species of wildlife from poachers (six pangolins, four monkeys, one duiker and one hornbill). With the war raging in North Kivu, there is a risk of losing these animals, which are kept on a small island now threatened by flooding from the river Mwesso.

Due to a lack of funds, the surveying the area was not feasible and biodiversity monitoring activities were halted in June 2014. As a result, only members of the local communities, i.e. landowners with no resources, are carrying out conservation actions in the area.

RPKI needs technical and financial support to train its managers and leaders in governance and fundraising. It is also important to carry out a biodiversity inventory and bio-monitoring activities to establish the current status and update the distribution of certain key species, and to raise awareness of biodiversity conservation. In order to maintain the support of the population, development actions with rapid and visible impacts in support of the communities bordering the RPKI are necessary.

Papy Mahamudi Kabaya Eustache

References
EDD Kisimba (2024): Rapport trimestriel de service de l'EDD Kisimba du 27 février 2024. P. 4
ICCN (2005): Programme de renforcement de capacité de gestion de l'ICCN et appuis à la réhabilitation d'aires protégées en RDC. P. 7
Lachaux, C. (1980): Les parcs nationaux. Paris (Presses Universitaires de France). Pp. 8-10
Lettres de la RECOPRIBA du 29 décembre 2024
Mehlman, P. T. (2008): Current status of wild gorilla populations and strategies for their conservation. In: T. Stoinski, T. et al. (eds.): Conservation in the 21^st Century: Gorillas as a Case Study. New York (Springer), pp. 3-54. P. 21
Nixon, S. et al. (2006): The Post-Conflict Status of Grauer's Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) and Other Wildlife in the Maiko National Park Southern Sector and Adjacent Forests, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Unpublished report, Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature & Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Goma, DRC.
Nixon, S. et al. (2007): A Prospection Survey of the Usala Forest and Proposed Usala Community Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo, March–April 2007. Unpublished report, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Goma, DRC.
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