S.O.S Gorilla has been referenced in the magazine “Integral”. It appears in an article about gorilla preservation and their endangered situation.

A United Nations-backed initiative has been launched aimed at halting the destruction of the habitat of the East African mountain range gorilla, threatening the extinction of humans close relative, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced.

The 2009 Year of the Gorilla (YoG) partnership is supporting a project enabling local residents in areas endangered by increasing demands for fuel — not least the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — to buy low-cost, fuel-efficient stoves.

Other measures needed to target the reduction of charcoal production include solar cookers, tree-planting on farms and the widespread use of fuel-efficient stoves, UNEP said on Friday.

Further cause of concern to the agency is the signing of land deals by many gorilla range States with foreign companies for agriculture, including bio-fuel production.

UNEP said that on top of destroying the habitat of numerous species through forest degradation, palm oil — an edible oil found 10 per cent of supermarket products and increasingly seen as a profitable bio-fuel — has a higher carbon footprint than the fossil fuels it replaces.

The agency noted that the erosion of forests not only threatens gorillas, it also intensifies climate change with tropical trees in undisturbed forests absorbing nearly 20 per cent of the carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, or some 4.8 billion tonnes each year.

“Stopping the current overexploitation of natural resources is a key element of any strategy leading to a sustainable way of living,” said Robert Hepworth, UNEP Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

“The forests and woodlands of Africa must play a central role in efforts to avoid dangerous climate change,” added Mr. Hepworth.

“There is a strong scientific case for carbon finance to make significant contributions to gorilla conservation, as gorilla range States would benefit financially from protecting their forests,” he said.

In addition, an influx of relatively well-paid workers who can afford to frequently eat meat has prompted a boom in the bush meat trade and the decline of gorilla populations.

UNEP said that together with other great apes, the survival of gorillas is also threatened by disease and epidemics, mining and the effects of armed conflicts.

<hr /><em>Source: <a href=”http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200905231012.htm”>Hindu News Update Service</a></em>

War, displacement and bloodthirsty rebels had gotten between them.

But for the first time in years, this section of a venerated Congolese national park is rebel-free. Government wildlife rangers, like Mr. Serundori, are firmly in control – for the moment. And Kabirizi, a 500-pound silverback gorilla with a head as big as an engine block, seems to be flourishing in his kingdom of leaves.

“Haa mmm,” Mr. Serundori says, emitting a special gruntlike gorilla greeting that miraculously stops Kabirizi in midcharge. “Haa mmm.”

If the endangered mountain gorillas are any sign, things may finally be looking up in eastern Congo. In the past several weeks, Congo and its disproportionately mighty neighbor, Rwanda, have teamed up to sweep this area clear of rebels who had been at the center of a vicious proxy battle between the nations.

The enmity of Congo and Rwanda has been one of the most stubborn drivers of the bloodshed here, which has claimed millions of lives in the past decade. But if these two countries continue to cooperate, it could represent a significant step toward ending one of Africa’s most vexing wars.

“This is really good news, that there’s a serious improvement in relations,” said Koen Vlassenroot, a professor at Ghent University in Belgium who specializes in eastern Congo. “But it’s still rather confusing.”

Mr. Vlassenroot and other Congo hands are warning that all the years of cross-border meddling and intrigue as thick as the Congolese jungle make it extremely difficult to tell whether the new Rwanda-Congo relationship is a genuine and lasting change, or simply more maneuvering.

The joint military operation has been somewhat successful, at least by eastern Congo’s depressingly low standards. The two former enemy armies fought side by side without massacring each other. They killed dozens of rebels, including some commanders, and exerted pressure on several hundred to leave the bush. They arrested Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese rebel leader and former general whose brutal tactics and Congo-size ambitions had threatened to plunge this entire region back into war.

But at least 100 villagers were killed, too, either in the cross-fire or by fleeing rebels bent on revenge. And there may be more bloodletting to come.

Over the past several years, most of Congo has wearily climbed out of war. Large tracts of the country, despite all the headlines, are peaceful. But it is these very hills along the Congo-Rwanda border that have remained a lush green killing field, with Rwanda supporting one rebel force and Congo supporting another.

The ensuing violence has sucked up so many of Congo’s political and military resources that the so-called wild, wild east has been like an intractable weight around the entire country’s neck.

Today, the hills are quiet, which has allowed the wildlife rangers back into Virunga National Park, home to 200 of the last 700 or so mountain gorillas on the planet. Thousands of villagers around the park have trudged home from displaced persons camps, another vote of tentative confidence.

“Business is picking up,” said Bahati Banyele, who fixes radios in a little town called Kibumba, which had emptied out during last fall’s fighting.

Nobody is celebrating yet.

People here remember all too well the Sun City peace treaty reached in South Africa in 2002, which was supposed to rein in marauding militias but did not.

They recall the democratic elections in 2006, which cost more than $500 million and raised hopes but did not end the war.

And they remember the countless cease-fires and conferences at fancy hotels that spelled more fighting even before the delegates jetted home.

One of the biggest points of uncertainty right now is Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, who has gone out on a limb by inviting in the Rwandans, in the hope that this could break the deadlock between the countries.

Several former allies of Mr. Kabila among top lawmakers in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, are now denouncing him as a traitor. They are demanding investigations.

Indeed, his precarious toehold on power could slip further if the Rwandan government, as many people here suspect, has not truly severed ties to the rebels.

The presence of Rwandan troops in eastern Congo makes a lot of Congolese nervous. The little country next door invaded Congo twice, in 1996 and 1998, ostensibly to secure its own borders, though human rights groups have accused Rwandan troops of plundering Congo’s rich trove of minerals and massacring civilians.

Mr. Serundori, the wildlife ranger, who is 50, said Rwanda-backed troops killed his wife in 1997. She was mentally ill and did not flee town when the troops stormed in.

His life, like so many others around here, has been circumscribed by conflict. He started working as a wildlife ranger in 1989, when Congo was dysfunctional, famously corrupt but relatively stable.

“There were so many tourists who wanted to see the gorillas,” he said. “Sometimes you had to wait a whole week.”

But in 1994, all that changed. More than a million refugees from Rwanda’s genocide poured into eastern Congo, which promptly exploded from many of the same tensions over ethnicity and land that tore Rwanda apart. The Congolese war dragged in a half-dozen other African countries, eager to settle their own scores and cart off Congo’s tin, timber, diamonds and gold.

The gorilla park became a battlefield. And a poacher’s paradise. Armed groups used their automatic weapons on hippos, chimps, gazelles, elephants and the gorillas.

Some of the rangers have been implicated in various criminal activities, most recently involving charcoal, which is illegally made from the rapidly disappearing hardwood trees in the park.

Mr. Serundori says he was never tempted, although his salary is only $35 a month.

“My culture is to respect the forest,” he said. He has even called the gorillas his “cousins.”

This past October, the fighting peaked. The Rwanda-backed rebels led by Mr. Nkunda smashed government troops and stormed army bases and the rangers’ headquarters. Mr. Serundori and hundreds of other rangers were instantly homeless. In November, he was stuck with his 10 children in a camp of plastic sheeting where cockroaches nibbled on his dwindling pile of food.

But after Mr. Nkunda’s surprise arrest in January, many of the rebels agreed to join government forces. The only sign these days of the once formidable rebel army in Virunga National Park is a trail of tin cans.

A new battle is raging in the jungle, though. The Kabirizi gorilla family has been trying to fight back the advances of the Humba gorilla family, and sometimes you can hear the screeches and hoots from miles away.

“It’s over the usual stuff,” Mr. Serundori explained. “Territory and females.”

Source: NY Times

By Denis Barnett, AFP

High above the war-battered plain, a giant silverback gorilla ruminatively strips a plant of its leaves with green tombstone teeth. Five females nearby suckle their babies. The world can celebrate a small miracle in eastern Congo.

Park rangers greeted the primordial scene with hushed astonishment after hacking for two hours though the verdant gloom of the jungle Friday, the only sound the metallic ring of a machete on stringy vines and the din of insects.

In a clearing on the slopes of Mount Mikeno, a 4,500 metre (14,000 feet) -high volcano, a young blackback carefully picked insects and seeds from his brother’s shaggy black fur. An impish new-born clung to her mother’s back, fixing the interlopers with shimmering dark brown eyes.

Park director Emmanuel de Merode later described the discovery of five new-borns at the outset of a month-long census as “quite phenomenal”, given that the endangered gorillas’ habitat has long been a war zone.

“They’ve had a growth of about 11 percent in 10 years, less than two percent a year. To get five births in a group of 30 is about 15 percent growth. It’s quite tremendous and very unusual,” he said.

The infants are all war-babies, born in the 15-month period since CNDP rebels wrested control of the eastern gorilla-sector of Virunga national park from government forces in September 2007. The rangers they chased away lost all contact with park, home to 200 of the world’s last 700 mountain gorillas.

De Merode, a government employee, pulled off a diplomatic coup this month when he negotiated directly with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda to allow his rangers to return to the park, and conservationists their first glimpse of the state of the endangered gorilla population here.

Friday’s discovery “doesn’t confirm anything about the population as a whole. That’s what we’re worried about and we’ll only know that when the survey is completed in about three weeks’ time,” cautioned De Merode, adding that only two of the seven family groups in the park had been located to date.

Each group takes its name from the dominant male, or silverback. In this case the 200 kilogramme Kabirisi provided the assembled humans with a jolt of adrenaline as he crashed through the thick undergrowth, screaming and agitated, perhaps jealous of the attention being doted on his females.

The brief demonstration of dominance over, serenity returned. The giant pot bellied ape resumed his Buddha-like position, brushing salami-like fingers over a face fixed in an imperious frown.

“Kabirisi tends to be stand-offish a little bit, and lets you know when he’s not happy,” whispered park employee Pierre Peron.

While the adults were detached and contemplative, the young were curious to reach out to their human visitors. One juvenile twice rapped a journalist playfully on the leg before disappearing into a thicket.

Many of the rangers remained with the CNDP in the forest and maintained the gorilla watch, but De Merode pointed out that only the returning Innocent Mburanumwe, whose father was also a ranger, could identify all the gorillas.

He and his green-uniformed comrades made respectful low grunting sounds as they moved through the group, identifying each individual by their noseprints — the wrinkles and marks on a gorilla’s nose unique to each individual.

De Merode said that despite appearances, the imperilled gorillas could not have been indifferent to the battles that have raged around them.

“They were right in the middle of the war. Bukima (the closest ranger post) was on the front line and the fighting moved back and forth in that area,” he said.

Eight gorillas were shot dead in the park last year. Kabirisi took over the group 10 years ago when the dominant male was killed by crossfire during fighting in 1998. Now it numbers around 30, but rangers will have to make repeated visits to each group to be sure.

Despite a ceasefire in the months-long fighting, tracer from a heavy machine gun streaked across the sky close to the rangers headquarters late Thursday. Answering gunfire rattled up from the valley, in what a ranger said was a clash between the CNDP and the Rwandan Hutu rebels based in the park.

Innocent and his comrades are happy to be back to offer their gorillas what protection they can.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my gorillas. I’ve missed them,” he said, checking his notes and video before leading the group out of the forest and leaving the gorillas to their fragile peace.

Source: www.canada.com

In an inspiring testament to the resiliency of life even amidst war and conflict, the Congo’s critically endangered population of Mountain Gorillas increased over the last 16 months, including 10 new births.

The new babies were part of an overall population increase of 12.5% in UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, where habituated Mountain Gorilla numbers jumped from 72 to 81 since the region’s last census in 2007. The report brings hope to the troubled region, which has been wrought with bloodshed and political turmoil for decades.

But despite the encouraging news, serious threats still remain. In the months leading up to the last census, 10 of the Park’s apes were slaughtered by unidentified poachers during a violent insurgency. Some of the dead were discovered shot execution-style in the back of the head. It was the bloodiest year on record for the gorillas since famed primatologist Dian Fossey first began her efforts to save them in the 1960’s.

The region’s uncertain future and ongoing civil war means a perilous outlook for the new infants. Researchers found and removed 536 snares which had been laid by poachers in the Park, and hundreds more are likely to remain hidden. Although the Park is protected by over 1,100 rangers, 150 of them have been killed in the last 10 years fighting to protect gorillas throughout the Congo’s devastated, war torn parks.

There are 211 remaining Mountain Gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and only around 720 left worldwide. They are critically endangered, and their survival depends on the unpredictable outcome of political strife which continues to escalate in the region.

Source: Ecowordly.com

The Congolese Wildlife Authority says the gorilla population has grown in an eastern Congo park that is home to some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas.

A census released Monday shows 10 baby gorillas have been born since August 2007 in Virunga National Park.

Park director Emmanuel de Merode calls the status of gorillas in Virunga “a triumph for conservation.”

Only about 700 mountain gorillas are left in the world, an estimated 190 of them in Congo around the Mikeno volcano.

In the months before insurgents first seized the area in 2007, 10 mountain gorillas were killed by unidentified attackers.

A deal between the insurgents and President Joseph Kabila’s administration late last year paved the way for staff who fled fighting and the rebel occupation to return.

Source: Associated Press

The population of threatened mountain gorillas in eastern DR Congo is now growing, local wildlife officials say.

According to a census carried out by rangers in the Virunga National Park, 10 baby gorillas have been born in the last 18 months.

The park population now stands at 81, and there are only 700 of mountain gorillas left in the world.

In 2007, 10 gorillas were killed when fighting between rebels and government soldiers spilled into the park.

The violence has made protecting gorillas a dangerous job.

The park’s director, Emmanuel de Merode, says 120 rangers have been killed since the conflict began, the last only two weeks ago.

Part of the reason why the rangers are so exposed to the dangers is because they continue their work whatever the situation.

Over much of that time, they have not received their salaries and they have received very little support, so it makes it a very difficult job.

Amazingly, the census reported no gorilla deaths. But the number of snares laid by poachers has increased significantly.

And groups who enter the park to cut down trees for the production of charcoal are another major threat. So despite the good news, the rangers’ work remains critical.

Source: BBC News

Bad news from Uganda: the mountain gorilla population in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is smaller than previously estimated. Until recently, environmentalists believed 336 gorillas resided in the park. Now it looks like the number has dropped to 302.

Why the change? The population numbers are usually collected by counting nests and examining the dung left outside each site. Every gorilla builds a nest and before leaving home in the morning, defecates outside. It seemed like a good way to count the animals with minimal human disturbance. But a new genetic method of counting yields different numbers. A team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Liepzig, Germany tested DNA samples from each of the dung piles and found the number of gorillas dropped by ten percent.

“We assumed that each individual constructs a single nest, but genetic analysis shows that several individuals construct more than one nest,” says Katerina Guschanski, head of the German research team. Like lowland gorillas, the mountain variety will make new nests when the original becomes damaged by weather or will simply move on when the nest becomes uncomfortable.

Gorillas survive in only two places in the world: the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Population numbers from the Congo are not expected to change because the gorillas are accustomed to human contact and are counted directly.

Still, the news is discouraging. The mountain gorilla population may not be increasing like once believed. According to census data based on the old counting method, the population had grown from 300 in 1997 to 320 in 2003. However, the accuracy of the data is questionable. “Now we don’t really know what is happening with this population,” says Guschanski. “Probably the safest thing is to assume that the population is stable, but we will need to wait for another four to five years to assess how it is changing.”

Source: /www.popsci.com

Experts could have to scale back their estimates of how many mountain gorillas are left in the wild after a new survey cut numbers in one of their main habitats.

Only around 700 of the gorillas still live in the wild after years of uncontrolled hunting, destruction of their forest habitat and illegal capture as pets.

Traditionally researchers have estimated the species population by counting the number of ‘nests’ which the animals build.

According to this method, there are 336 gorillas left in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

However, DNA tests on the animals’ dung show that counting nests could be inaccurate and that there are far fewer mountain gorillas in the park than previously thought.

The scientists found just 302 separate genetic codes, suggesting that some of the animals create more than one nest, the findings, reported in New Scientist magazine, show.

Katerina Guschanski, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Liepzig, Germany, who led the new study, said: “We assumed that each individual constructs a single nest, but genetic analysis shows that several individuals construct more than one nest.”

Previous studies of other species of gorilla have shown that they can build more than one nest if the original develops problems, such as leaking.

Conservationists had previously thought that the number of mountains gorillas in the Bwindi national park, one of only two places in the world where gorillas still live in the wild, had been growing.

There were just 300 of the animals left in 1997 but a census in 2003 found 320.

“Now we don’t really know what is happening with this population,” said Guschanski. “Probably the safest thing is to assume that the population is stable, but we will need to wait for another four to five years to assess how it is changing.”

Researchers believe that only an accurate idea of population numbers can help prevent the species from becoming extinct.

“It is much better to have an accurate estimation of the population”, said James Burton from the Earthwatch Institute in Oxford.

“Knowing whether it is increasing or decreasing governs the conservation activities.”

The other main habitat for the gorillas is Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, thought to contain an estimated 380 animals.

Scientists believe that this figure could be more accurate as the gorillas there are more accustomed to human contact and scientists have been able to get closer to count numbers.

The mountain gorilla belongs to the Eastern Gorilla family, of which there are around 16,000 in the world.

The other family, Western Gorilla, has around 350,000 members, but both are considered endangered.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

A United Nations campaign to halt the slide towards extinction of one of human-kind’s closest relatives gained moment today with troupe of skaters in ape disguise taking to the rink at London’s Natural History Museum, highlighting the them ‘Gorillas on Thin Ice.’

The event is part of the launch of the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international Year of the Gorilla (YoG) in the United Kingdom, a project aimed at raising awareness and boosting protection of the great ape and its habitat by increasing the livelihoods and incomes of local people from managing their conservation. Many experts warn that without urgent action gorillas will become extinct in the wild within the next few decades.

“The world is currently going through a sixth wave of extinctions, so it not just gorillas that are skating on thin ice – you could put a whole menagerie out there today on the Natural History Museum rink from Iberian Lynx and Cuban crocodile to the La Palma Giant Lizard and the Rameshwaram Parachute Spider,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

“Thus in supporting the Year of the Gorilla countries, companies and citizens will not only be acting to save important high-profile species, but also a rich array of forest biodiversity upon which many people depend; biodiversity too that may hold the clue to breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals and improved crops to new kinds of smart materials and processes that will be urgently needed for a sustainable 21st century.”

Projects being drawn up by the UNEP Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (UNEP/CMS) – all in need of government and corporate support – aim at boosting the prospects for the Cross River Gorilla which is Africa’s rarest ape.

“Gorillas play a crucial role in maintaining the tropical rainforests in Africa, which are one of the key pillars of a world climate in balance,” CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth said. “The future of these forests depends on gorillas who plant the seeds for the next generation of trees. The Year of the Gorilla is a unique opportunity to secure government, corporate and civil support for the survival of our closest relatives.”

Numbering less than 300 remaining individuals, the Cross River Gorilla prowls an area of 12,000 square kilometres along the Nigerian-Cameroon border. While most of the forest sites fall within the boundaries of Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries or Forest Reserves, affording them some level of protection, community-based protection is being promoted in the remaining sites. Therefore, a community Wildlife Sanctuary is currently being establishment in Nigeria and a gorilla guardian network is being implemented in Cameroon.

A broad-based outreach program envisages the development of local radio programs, thematic conservation films and a trans-boundary education campaign targeted at local hunters. These media will target major conservation challenges such as river poisoning, over-hunting, lack of understanding of wildlife laws and bush burning.

Source: www.un.org

A militia killed a ranger in a Democratic Republic of Congo park where authorities are trying to protect endangered gorillas threatened by civil war, the park said.

A Mai Mai militia attacked a ranger station in the Virunga National Park on Thursday night and killed ranger Safari Kakule, according to a news release from the park. Another ranger was wounded in the attack, and one of the rebels was captured, the statement said.

The Mai Mai are community-based militias without specific political objectives, often involved in banditry and looting, the park statement said.

“It is not clear why the group attacked [the ranger station] but the attack went on for several hours during Thursday night and the rangers were heavily outnumbered,” the statement said.

Seven rangers were at the station when the attack happened, according to the statement.

That area of the park is home to an isolated population of 18 endangered Eastern Lowland gorillas. The park also is home to about 200 of the world’s estimated 700 mountain gorillas, the park has said.

The Virunga park’s Web site said 15 additional rangers have been sent to the park, where they will be “strengthening the position, which we cannot abandon.”
Because of the arrest that the rangers were able to make, we have several leads on the perpetrators of the attack, who will be brought to justice,” a statement on the Web site said.

More than 100 rangers returned to the park’s gorilla sector late last year after hundreds of rangers fled the area in 2007 because of fighting involving ethnic Tutsi rebels, the Congolese army and militias.

Rangers and scientists were out of contact with the park’s endangered gorillas for more than a year until rangers returned late last year, the park said.

Source: CNN

The Official site of Virunga National Park, DR Congo, have made a great an interesting job:

They have launched profiles of the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga! A profile includes the gorilla age, sex, parents, offspring, siblings, character, quirks, history… they have tried to be as comprehensive as possible.

Check it out here: http://mountaingorillas.gorilla.cd/.

Send them a nice feedback message, it is really a job worth to do it.

S.O.S Gorilla has been referenced in the magazine “La Voz De La Escuela”, from the newspaper “La Voz De Galicia”. It appears in an article about gorilla DNA, and the cause of their endangered situation.

One of Africa’s most important national parks, home to three subspecies of threatened great apes, is caught up in the DRC’s endless war, writes ROB CRILLY in Virunga National Park

KARONKANO BASEKA throws his arms in one direction then the other as he points out landmarks in what should be a haven for wildlife.

“From Rwindi to Kibati, that is all rebel territory of the CNDP ,” he says pointing towards the north and swinging his hand south, sweeping his arm over thousands of acres of lush, tropical forest from his vantage point high in the volcanic hills of Virunga National Park.

“Beyond Kanyabayongo it’s the government. And over there it’s the Mai Mai militias.”

Baseka is a ranger in Africa’s oldest national park, home to three species of threatened great ape. He should be pointing out the territory of the critically endangered mountain gorilla or the range of the bizarre okapi – a close relative of the giraffe found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Instead he and his colleagues have spent years keeping the DRC’s ceaseless war from the boundaries of the park and its precious inhabitants.

They have been hemmed in by militias on all sides. A month ago they lost their headquarters. Advancing rebels captured swathes of forest, forcing more than 200 rangers to flee.

Elsewhere the offensive by Tutsi CNDP rebels, loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda, has put 250,000 people on the road seeking refuge from the violence.

Scores of women have been raped by marauding soldiers on either side, and aid agencies are warning of a cholera outbreak as the rainy season begins.

For more than a fortnight Dusabimana John was forced to live in a stinking camp for people displaced by fighting in the latest flare-up in the DRC. Like hundreds of thousands of others he sheltered from tropical rainstorms under plastic sheeting and ate food distributed by aid agencies. Unlike the others, the ranger from Virunga National Park was as concerned about the animals he had left behind as he was the humans around him.

“I was worried about the gorillas and elephants,” he said, standing amid ammunition discarded by rebels at the park headquarters in Rumangabo. “That’s why I came back. I found myself thinking about them every day.

“In the war, gorillas have been killed. If we are not here then no one can stop them being killed.”

Rangers such as John are the only thing keeping the war from destroying Africa’s oldest and most important national park.

Virunga is one the last homes of the endangered mountain gorilla. Almost a third of the 700 left in the world live within the shady forest.

Chimpanzees and lowland gorillas as well as 2,000 varieties of plants and more than 700 bird species can be found among the volcanic hills, which are often shrouded in mist.

But the forest affords little protection from the fighting. One sector is the hideout of Hutu militias who fled Rwanda at the end of the genocide. Another sector – where the gorillas live – has been under the control of Tutsi rebels for the past year.

And this past week has seen a fresh wave of violence turning the forest into a war zone. Further north in the park the rebels seized government positions and ranger stations in a rapid advance.

Some 240 rangers have been forced out of the park. Some had to survive for days on berries and water from puddles as they marched towards safety.

At the end of the week comes a glimmer of hope. Rebels have allowed rangers back into the gorilla sector for the first time in over a year.

Emmanuel de Merode, director of the park, drove for four hours through military checkpoints into the heart of rebel-held territory on Tuesday to negotiate their return.

“It was just a question of explaining clearly that it’s a world heritage site of global significance and the park authority has got to continue its work,” he says, playing down any risk to his own safety. “It’s a huge breakthrough for us because we haven’t been able to get into the gorilla sector.”

The first rangers found a shell of a building where their headquarters had been. Rebels had carted off most of the furniture and left behind three mortar rounds amid a jumble of park papers scattered on the floor.

Today, the first rangers were due to begin tracking the apes as the first step in a census. An estimated 200 live in the park but the truth is that no one knows what toll the war has taken on its primate inhabitants in the past months.

Last year eight gorillas were killed by poachers or executed by armed gangs who control the illegal $30 million (€23 million) charcoal industry that operates in and around the park. A baby gorilla was found dead in a neighbouring village, probably part of a failed attempt to sell it to animal dealers.

Hundreds of hippos were killed two years ago as government-allied Mai Mai militia went hunting for meat and ivory.

“It’s the presence of all these armed groups, the chaos and people who simply need to make a living, that’s destroying the park along with a future for tourism and conservation here,” says Merode.

The roots of the DRC’s misery lie in neighbouring Rwanda’s genocide of 1994. The Hutu militias responsible for the worst of the bloodshed went to ground in the DRC’s dense tropical jungle. They now control swathes of jungle that are being destroyed for charcoal.

Gen Nkunda’s rebel army claims to be protecting Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutus.

The region’s abundant seams of minerals, and its charcoal forests, provide rich incentive for a dozen or so more militias to keep conflict simmering and the local population in squalid camps.

The situation has taken a heavy toll on the rangers. Some 120 have been killed since the region was plunged into civil war more than a decade ago.

Now they are returning to continue their crucial work.

“When the fighting came here we knew we had to leave to protect our families and go to safety in Goma,” says Baseka, who returned this week, speaking in Swahili.

“We cannot leave this place unprotected, because there is danger all around and without us there will be no forest. If there is no forest there can be no gorillas.”

Monkey Day has given S.O.S Gorilla their support. Thank you!

Monkey Day, annually on December 14th, is a celebration of all things simian, a festival of primates, a chance to scream like a monkey and throw feces at whomever you choose. Or perhaps just a reason to hang out with your friends while grunting and picking fleas off each other. (note: for legal reasons, the publishers of the Monkey Day website in no way endorse throwing feces in any manner at any time.)

The true origins of Monkey Day are deeply shrouded in mystery. Some say that the Monkey Day movement began as a tool to further the awareness of simian species and habitats. Others say that Monkey Day began as a scientific backlash to all of the religious holidays permeating the month of December, an evolutionary finger to the creationist holidays. Still others say that the concept for Monkey Day was brought on by the drunken debauchery of several young hooligans with a special affinity for monkeys, spending the first Monkey Day tauting their simian virtues and screaming obscenities at the local pub. Whatever the conception, Monkey Day has evolved beyond any simple beginnings into a greater movement.

How can you celebrate monkey day? Dress in your favorite simian attire, talk like a monkey all day long, throw a monkey themed party, send some monkey greeting cards, draw a monkey comic, or perhaps give a monkey themed gift, or maybe even give to your favorite simian charity. Whatever you find most appropriate without being arrested, and if you want to share your experience with the world, please contact us and tell or show us all about it.

Visit Monkey Day

Web site: Monkey Day
Monkey News: Monkeys In The News
Facebook Group: Join

Low-volume wood-burning stoves to protect forest habitat, alternative livelihoods to replace bush meat hunting with beekeeping and the promotion of ecotourism are among steps planned under the United Nations Year of the Gorilla 2009, launched today, to save of one of humankind’s closest but critically endangered relatives.

Many experts are warning that without urgent action gorillas will become extinct in the wild within the next few decades and the Year, launched at the opening of a UN wildlife conference in Rome by Prince Albert II of Monaco, aims to boost protection of the great ape and its habitat by increasing the livelihoods and incomes of local people from managing their conservation.

“Flagship species such as the gorilla can be a powerful catalyst for improved conservation and the more intelligent management of economically-important ecosystems,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

“In doing so, initiatives such as the Year of the Gorilla can galvanize and revitalize action on the ground, [which is] so urgently needed to reverse the rate of loss of biodiversity while generating incomes and improving livelihoods for local people and communities.”

The action plan includes a range of projects available for backing by governments, business, civil society groups and individuals. For example, tests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have found that locally made ‘rocket stoves’ can cut charcoal and wood use by up to 70 per cent. Expanding use to thousands of homes in the region could help reduce pressure on gorilla forest habitat, boost incomes and livelihoods for local people and improve air quality in local homes.

A second pilot project, this time in Cameroon, is boosting alternative livelihoods to reduce commercial hunting of bush meat and the Year of Gorilla plans to expand the ‘Apiarists for the Apes’ (an apiarist is a beekeeper) programme to more communities.

Rwanda and Uganda, with their populations of mountain gorillas, generate significant economic returns from ape-based ecotourism. The industry has surpassed coffee and tea as Rwanda’s number one foreign exchange earner. It is planned to dispatch guides and operators from successful ecotourism programmes in East Africa to countries such as Gabon to boost ecotourism initiatives in West Africa.

Three of the four gorilla species are listed as ‘critically endangered’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, putting them at risk of extinction. Mountain gorillas in DRC, Rwanda and Uganda and the Cross River gorilla in Cameroon and Nigeria number only 700 and 300 respectively. The eastern lowland gorilla in the DRC has plummeted dramatically over the last 10 years with probably only about 5,000 of the formerly 17,000 animals remaining.

The most numerous subspecies, the western lowland gorilla in Angola, the Central African Republic (CAR), Cameroon, DRC, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, perhaps numbers more than 200,000, but those gorillas remain threatened on several fronts.

The main threats are hunting for food, with at least 1 million tons of bush meat extracted each year from the Congo Basin forests, alongside their use in traditional medicine, capture of live infants as pets and ensnarement in traps set for other species. Habitat loss is being accelerated through logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, while the region’s abundance in natural resources, production of charcoal and mining for gold, zinc, uranium and coltan, an ore used in electronics such as mobile phones, are gradually destroying gorilla habitat.

Moreover, armed conflicts, as in eastern DRC, can trigger the displacement of huge numbers of people who then may use natural resources unsustainably. On top of this, diseases like Ebola can wipe out entire populations.

“Without doubt a special aim of the Year of the Gorilla will be to bring recovery-focused projects to the DRC once hostilities have ceased and community-based conservation projects can be fully resumed,” UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP-CMS) Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth said.

Ecotourism, sustainable timber harvesting and improved agricultural practices can support reforestation campaigns, anti-poaching efforts and implementation of development projects. One focus will be on the regions bordering areas protected for gorilla conservation. Developmental projects that can also contribute include schools and educational initiatives alongside ones that cover water supplies and health care.

The Year of the Gorilla is a joint initiative of UNEP-CMS, the UNEP/UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Great Ape Survival Partnership (GRASP) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

“It is in the interest of the international community and our honourable task to save these unique natural resources and the World Heritage Sites where they live,” Prince Albert said.

Also present at today’s launch was renowned primatologist and Year of the Gorilla 2009 Patron Jane Goodall. “It is time for us to pool all of our resources toward saving these magnificent creatures,” she declared.

Source: UN News
Link: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29137&Cr=&Cr1=

THE birth of twins among humans evokes emotions and passion. The babies are usually given special names and celebrated with certain rituals. The birth of twins among gorillas, too, does not pass as an ordinary event.

For Kweitonda who is part of the Nkuringo group of gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the way she moves is dictated by her new set of twins.

Unlike most gorillas, she moves on her hind limbs like humans do as she carries two little bundles of life in her arms.

She lags behind as the gorillas traverse the thickets of Nkuringo village, but her female colleagues aware of the weight on her chest, show care as they wait for her.

“It is a rare experience,” said Lillian Nsubuga, the Public Relations Officer at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

Nsubuga said park authorities observed the twins for the first time on November 2. One of the twins is male while the sex of the other is yet to be confirmed.

The communities around Nkuringo are also excited about the birth of the twins, because this is the second occurrence among the Nkuringo gorillas. The first time gorillas gave birth to twins was the Christmas season of 2004. The mother has since been renamed, ‘Maama Christmas.’

Nsubuga said: “This group of gorillas has become a hot cake because many tourists want to pay to have a glimpse at the twins and their mother.”

But Kweitonda many times is so protective and does not allow any of the gorillas to move too close.

The trio live under the watchful eye of Safari, the alpha male who is said to have fathered the twins.
Safari started leading Nkuringo group after the demise of Nkuringo early this year due to old age. Animal experts said Nkuringo had become too weak to father any babies.

Although the twins are in good state, a veterinary doctor still has to assess them.

Nsubuga said the gorillas have already gone through the harsh November rains.

The March-May rains, according to experts, will find the babies strong enough to withstand the chilly conditions.

Bwindi has 340 Mountain gorillas, which is half the number of the remaining population globally. The rest of the gorillas roam the Virungas that straddles parts of Uganda (Mgahinga), Rwanda and the DR Congo.

Four groups of gorillas have been habituated for tourism in Bwindi. Nkuringo was the fourth group to be opened to tourism in 2004.

Habituation is a process through which gorillas become used to human presence without losing their wild character.

High above the war-battered plain, a giant silverback gorilla ruminatively strips a plant of its leaves with green tombstone teeth. Five females nearby suckle their babies. The world can celebrate a small miracle in eastern Congo.

Park rangers greeted the primordial scene with hushed astonishment after hacking for two hours though the verdant gloom of the jungle Friday, the only sound the metallic ring of a machete on stringy vines and the din of insects.

In a clearing on the slopes of Mount Mikeno, a 4,500 metre (14,000 feet) -high volcano, a young blackback carefully picked insects and seeds from his brother’s shaggy black fur. An impish new-born clung to her mother’s back, fixing the interlopers with shimmering dark brown eyes.

Park director Emmanuel de Merode later described the discovery of five new-borns at the outset of a month-long census as “quite phenomenal”, given that the endangered gorillas’ habitat has long been a war zone.

“They’ve had a growth of about 11 percent in 10 years, less than two percent a year. To get five births in a group of 30 is about 15 percent growth. It’s quite tremendous and very unusual,” he said.

The infants are all war-babies, born in the 15-month period since CNDP rebels wrested control of the eastern gorilla-sector of Virunga national park from government forces in September 2007. The rangers they chased away lost all contact with park, home to 200 of the world’s last 700 mountain gorillas.

De Merode, a government employee, pulled off a diplomatic coup this month when he negotiated directly with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda to allow his rangers to return to the park, and conservationists their first glimpse of the state of the endangered gorilla population here.

Friday’s discovery “doesn’t confirm anything about the population as a whole. That’s what we’re worried about and we’ll only know that when the survey is completed in about three weeks’ time,” cautioned De Merode, adding that only two of the seven family groups in the park had been located to date.

Each group takes its name from the dominant male, or silverback. In this case the 200 kilogramme Kabirisi provided the assembled humans with a jolt of adrenaline as he crashed through the thick undergrowth, screaming and agitated, perhaps jealous of the attention being doted on his females.

The brief demonstration of dominance over, serenity returned. The giant pot bellied ape resumed his Buddha-like position, brushing salami-like fingers over a face fixed in an imperious frown.

“Kabirisi tends to be stand-offish a little bit, and lets you know when he’s not happy,” whispered park employee Pierre Peron.

While the adults were detached and contemplative, the young were curious to reach out to their human visitors. One juvenile twice rapped a journalist playfully on the leg before disappearing into a thicket.

Many of the rangers remained with the CNDP in the forest and maintained the gorilla watch, but De Merode pointed out that only the returning Innocent Mburanumwe, whose father was also a ranger, could identify all the gorillas.

He and his green-uniformed comrades made respectful low grunting sounds as they moved through the group, identifying each individual by their noseprints — the wrinkles and marks on a gorilla’s nose unique to each individual.

De Merode said that despite appearances, the imperilled gorillas could not have been indifferent to the battles that have raged around them.

“They were right in the middle of the war. Bukima (the closest ranger post) was on the front line and the fighting moved back and forth in that area,” he said.

Eight gorillas were shot dead in the park last year. Kabirisi took over the group 10 years ago when the dominant male was killed by crossfire during fighting in 1998. Now it numbers around 30, but rangers will have to make repeated visits to each group to be sure.

Despite a ceasefire in the months-long fighting, tracer from a heavy machine gun streaked across the sky close to the rangers headquarters late Thursday. Answering gunfire rattled up from the valley, in what a ranger said was a clash between the CNDP and the Rwandan Hutu rebels based in the park.

Innocent and his comrades are happy to be back to offer their gorillas what protection they can.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my gorillas. I’ve missed them,” he said, checking his notes and video before leading the group out of the forest and leaving the gorillas to their fragile peace.

Source: AFP
Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jcNI8c3IKphPnfuCwrsOf8zxFpwQ

After 15 months of exile, the rangers of Virunga Park have returned to the unique colony of mountain gorillas they protect. What will they find? By Daniel Howden in Rumangabo.

Outside the headquarters of Virunga Park, three men with determined expressions are loading camping equipment into two pick-up trucks. Watching from the steps of the station are two park rangers carrying assault rifles. Rolled-up mattresses are tied down, jerry cans of fuel and kit bags are stowed. No one is chatting and everything is done quickly. Everyone has the same sense of urgency.

These men are the last line of protection for the most important population of mountain gorillas in the world. They have just got the order for which they have been waiting for nearly 15 months.

In the midst of the war in eastern Congo a deal has been brokered to allow the park rangers back into the mountain range where they have been prevented from going since September of last year when it was overrun by the rebel CNDP army of Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda. Since then, there has been only one recorded sighting of a silverback – an adult male – by the staff whose main purpose is to protect one-third of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.

Africa’s oldest park, and arguably the most important nature reserve in the world, is home to spectacular mountains, volcanoes and ancient forest, but it has also become a war zone. The nearly constant series of conflicts that spilled across the border from Rwanda after the genocide in 1994, have worsened dramatically in the past year and a half, driving Virunga’s rangers out of one station after another until finally overrunning the park headquartersat Rumangabo.

One month ago, the station came under attack during a pitched battle between government forces and General Nkunda’s forces. There are still spent shell cases in the grounds of Rumangabo from the fighting which scattered the rangers and their families. One young girl was hit in the chest by a stray bullet.

The wardens, like so many others in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were forced into the cholera-filled refugee camps that sprung up around the city of Goma. Only now have they been able to return. Diddy Mwanake was one of the first to come back and is impatient. The 46-year-old knows more about Virunga’s great apes than almost anyone alive but he has been cut off for too long from the creatures he has been observing, cataloguing and fighting for since joining the service 17 years ago. His mind is alive with imagined horrors. “Of course we’re afraid of what we’re going to find, it’s now been more than year where we can’t take care of them.”

He reels off a list of infectious diseases and hunters’ snares that might have befallen the apes. Then his thoughts turn to the war. “With artillery shells and high-powered weapons I have to wonder if they have been hit? They could be out there wounded.”

Rumangabo sits on a promontory commanding impressive views – volcanoes rise out of dense forests to touch the clouds. On the one side, Nyirangongo, which erupted four years ago to send lava flows into Goma dominates the landscape, while on the other rises the 13,000ft (4,500m) tall Mikeno, where the gorillas live.

Diddy hasn’t yet said a word about the dangers that the rangers and their families have faced in a war that came to their doorstep. He and the other rangers only got back to the station last Friday.

“I was here when the fighting reached the gate,” he says. In the ensuing chaos everyone became a target. “They (CNDP) came from everywhere. When there is shooting bullets don’t distinguish between people.” He says they spotted an opening and fled. For many of the rangers, it was the beginning of a 25-mile trek to safety through the bush.

“The rangers were the first victims of this war,” says Emmanuel de Merode, a conservationist who was recently made chief warden at Virunga. Sitting in his empty office in the ransacked headquarters, the 38-year-old Belgian says the fighting and the abandonment of the park’s headquarters has marked the lowest point in its history, capping a traumatic period which began with the murders of seven gorillas in June and July of last year. The shocking pictures of a murdered 500-pound silverback, named Senkwekwe, being carried on wooden poles by grieving villagers sparked a global outcry. They also revealed the vicious and lucrative charcoal trade that Mr de Merode describes as the “greatest threat to the park”.

There are an estimated 720 mountain gorillas left in the wild. More than half of these are in the Virunga volcanoes bordering DRC, Rwanda and Uganda – with the remainder 15 miles north in Uganda’s Bwindi impenetrable forest. The 2,000 acres (800,000 hectares) of Virunga form a corridor stretching 155 miles between north and south Kivu lakes. Some one million people displaced by a decade of war live in nightmarish camps on the fringe of the park. They are completely reliant on charcoal for their cooking and heating, creating a trafficking industry thought to be worth £20m per year. That money is enough, along with illegal mining operations to sustain the two main rebel armies: General Nkunda’s CNDP and their sworn enemies, the FDLR, made up of Hutu guerrillas, active in the 1994 genocide, who fled Rwanda to regroup. Added to the mix is the corrupt and chaotic Congolese army who have used military trucks to transport charcoal.

For once, it was not poachers who were to blame for the gorilla murders – Senkwekwe’s hands and feet had not been lopped off for trophies. The darker truth was that the gorilla families had been murdered as a warning to one brave faction of rangers still doing their job by a rival faction who had sold out to the charcoal dealers.

More than 100 rangers have been killed in the line of duty in the past 10 years, some arrested and tortured to death by militiamen. Those that wanted to protect the gorillas knew they had to preserve the forest. Attempts to salvage the situation while meeting the needs of the densely populated area have included planting sustainable eucalyptus trees and importing butane gas but all have foundered on the incessant war.

“No forest means no gorillas,” says Mr de Merode. Already a huge section of Virunga’s hardwoods have been eaten by this voracious industry. The rot went right to the heart of the park service itself and former chief warden Honore Masharigo is now in jail awaiting trial on charges of charcoal trafficking and killing gorillas. Although he won’t say as much, that is why an outsider like Mr de Merode – who worked for the WildlifeDirect NGO – has been made chief warden by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature.

Since taking over, he got permission from the government in Kinshasa to stage private talks with Nkunda to regain access to the vital Mikeno section of the park. The renegade general is acutely aware of his international image and his own soldiers face a death sentence for injuring the prized apes. After talks with the new warden the unpredictable soldier-politician finally relented. So far, Mr de Merode and the 650 Virunga rangers have been forced to rely on second-hand reports from amateurs who paid their way into Mikeno where General Nkunda has been using some former rangers who defected to the CNDP.

Spirits are now high at Rumangabo. Within the last few days the Belgian conservationist led a posse of rangers back to their former patrol post at Bukima, inside the Mikeno sector of the park. Outside, Mr Mwanake is talking to Innocent Nburanumwe, another veteran ranger. They remain fretful over the situation and aware that the crisis could take another turn for the worst. “When there is a war there is no certainty, no security. We are not sure when we go to sleep if we will wake up in the morning.”

Another nagging worry remains: the gorillas simply won’t be there any more. Mr De Merode is refusing to think that way. Over the next month he and his staff will conduct a census of the mountain gorillas, hoping to find the population of roughly 200 unaffected by the tempest that has raged around them in the past 18 months. He says: “We’ve not had reports of any gorilla killings. It’s incredibly exciting and any day now we’re expecting good news.”

Source: The Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-desperate-search-for-congos-hidden-victims-1038881.html

The first meeting of the Parties of the Gorilla Agreement, to be held in Rome on 29 November 2008, is expected to come up with practical proposals to further gorilla conservation work in Africa.

The meeting is being held against a backdrop of increasing humanitarian crisis from continuing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the Virunga National Park home to nearly a third of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.

The Gorilla Agreement came in to effect in June 2008 and is the first to legally oblige governments to work together to combat the threats faced by gorillas in the wild, and find coordinated solutions for gorilla conservation by requiring collaboration on issues such as anti-poaching and law enforcement.

“Ten countries will walk away from this meeting united under a single plan to save gorillas,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International’s Species Programme. “In a time of global financial crisis, and terrible hardship for the people of Eastern Congo, we are heartened to see these governments coming together.”

“It is now time for action, which is what today’s meeting is all about. Together, we will look specifically at what steps each government will take to ensure gorillas have a secure future in the wild-through direct conservation action in a way that also benefits local communities.”

All gorillas are listed as critically endangered on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species with the exception of the eastern lowland gorilla, which is still listed as endangered due to a lack of recent data to support the critically endangered listing – researchers were unable to access a major portion of their habitat. Poaching, habitat loss disease, and intensifying civil strife are the main threats to these animals.

Mountain gorillas are a prime example of why today’s Gorilla Agreement meeting is critical. The mountain gorilla population in the Virunga Volcanoes area, which straddles Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, continues to face habitat degradation as well as the civil war unrest. Despite these difficulties, surveys indicate that the population is gradually increasing due to extensive conservation efforts, and the continued support of local communities in spite of all odds.

“Despite the success of mountain gorilla conservation thanks to the empowerment and awareness created with local people by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), we remain vigilant, as the recurrent conflicts in the region may still affect the survival of this species,” stated IGCP Director Eugene Rutagarama.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, the Government of Cameroon, and other partners have collaborated to create a new national park to help protect the world's most endangered great ape: the Cross River gorilla

The Cross River gorilla is the rarest of the four gorilla subspecies. Other subspecies include: western lowland gorillas, eastern lowland or “Grauer's” gorillas, restricted to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and mountain gorillas, made famous by Dian Fossey and George Schaller. Earlier this year, WCS scientists discovered more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas in the northern Republic of Congo. WCS is the only conservation group working to safeguard the four subspecies, all of which are classified as “critically endangered” or “endangered” by the IUCN Red List.

Habitat destruction and hunting represent the biggest threats to Cross River gorillas. Gorillas are occasionally targeted by hunters of bushmeat in the region, and genetic analysis of the population reveals a reduction in numbers over the last 200 years that is most likely due to hunting. The fragmentation of their forest habitat is caused by farming, road-building, and the burning of forests by pastoralists.

The park now forms part of an important trans-boundary protected area with Nigeria’s Cross River National Park, safeguarding an estimated 115 gorillas—a third of the Cross River gorilla population—along with other rare species. Trans-boundary protected areas allow species to roam freely between countries.

The creation of Takamanda National Park represents many years of work led by WCS and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife in Cameroon, including: baseline surveys of gorillas and other large mammals; meetings and agreements with local communities; the formulation of recommendations for upgrading the reserve to park status; and the establishment of trans-boundary activities with the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park in Nigeria.

“This represents a huge step in ensuring a future for the world’s rarest great ape,” said Dr. James Deutsch, Director of WCS-Africa. “Making this former forest reserve a national park will effectively protect these gorillas and will continue the conservation partnership between Cameroon and Nigeria.”

In addition to protecting Cross River gorillas, the 676-square-kilometer (261-square-mile) Takamanda National Park will safeguard populations of forest elephants, chimpanzees, and drills—another rare primate and a close relative of the better-known mandrill.

Primary support for the creation of Takamanda National Park comes from a funding partnership between the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and the German Development Bank (Kreditanstalt f?r Wiederaufbau Bankengruppe) as part of a 5-year funding program to protect key conservation areas in collaboration with local communities in southwest Cameroon. The initiative was also supported by the World Wildlife Fund, the German Development Service (DED) and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Cameroon is one of seven African nations supported by the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) and the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). The U.S. government acting through the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested more than $60 million in biodiversity conservation in the Congo Basin. Together, this support has augmented funds for great apes conservation in the region through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administered Great Apes Conservation Fund. Since 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has invested more than $13 million for the conservation of gorillas, chimpanzees, and other great apes and has leveraged more than $17 million in private donations and matching funds. The Great Apes Conservation Fund Act, which authorizes this fund, expires in 2010. WCS will continue to educate the U.S. Congress about the need for increased support for great ape conservation in the upcoming months.

WCS has had a long history in Cameroon which began with WCS scientists being appointed technical advisors at the Korup National Park in 1988. In partnership with the Cameroon Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and CAMRAIL (the Cameroon Railways), WCS continues to play a critical role in enforcing regulations that ban transportation of bushmeat or any other wildlife products from remote locations to urban markets by local trains. This effort in part has helped Cameroon uphold its obligations as a member nation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

WCS’s conservation work in Central Africa was funded in part from admission fees to the Bronx Zoo’s Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit. Since the exhibit’s opening in 1999, it has raised more than $8.5 million for conservation in this region.

Source: Science Daily
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081127114733.htm

Good news from the official website of Virunga National Park, DR Congo, www.gorilla.cd: New Gorilla Babies in Kabirizi Group.

“This morning we left the Bukima patrol post early and went looking for the Kabirizi group. We were very happy to find it only a couple hours walk away. We were able to count 23 individuals, although we will have to make several more visits to see the other gorillas we probably missed today. It is very difficult to identify and count all the gorillas in such a large family as Kabirizi.

Two things stood out right away. First of all, Gashangi (the mother of Ntibahanana, Kazi, and Bageni) is no longer with the group. We saw her yesterday with the Humba group to which she has migrated. Secondly, as you can see from the video below, there were 3 new babies, including two for first-time moms Mivumbi and Kayenga”

Source: http://gorilla.cd
Link: http://gorilla.cd/2008/11/26/video-new-gorilla-babies-in-kabirizi-group/

RUMANGABO — It’s a striking example of how a little love can overcome a whole lot of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rebels and the government, who have blighted lush Nord-Kivu province with months of fighting, have cut a unique deal to allow armed park rangers back into the famed Virunga reserve to care for its long-neglected gorillas.

The deal will allow ranger Innocent Mburanumwe to be reunited with a bald blackback ape that has occupied his waking dreams for the past 15 months, ever since CNDP rebels took over the eastern gorilla sector of the park in September 2007 and forced the rangers to flee.

“Kadogo’s my favorite, because of all the ones I’ve seen, he’s the only one that is completely bald. Kadogo was born bald! I can’t wait to get up there to see him again.”

Last month, the rangers had to flee again, this time from Rumangabo with their families after the rebels swept through the southern sector of the park.

“I grabbed a kid in each arm and ran,” says Mburanumwe. His wife and six children remain behind in Goma at a camp for the rangers’ families housing 1,500.

Over the next week or so, hundreds of rangers will shoulder their Kalashnikovs and head into the bush from their Rumangabo headquarters to begin a census of the apes, keenly watched by their new rebel minders.

It is a unique situation in the battleground that is Nord-Kivu, the first time that an armed group has been allowed through a front line to go about their business freely.

At least that’s the plan, painstakingly worked out between park director Emmanuel De Merode, employed by the Kinshasa government, and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda at a meeting last week.

De Merode pores over the map of the park and smiles gamely when told he’s like a player in a wicked board game, minefields at every turn, only in his case it’s Congo’s bewildering array of armed groups. There’s the Mai Mai, the Rwandan FDLR rebels, the government forces, and of course, the CNDP, his new partners in conservation.

“It’s a complicated situation and they’re all involved in natural resource exploitation. Now it’s a little simpler because the park is all controlled by the CNDP. But it’s a difficult situation,” said the Kenya-raised Belgian, above the noise of a screaming baboon.

“There’s always controversy. But the message is very clear. We are only here to do park management and we’re doing it because it’s a world heritage site and also to protect the natural heritage which is extremely important to the economic future of the country.”

But ranger Roy Nkoma Musubao said he has no room for fear, particularly of the FDLR, whose illegal charcoal trade in the park poses the biggest risk to the rangers.

“This is my job, my lifeline. Armed groups or not, the job has got to be done,” said Musaboa, 120 of whose comrades have been killed since 1997.

De Merode commands 680 rangers, including many who stayed behind when the rebels advanced, notably Pierre-Canisius Kanamahalagi, a 52-year-old who wears smart city clothes and an air of authority.

“There’s a misconception put out by Kinshasa that the rangers were chased out” says Kanamahalagi. “They were ordered out by the government for propaganda reasons!”

“I’ve been called a rebel by some because I stayed on to look after the gorillas. But the management recognizes I’m a conservationist. Even a hero. A hero,” he says, emphasizing the last word.

De Merode is too diplomatic to say, but the mysterious presence of Kanamahalagi at the park’s headquarters is part of a delicate two-step with his new partners in conservation, the price to pay for being allowed back into the park.

No one can be certain the highly vulnerable apes, which have not been seen for 15 months, have survived unscathed. The park is home to 200 of the world’s 700 surviving great apes.

But Kanamahalagi insists they are safe. “The gorillas we’ve seen are in very good health, apart from their natural habitat damaged by FARDC [army] bombardment recently. Happily it didn’t affect the gorillas.”

Tellingly, De Merode, speaking separately, said such evidence is “anecdotal” and will have to be checked out by qualified personnel.

According to Mburanumwe, the partnership is working so far. “We embraced those who were here when we got back, so the coalition is working.”

Source: Agence France-Presse 11/24/2008
Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20081124-174114/Gorilla-love-conquers-war-in-DR-Congo

GOMA – Park rangers returned to a reserve that is home to nearly a third of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas on Friday, more than a year after fighting forced them to abandon the area, a park chief said.

Armed Tutsi rebels loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda occupied the gorilla sector of Virunga National Park in September 2007, forcing rangers to leave.

An offensive by Nkunda’s rebels forced the rangers to abandon the rest of the park, Africa’s oldest, late last month when the Rumangabo park headquarters, from which conservation operations were run, fell to a rebel assault.

Nkunda’s offensive against the North Kivu provincial capital Goma and other towns in North Kivu province has displaced around 250,000 people, bringing to more than 1 million the number of people displaced by two years of conflict in North Kivu.

“It is a huge step that all sides have agreed that the protection of Virunga as a World Heritage Site and its mountain gorillas is of sufficient priority to transcend political differences,” park Director Emmanuel de Merode said in a statement.

After meeting UN envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president, Nkunda pulled his fighters back from some positions seized during the past few weeks.

The UN Security Council agreed on Thursday to send 3,000 reinforcements to the Congo peacekeeping force, the world’s biggest at 17,000-strong.

“Rangers are neutral in this conflict, and it is right that they should be allowed to do their job,” de Merode said.

MOUNTAIN GORILLAS

Virunga’s gorilla sector is home to 200 of the last remaining 700 mountain gorillas in the world, who live in forested hills on the border with Uganda and Rwanda.

“The re-establishment of a Ranger presence in Virunga National Park is paramount to the protection of the flora and fauna in the park,” park authorities said in the statement.

“The rangers are now planning to initiate a census of the habituated mountain gorillas in coming days; the last census in August 2007 indicated there are 72 habituated gorillas, but this figure is expected to have changed due to births, death, and interactions,” it said.

Some of the rangers forced to flee Virunga ended up squatting in squalid refugee camps while they waited to return to their posts.

More than 150 rangers have been killed in eastern Congo in a decade of conflict that has claimed more than 5 million lives — more than any conflict since World War Two — through violence, hunger and disease.

Congo’s five-year regional war officially ended in 2003, but various armed factions have continued to fight in the east, often competing for valuable resources such as gold and tin mines and timber.

Park authorities say gorillas and other animals such as elephants, hippos and antelopes are vulnerable to the armed groups who roam the hills and forests of eastern Congo, often using National Parks to camp or move around unseen.

The animals also face threats from poachers, squatters and charcoal burners who destroy their forest habitat.

Virunga’s Gorilla Sector suffered repeated attacks in 2007 during which 10 mountain gorillas were killed.

(Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Giles Elgood; Story by Hereward Holland)

Today it’s the 5th Anniversary of Snowflake' s (Copito De Nieve) death, the albino gorilla symbol not only of the Barcelona Zoo but of all the city.

La Vanguardia has written an article about this anniversary (including a video) here: http://www.lavanguardia.es/ciudadanos/noticias/20081124/53585387287/la-herencia-de-copito.html

Gorilla Haven has brought us their support by adding our project link to their link section. Thank you Jane!

About Gorilla Haven

The Gorilla Haven Mission Statement is to help make every captive gorilla’s life as enriched and natural as possible through husbandry and research and to promote education about gorilla conservation in zoos and the wild.

Gorilla Haven (GH) is the world’s only AZA (American Zoos and Aquarium Association) certified private holding facility for gorillas, located on 324 acres in the mountains of North Georgia (about 2 hours north of Atlanta, GA, USA). GH currently is home to two silverback gorillas: 46 year old JOE, who arrived in 2003 and 20 year old OLIVER, who arrived in 2006.

Gorilla Haven is funded by the Dewar Wildlife Trust, Inc (DWT), a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation, established by Steuart and Jane Dewar in 1996 to fund various wildlife conservation efforts. Until 2008, the Dewars were the sole contributors to the GH project, sending additional donations to the DWT to conservation projects helping gorillas and other wildlife/people projects around the globe. The current economic downturn in the US economy, however, has impacted the Dewar’s personal income and thus also income to the DWT. For the past five years, the Dewars have spent up to 90% of their private income on Gorilla Haven and conservation projects, donating almost a quarter of a million dollars to conservation projects worldwide over the years.

Fund-raising is now a top priority, as construction is on hold temporarily until funding issues are resolved. The two remaining gorilla villas (1,700 square foot individual heated/air-conditioned holding areas for gorillas) and the massive 6,000 square foot Group Building are just waiting for funds to complete them, at which time gorillas on the Waiting List to come to Gorilla Haven can be accommodated here. Depending on the social housing requirements, once completed, GH can hold any where from 6 to 25 gorillas.

S.O.S Gorilla has appeared in the spanish newspaper “El País”, in the Ciberpais section. Check out the scanned page to read the article.

E.V.A.N.A (European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance) has given S.O.S Gorilla their support, thank you!

The European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA) has been created with the aim to inform about events in the animal-world and also about developments and trends touching the vegetarian community.

With this target in mind, EVANA monitors the international press on a regular basis and filters out the most recent news which are of relevance for those working for animals and also for vegetarians all over the world. However, since they do not believe in animal experiments, their policy is to disregard information about research involving animals.

The information is distributed in several languages.

Their service can be inserted automatically into websites of all organizations and individuals who want to offer daily news to their visitors. A comprehensive set of filters allows us to transfer just the right topics for your own special sphere of interest.

However, the versatile EVANA-project is not just a one-way-street: they are also ready to distribute your news, press-releases, campaign-details, events etc. to an international audience.

EVANA wants to builds bridges across national boundaries and to bring all those together who follow the same philosophy: the defence of animals.

S.O.S Gorilla has appeared in La Vanguardia’ s “El Club De Las Ideas” (The ideas club). Check it out clicking the image below:

S.O.S Gorilla has been added to the official “Year Of The Gorilla 2009″ page, in the links section.

The UNEP Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership (GRASP) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) have joined hands to declare 2009 the Year of the Gorilla (YoG).

source: BBC News (read full article)

Rebels fighting government troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo have captured a major army camp in the east of the country, UN peacekeepers say.

The rebels have also taken control of the headquarters of Virunga national park, home to some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas.

Clashes between the supporters of renegade general Laurent Nkunda and the army are continuing.

Residents are fleeing the area as the army attempts to recapture the base.

About 200,000 people have fled their homes since fighting resumed in the area in late August.

This is the second time Gen Nkunda’s supporters – who say they are protecting the area’s Tutsi minority – have taken control of the Rumangabo camp.

They defeated about 1,500 troops there three weeks ago.

Heritage site

UN peacekeepers deployed in the region say fighting between government troops and the rebels is continuing as the army attempts to recapture the camp.

An unknown number of rebels, government soldiers and civilians have been killed.

The fighters have also taken control of the headquarters of Virunga National Park, home to some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas and a Unesco World Heritage Site.

“The seizure of our Park Headquarters at Rumangabo by rebels is unprecedented, even in all the years of conflict in the region,” said Park Director Emmanuel de Merode, adding that the conflict on the ground is “chaotic and dangerous”.

Over 50 of the park’s rangers have been forced to flee into the forests.

“When the rebels started approaching the park station we thought we were all going to be killed,” Park Ranger Bareke Sekibibi, 29, was quoted as saying in a statement.

“We are not military combatants, we are Park Rangers protecting Virunga’s wildlife,” he added.

Virunga, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, accommodates 200 of the last remaining 700 mountain gorillas in the world. The mountain gorillas are an endangered species.

The statement said the Gorilla Sector was attacked repeatedly in 2007 during which 10 mountain gorillas were killed.

Starving

Eastern DR Congo is facing a humanitarian crisis, with more than a million people displaced by repeated waves of fighting between rebel groups and the Congolese military.

The United Nations says many of those who fled are malnourished and some are dying of hunger.

The UN has some 17,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo and despite intervening to try to keep the two sides apart, they have failed to halt the violence.

A peace deal was signed in Goma at the end of January between the government and various rebel groups.

Although he signed the deal, Gen Nkunda he has always refused to disarm while Rwandan Hutu rebels still operate in the area.

A new feature has been added to S.O.S Gorilla, “Music For The Gorillas”.

You can help the gorillas sharing and promoting your music in S.O.S Gorilla. After buying your piece of the picture, you can send your mp3 (or a link pointing to it) to music@sosgorilla.com.

Doing this you’ ll get:

1. Your piece of the picture, with the information you want to show. You can send just your web page using the donation form, and S.O.S Gorilla will do the rest: We will add your logo, and if you are promoting a new album will find the correct banner to be shown, or add some information about your album.

2. Your logo will appear permanently in the Support Area.

3. S.O.S Gorilla will add a post in their blog showing the band bio.

4. Your song will be added to the “Music For The Gorillas” playlist, and played in the S.O.S Gorilla player.

And the most important, you will collaborate helping the endangered gorillas.

S.O.S Gorilla has opened its own Myspace. Check it out clicking here:

A S.O.S Gorilla article has been posted in the ecological blog Órbita Verde.

You can read it clicking here:

Thanks Xavi!

S.O.S Gorilla has created a group in Facebook. Become a friend of S.O.S Gorilla, join it.

We’ve received the support from the Sumatran Orangutan Society. Thanks a lot!

The Sumatran Orangutan Society is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their forest home. Their international branches raise awareness of the threats facing wild orangutans, and raise funds to support our grassroots conservation projects in Sumatra. Together with a team of committed Indonesian conservationists, they work with local communities living alongside orangutan habitat. They visit schools, plant trees and provide training to help the local people work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.

The Sumatran Orangutan situation. The Sumatran orangutan has been classified as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union. The population of wild Sumatran orangutans has declined drastically from over 12,000 in 1994 to 7,300 in 2003. The latest data in 2008 estimates that there are now only around 6,500 remaining in the wild. Orangutans were historically found in forests across Sumatra but are now restricted to North Sumatra and Aceh provinces. There are less than 900,000 hectares of suitable orangutan habitat remaining on the island of Sumatra.

The Sumatran orangutan population is declining by as many as 1000 per year. Current estimates suggest that they could become extinct in the wild in less than 10 years. The major threats to the survival of orangutans are habitat loss and the illegal pet trade.

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (UNEP/CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, will declare 2009 the Year of the Gorilla (YoG) on 1 December at its ninth Conference of Parties in Rome.

Partners in this campaign will be the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), in cooperation with UNEP and UNESCO, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). The Year of the Gorilla is part of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

Three of the four gorilla species are listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Gorillas are listed on Appendix I of the IUCN.

The legally binding CMS Gorilla Agreement on the conservation of gorillas and their habitats in the ten African range states aims at securing the survival of gorilla populations in the wild.

The main threats to gorillas are hunting for food and traditional medicine, destruction of habitat through logging, mining and production of charcoal, the effects of armed conflicts and diseases like Ebola.

The YoG campaign will work for the implementation of the CMS Gorilla Agreement by supporting conservation action in gorilla habitat. Other aspects will be the funding and training of rangers, support for scientific research, development of alternative sources of income, e.g. ecotourism, as well as education and awareness raising.

Interested parties will be given the possibility of supporting specific projects presented on the website (www.yog2009.org).

SOURCE : United NationsEnvironment Program (UNEP)

As a new feature, as you help the gorillas buying your piece of the picture map, S.O.S Gorilla will add your logo to the link. Just send your url, and we’ll do the rest. See an example here:

You can buy your piece of picture here: www.sosgorilla.com.

A great S.O.S Gorilla article have been published this past Saturday in La Razón newspaper, in both its paper and web editions.

You can see the article clicking the images below. Thanks Esther!

Newspaper article (PDF)

Online article

Our project have appeared today in an article in Geo. Thank you so much!

Click in this image to access the article:

Buying a piece of the Gorilla picture requires a minimum of 25€.

Now it’s possible to donate less this amount, just clicking this button:

Thank you for cooperating with S.O.S Gorilla!

“Le Conservatorie Pour La Protection Des Primates” have added our link in their home page.

We need as much help as possible to show S.O.S Gorilla to the world. Please, feel free to add any of this logos to your web page:

And point them to http://www.sosgorilla.com.

Thank you for your cooperation!

S.O.S Gorilla has appeared in an article in La Vanguardia:

Check it here: http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20081001/53551846009.html

And S.O.S Gorilla has their first contributors, thanks to all!

Update: La Vanguardia have written about the UICN red list, and speaks a little about gorillas and ebola: read more

In the name of Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe I want to thank Hector Prat for his fascinating idea – and everybody who contributes!

Gorillas are threatened in all parts of their distribution area, mainly by habitat destruction, the bushmeat trade and epidemic diseases. It is especially difficult for small, isolated populations; those are the ones whose conservation we want to support in particular. The success stories, for example in the case of the mountain gorillas, show that this is possible if everybody cooperates.

We have specialized in providing funds for urgent, sometimes unexpected needs, and we would like to use the S.O.S Gorilla funds for such kind of support of the gorilla conservation projects. This supports includes for example ranger equipment, reforestation programmes, and the construction of ranger posts. The latter will be necessary in the Mikeno sector of the Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as soon as the rangers are able to patrol the area again. Nobody knows when this will be possible, but we already promised that we will help quickly then.

Angela Meder. Angela Meder is a member of Berggorilla und Regenwald Direkthilfe. She is a primatologist, conservationist, and specialist on gorillas. Dr. Meder was one of the first to undertake in-depth research on captive gorillas in the early 1980s. She focused on the effect of the captive environment on their behaviour and reproduction, and on the behavioural effects of hand-rearing, including the difficult problem of integrating hand-reared infants into established groups.

In 1992, Meder joined a recently-founded conservation group, Berggorilla und Regenwald Direkthilfe (B&RD), and quickly established it as a leading force in the conservation of gorillas and their habitats. She argues that conservation organisations in the developed world have a particular obligation to assist local communities to organise and maintain their own conservation initiatives, and under her guidance B&RD has helped locally-organised enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, and its board periodically visits these community projects to help and to deliver material assistance.

Meder edits the Gorilla Journal, which is both the outlet for B&RD projects as well as a scientific journal to which specialists contribute.

If you want to donate money to help the gorillas, you can do it buying portions of a gorilla picture. This picture will be gradually discovered as contributors buy the pixels. Afterwards, when the site visitors go over this bought areas, your url or name will be shown. All the urls or names of the contributors will be randomly displayed in the bottom of the page all the time.

The cost is 0.20€/pixel, and the picture (600×800 pixels) is sold in 25 pixels squares, so a minimum of 5€ is required to collaborate. If finally all the picture is “sold”, it can be collected the amount of 96.000 €!.

The picture map
Clicking on “Picture Map” takes the user to the picture which will be unveiled pixel by pixel as they are bought. It looks like this:

[singlepic=4,320,240,,center]

This example shows just two little areas bought, the rest are still to be sold. This is what appears once the visitor goes with the mouse over these areas:

Buying The Pixels
To buy the picture map squares, it’s necessary to click on “Help Gorillas”. This is the screen:

[singlepic=2,320,240,,center]

First, you have to choose the area where to locate the pixels, then the squares to bought (units of 25 pixels, the minimum to be bought), and finally you have to write the URL or name to be displayed in the map and in the bottom of the page.

When clicking “Proceed”, you’ll pay easily through paypal:

[singlepic=1,320,240,,center]

Once the process is finnished, it will take from 24 to 72 hours for your info to appear in the site, as it’s a manual process make by myself.

The project S.O.S Gorilla has been created to raise funds to help the gorilla preservation. Thanks to the support of the Barcelona Zoo and Eaza (European Association of Zoos And Aquaria), we’ ve found an association who will make sure the funds will help the endangered ape, Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe.

Since 1984, the Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe has been dedicated to the conservation of gorillas, especially the mountain gorillas, and their habitats. The Board consists of three honorary members who contribute their skills and experience in different disciplines. As project planning has to incorporate not only biological but also economic, social and political aspects, this multidisciplinary approach is very important. They focus their work on the eastern gorillas by supporting projects contributing to the conservation of these animals. Occasionally, they also support projects for the conservation of certain populations of western gorillas that are particularly at risk.

In addition, they support research activities of (predominantly local) scientists. With competent members the Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe also takes part in population censuses and ecological studies. Finally, they provide necessary equipment to support the important work of the rangers. Whenever possible, they cooperate with other international organisations also concerned with the conservation of the last remaining mountain gorillas, considering a constant exchange of information between all parties working for the threatened gorillas as very important.

Another important goal of this organisation is raising the general public’s awareness of the problems of gorilla conservation and the changing situation in habitat countries. One way of doing this is through our newsletter Gorilla Journal, which was published for the first time in 1992. It is printed twice per year in German and English (presently also in French).

Their work is financed by donations (as the one they’ll get from S.O.S Gorilla) and members’ contributions. They are recognized as a non-profit organisation in Germany.

More info: Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe

S.O.S Gorilla has been created to raise funds to collaborate in the Gorillas preservation. I’ve been always so concerned about animal preservation, specially the endangered gorillas.

First of all, I designed the most important tool to raise the funds, the web site, available at www.sosgorilla.com.

Then I started looking for entities to support the project, and he got the afirmative helpful answer from the Barcelona Zoo, through Maria Teresa Abelló, the primate conservation responsible. Then both studied which association would receive the funds, and the decision was to donate them to Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe, since 1984 dedicated to the conservation of gorillas, especially the mountain gorillas, and their habitats.

The project is still looking for more supporters. To give support to the project just means giving the permission to add a logo in the site, and when possible to make little publicity.

It officially starts in October the 1st, 2008.