Gorilla Journal Journal of Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe No. 23, December 2001 Training in Spe- Continuing Ex- Activities against Bushmeat Trade cies Identification ploitation of the Bushmeat and Primate Con- for Kahuzi Guides Congo's Re- Trade servation around sources Cross River Park BERGGORILLA & REGENWALD DIREKTHILFE Authors of this Issue Edem A. Eniang is working as a CONTENTS researcher in the Cross River National Democratic Republic of Congo 3 Kanyunyi A. Basabose works for Park. Another Mountain Gorilla Killed 3 the CRSN at Lwiro. Since 1994, he Valery Kasereka Bishikwabo is Training in Species Identification has been researching the ecology of the chief warden of Kahuzi-Biega Na- for Kahuzi Guides 3 gorillas and chimpanzees in Kahuzi- tional Park and the director of the "In- News from Kahuzi-Biega 3 Biega. In 1996, he took part in the tegrated Nature Conservation Project Two Gorillas Born more than gorilla census. in Eastern D. R. Congo" (Projet 7000 Killed 4 Dr. John E. Cooper is a wildlife PNKB-GTZ). He has a masters de- Continuing Exploitation of veterinarian and specialist patholo- gree in regional land use and develop- Congo's Resources 4 gist, at present based in the UK but ment at Université Laval of Québec/ Socio-economic Study around involved in teaching and projects in Canada. He has been involved in the Kyavirimu 5 Africa and elsewhere. From 1993 to conservation of Kahuzi-Biega for the Donations 7 1995 he and his wife lived in Rwanda last 10 years. This Is What We Have Done where he was Director of the Centre Dr. Angela Meder observed the Thanks to Your Support! 7 Vétérinaire des Volcans (now the behaviour and development of captive Uganda 8 Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project). lowland gorillas for 10 years. Today Trip to Uganda 8 Margaret E. Cooper is a British she works as a book editor. Since A System to Support Monitoring of lawyer who has published widely on 1992 she has been part of the Board of Gorillas and Illegal Activities 9 animal and conservation legislation. Directors of Berggorilla & Regenwald The Life of Reuben Rwanzagire 11 She has lived with her husband in Direkthilfe. Rwanda 12 East and Central Africa, including two Dr. Mathias Orgeldinger studied Beetsme Is Dead 12 years with the mountain gorillas in the behaviour of siamangs in zoos for A Tribute to Mathias Mpiranya Rwanda. many years. Now he is working as a and the Trackers of Karisoke 12 Jef Dupain established the bono- free-lance journalist, specializing in Amendment 13 bo research site Mpako (1994) and science. Gorillas 14 Iyema (1995) for the Royal Zoological Paluku Vasangavolo Pavasa is a Activities against the Bushmeat Society of Antwerp. He was active in sociologist and an independent re- Trade 14 Zaire/D. R. Congo until the end of searcher. He is the coordinator of the Bushmeat Trade around Cross 1998, and is still trying to continue in local NGO CADAK (Coordination de River Park 15 the bonobo area. In 2000, he expand- Activités de Développement Autour Conservation of Great Apes on ed his activities in Cameroon. He is de Kyavirimu) in Kivu, D. R. Congo. the Periphery of the Dja Reserve 18 currently Coordinator of RZSA for in Dr. Klaus Schmitt is a Technical Reading 21 situ projects in Central Africa. Advisor with the GTZ Project "Advi- News from the Internet 23 sory Services to Uganda Wildlife Au- Our New English Website 23 thority". He has been working in re- Gorilla Journal 23, search and nature conservation pro- December 2001 jects in Africa for more than 15 years. Organization Address: Editor: Angela Meder Iris Weiche began her work with Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe Augustenstr. 122, D-70197 Stuttgart primates, in the wild and in zoos, in c/o Rolf Brunner Fax +49-711-6159919 1990. Since 1994 she has been active Lerchenstr. 5 E-mail [email protected] for Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkt- 45473 Muelheim, Germany Translation and Proofreading: Ann hilfe, and in May 1997 she joined the Fax +49-208-7671605 DeVoy, Bettina and Andrew Grieser Board of Directors. E-Mail [email protected] Johns, Colin Groves Dr. Liz Williamson studied goril- Website: Design: Edwin Artho, Angela Meder las in Gabon from 1984 until 1990. http://www.berggorilla.org Production: Gentner-Verlag, Stuttgart She was involved in gorilla surveys in Bank Account: Cover: Augustin Kanyunyi Basabose Congo/Zaire and Cameroon in 1994 Account number 353 344 315 with his training course during a and 1995. Until the end of 2001 she Stadtsparkasse Muelheim botanical excursion was the Director of the Karisoke Re- Bank code number 362 500 00 Photo: A. Kanyunyi Basabose search Centre. 2 Gorilla Journal 23, December 2001 D. R. CONGO Another Mountain Gorilla Training in Species Killed in the Virungas Identification for Kahuzi During June and July 2001, there was Guides an increase in fighting between the The rangers protecting a national park military of the rebel forces in the De- should be the ones who know most mocratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda about the park's fauna and flora. Unfor- and Uganda with militia groups in tunately, this is not always the case. eastern Congo. Much of the fighting The Kahuzi-Biega National Park is a took place in the forested Virunga Vol- case in point. Until recently, the train- canoes. Rugendo, the dominant sil- ing of tourist guides focussed on the During the theoretical part of the verback male of one of the gorilla gorillas, the greatest attraction of the training groups on the Congolese side of the park. However, tourism should be de- border, was shot dead during clashes veloped further, as soon as visits can The lecturers developed detailed between the military and Interahamwe be resumed, to include the entire and richly illustrated training materials militia groups on July 15, 2001. He fauna and flora. A good knowledge of for this course. Augustin Kanyunyi died only about 40 m from the park animal and plant species is also re- Basabose included the materials, to- boundary. quired for the exact documentation of gether with documentation on the Rugendo had been habituated observations during patrols. training course, in a report. The since 1986 and was visited by hun- To address this, Augustin Kanyu- course contents themselves are pre- dreds of tourists. His body was taken nyi Basabose proposed to train park sented on over 108 pages (in French). to Rumangabo, the park headquar- staff in ecology and species recogni- This seminar will not be the last. To ters, for examination. His remains will tion. Together with other experts he date, the focus has been on plants be buried there, with those of the other founded the Kahuzi Biodiversity Train- and mammals; future courses of the gorillas killed during the war. His son, ing Group. Within the framework of Kahuzi Biodiversity Training Group Sekwekwe, who is also a silverback, this project, a group of 3 lecturers will cover other interesting topics. Fi- has taken over leadership. representing various disciplines con- nally, the documentation is to be re- From a press release by the African ducted a seminar for 12 park staff vised in such a way that other national Wildlife Foundation members in June. The course lasted parks will be able to use it for similar 21 days in total and was partly training courses. funded by Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe. In the first phase, participants News from the Kahuzi- learned the basics of taxonomy, bio- Biega National Park geography, rain forest ecology and animal and plant morphology. In the The exploitation of the coltan reserves second phase, the experts conducted in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park is a modules on their specific areas of ex- serious threat to the biodiversity of pertise: the ecology of the Kahuzi- this protected area. In the beginning of Biega forest, plants and mammals. 2001, the price for coltan had reached Endangered and endemic species US$ 100 per kilogram. At that time, were introduced in particular detail. approximately 15,000 people were in- A delegation from the southern Some of the sessions took place in- side the park and 69 quarries were part of the Parc National des Vi- side a training building; some were operating. In June, the price for coltan runga receives ranger equipment conducted in the field, where partici- started falling drastically. Currently, from our storage. From left to pants practised their newly acquired prices are between US$ 1 and 10, right: Kambale (ranger), Nkakasi knowledge. For example, in one exer- depending on how much tantalum the (monitoring and research), Gara- cise they collected plants to identify ore contains. fura (secretary) and Muhindo Mesi them later in the botanical laboratory It is not known whether this dra- (Conservateur Mikeno Sector). of the CRSN (Centre de Recherche en matic drop in price has had an impact Photo: W. Mugisha Sciences Naturelles) Lwiro. on the situation in the lower part of the 3 Gorilla Journal 23, December 2001 D. R. CONGO park. Two mines were closed, the Continuing Exploitation level of air traffic in the region has Two Gorillas Born of Congo's Resources declined and the number of foreigners more than 7000 in the area has decreased. However, In November 2001, the UN published the local population and the armed Killed an addendum to the April report of the groups who settled in the park during Two gorilla babies were born in UN panel of experts on the illegal ex- the coltan boom are still there. Of the mountainous part of the Ka- ploitation of natural resources and course, they are now looking for alter- huzi-Biega National Park. The other forms of wealth in the Demo- native ways of making a living.