Category: News

Jonathan Stark is on a mission to raise up his Jersey community in support of Virunga National Park.

Many people have asked how they can support the Virunga Park of DR Congo in a meaningful way. We believe wholeheartedly that a single individual can be the spark that makes a difference. Jonathan Stark is one of these people.

Jonathan wanted to help Virunga. He lives on the small island of Jersey between England and France and works for the Durrell Wildlife Park. With the help of our Virunga staff, Jonathan created the “Jersey Friends of Virunga” with the mission to gain a commitment from the Jersey community to help protect a specific sector of Virunga National Park.
The goal is to raise enough money for the annual running costs of the Mikeno Sector – home of our mountain gorillas – by encouraging local businesses and individuals to make an annual pledge and raise approximately £64,300 per year.

Last Wednesday, the Jersey Friends of Virunga (JFoV) kicked things off with publicity in the local papers, the launch of the new website, and an event at Durrell that included an introduction of the project and an auction to raise money. Sarah Bendelow, who is from Jersey and works for Virunga National Park, introduced the Jersey Friends of Virunga concept of uniting the island community in support of the rangers of the Mikeno sector, where 200 of the worlds 800 remaining critically endangered mountain gorillas live.  The auction of Virunga merchandise, many of which traveled all the way from Congo, made a nice profit for the park.

Jonathan was very happy with the evening launch of the project.  “All in all it was a great night, raising around £600 for the park whilst helping to spread the message of Virunga to a wider audience. Like I’ve said before, all great journeys must begin with a single step and after the interest generated by the opening night I think we can attract real support from Jersey for this amazing national park.”

If you would like to start a similar project in your own community, please contact us by responding below in the comments, or sending us an email at  info at gorilla.cd. The park is facing a financial crisis. Imagine if hundreds of people like Jonathan, like you, were able to raise up supporters for the park in their own community. You could change the world from your own home.

In a recent murder trial in Uganda, the three accused killers were fined the equivalent of $19 each. The victim was a mountain gorilla named Mizano.

On 17th June 2011, poachers entered Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Park with hunting dogs and killed a blackback mountain gorilla with a spear that penetrated its lung. The blackback was the heir to the only silverback in his family. The poachers were looking for antelope caught in snares they had set earlier.

The following day, police dogs lead the investigation team to a neighboring community where they found the three suspects.

The presiding magistrate in the case said that prosecution had failed to produce enough evidence that the three actually killed the gorilla. The magistrate also noted that no DNA test was carried out to link the blood samples found on the panga and spear picked from one of the suspects’ house to the blood sample of the dead gorilla. This however, is despite the fact that the doctors who carried out the post mortem were never invited to give their testimony in court.

One suspect was convicted on two counts including entering a protected area without authority and possession of illegal devices capable of killing wildlife species. He was fined the equivalent of $19. The other two suspects were each convicted on one count of trying to escape arrest after running away on seeing police. They were each given the same fine.

The Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) issued a statement yesterday expressing their dismay at the ruling:

“Uganda Wildlife Authority is greatly dismayed by the light sentence that was handed down by court to the three men that were arrested for the murder of a mountain gorilla. Although we will not appeal the sentence, we express our shock in the strongest terms and we will be bringing up this issue with the Office of the Chief Justice. Conservation in Uganda continues to face the challenge of having judiciary officials that do not fully appreciate the value of wildlife to the country, and are therefore ready to hand down light sentences to suspects.”

Large primates, and especially the largest of all, the Gorilla, have always generated inspiration and fascination for the people of all continents.

We welcome the fact that some gorilla populations are the object of concerted conservation and restoration efforts. However gorillas as a whole remain in danger of extinction, and continue to face severe threats. The main threats are the destruction or modification of their habitat by deforestation; woodland exploitation; increasing demand for arable land and energy (charcoal); and the development of infrastructure such as forest roads. Hunting and trading in wild bushmeat are an important problem for the western plains gorilla (Gorilla g. gorilla). Viral epidemics and unstable political climates are also among the threats to which all gorilla populations are exposed today.
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Many national and international, governmental and non-governmental organisations, are working to multiply conservation actions and efforts to attempt to remedy this critical situation. These initiatives include anti-poaching campaigns, reforestation efforts, development of eco-tourism, implementation of development projects in the regions bordering the areas protected for gorilla conservation and programmes of rehabilitation. Many of these organisations, and the governments involved are now part of GRASP, a partnership between governments, international institutions (notably UNEP and UNESCO), NGOs and the private sector whose objective is great ape conservation.

CMS itself is a GRASP partner and we have agreed that CMS main contribution in the next few years will be to facilitate the negotiation and application of a CMS Agreement and Action Plan to support gorilla conservation.

For gorillas, CMS aims to establish the legal structure necessary to make all the initiatives durable and to integrate conservation actions in collaboration with the 10 States covered by the distribution range of the gorilla: Angola, Cameroon, Republic of Central Africa, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda, for the conservation of gorillas and of their habitat. For more then 20 years, the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) has been developing and implementing regional agreements under the terms of Article IV of the Convention. These agreements are one of the main conservation tools of the Convention.

The UNEP/CMS Secretariat is working MoP1 for Gorilla.CMS UNEP.Nov.2008. Click to enlarge. height=with the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences, in partnership with the GRASP UNEP/UNESCO Secretariat, and in consultation with the gorilla range states and the other partners of GRASP, to developp this Agreement, and initiate its implementation via a regional, transborder Action Plan. CMS and its partners have engaged themselves to develop and implement this Agreement, and to provide the gorilla range states, as well as the other governments and organisations involved, with a legal framework that will reinforce and integrate conservation efforts.

Through this Internet work site, you have now access to all documents in preparation, on which we would be very glad to have your comments and suggestions. These documents in preparation include “Gorilla Agreement”, which will be associated with conservation status reports for the 4 taxa, as well as a first draft of a regional Action Plan for Gorillas and their habitats. In drafting these, the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences and its partners, are basing their work on the existing action plans, including the national and regional plans developed within the GRASP framework; they will, among other things, concentrate on the development of standard data collection, analyses and diffusion, in consultation with CMS, GRASP and its partners, and the range states.

This working website should allow the whole scientific and nature preservation communities to take part in the elaboration of the better documents possible. We expect your comments and suggestions. The documents are available from the entry point « working group », on the website. Don’t forget to sign up.

We hope you will agree that such an Agreement, as well as the projects which will result from it, will contribute to promoting the long term survival of gorillas, their forest habitat and dependent human populations. This should in turn make a tangible contribution to the 2010 targets for biodiversity, and allow the States concerned to combine conservation and long lasting economic development.

This coming Saturday is the annual Great Gorilla Run in London, UK. Hundreds of people dress up as gorillas and run around the city to raise money for our projects out here in Africa – it is an amazing event.

Three years ago I was given the fantastic opportunity to travel to London and take part in the Great Gorilla Run – it was one of the best days of my life!

When I was told that I was going to London It was difficult to imagine what it would be like. And when I was told that I would be running 7kms around London dressed in gorilla suit … well, that was another point. I think my neighbors still remember seeing me running through the streets of Gisenyi, my town in Rwanda, as I trained for the Great Gorilla Run.

September arrived and I travelled more than 6000km to reach London. I was really excited to see what this town, which I have heard so much about, was really like!

The D-day arrived, and I met all the other gorilla runners at Minster Court and started putting on my gorilla suit. I was happy to wear number 700, the number of mountain gorillas living in the world at the time.

Until then, I was confident with my training, my thoughts were to win it. However, I realised that this was not going to be an easy run. As I waited at the start it was so strange seeing many different people excited about dressing as gorillas and trying to imitate their behaviours by either eating a banana, roaring or charging!

Each time, I was wondering what would happen if they saw real gorillas. Or, if those gorilla statues at Minster court were real gorillas seeing them!?! Surely they would be delighted to see a human struggling to become a gorilla!!

Once the kick off was given, I started running following others and holding a collection bucket, which I was using to collect money from viewers enjoying the Sunday sun! I can remember being stopped by a couple, probably, they wanted to check if I was a real gorilla and to prove this I charged!!! They ran away but immediately came back and put some coins into the bucket before wishing me success!

Although I had studied the map of the run, I couldn’t locate myself between the high buildings. It was difficulty to see the sky and the sun which is how we traditionally find our way in Rwanda. I was simply following others!!

I can not remember how many bridges I crossed, I could not even remember how long it took me, what I remember is that I did it, it was amazing and raised I collected £75 in my bucket during the run!!

Catastrophic decline, precipitous loss, decimation”— these are the words used to describe the current situation for apes in the wild. Illegal hunting, habitat loss to mining, logging and agricultural conversion, disease and the pet trade all threaten the fragile existence of apes and their habitats. It is estimated that if current trends continue unabated, some species or sub-species of apes will be extinct in as little as one human generation (20 years). Some gorilla populations are among the hardest hit.

The Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Ape Taxon Advisory Group Conservation Initiative represents a collective effort by zoos to help conserve wild populations of apes – together. the numerous AZA zoos can raise a significant sum for this end. Launched in early 2010, the primary aim of the Initiative is to increase the amount and duration of zoo support for in situ ape conservation.

The UNEP/CMS Gorilla Agreement and the numerous priority sites and activities outlined in its Action Plans stand to benefit from the funds provided by AZA members, and we very much encourage the submission of gorilla project proposals. With all gorilla subspecies facing severe threats, and especially Eastern Lowland Gorillas and Cross River Gorillas coming increasingly close to extinction, there are good chances for such projects to be awarded funding.

Specific goals of the initiative include:

• Provide multi-year support (minimum three years) for high priority ape populations and sites.
• Increase the number of zoos contributing to the in situ conservation of apes.
• Increase the presence of the zoo community in ape conservation.
• Encourage law enforcement and in situ education through the support of sanctuaries.
• Provide zoos with resources to convey ape conservation messages to the public and promote their support for in situ conservation.

Funds are generated by contributions from supporting zoos; these funds are placed into a general fund that is equally distributed among projects selected for support.

To find out more about the program and how to submit project proposals, please go to http://www.clemetzoo.com/gorillassp/ConservationInitiative.html

WAZA, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, is one of the three main partners of the Year of the Gorilla 2009. Altogether, 109 zoos supported the YoG, especially through educational and outreach activities aimed at the full spectrum of visitors, from kids to interested adults, but also through fundraising for projects and the hosting of conferences and lectures.

With the year now drawing closer to its end, WAZA has compiled a selection of events and activities undertaken by WAZA members. This is of course only a fraction of the events that took place at WAZA zoos and wildlife parks, but it should nevertheless give you an idea of WAZA’s contribution to reaching out and informing the general public on gorillas and the threats they face.

At the epicenter of the long-running civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo lies Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park in the border triangle of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to more than 200 of the only 720 Mountain Gorillas remaining in the world. Here, a small but dedicated force of forest rangers risk their lives to save one of the world’s greatest and most vulnerable species.

The Year of the Gorilla is an official supporter of the documentary “Return to Virunga: The Battle to Save the Mountain Gorillas”, which follows the rangers as they return to Virunga after having been banished by rebels from the park for more than a year. What will the rangers, led by their intrepid new warden, find when they return home? What does the future hold for Congo’s mountain gorillas? Can these great apes still be saved?

Ian Redmond, Year of the Gorilla Ambassador, has concluded his US lecture and fundraising tour. He started out on the West Coast, speaking in San Francisco, San Diego and the LA area and finished with a press event at the German Embassy in Washington DC.

Redmond’s talk is built around the fact that large mammals like gorillas and elephants are keystone species in habitats that provide ecosystem services like fresh water and clean air for the whole planet. Gorillas fertilize and disperse seeds through their dung, which regenerates the forests. Saving the gorillas will help preserve these ecosystems that directly determine human survival.

He also talked about his own experiences working with gorillas in Africa, showing videos of gorillas in the wild and describing his recent fact-finding mission to the gorilla range states.

According to Redmond, by 2030, only 10 percent of gorilla habitat will remain free of human impacts. Gorilla populations have had some recovery successes, but their numbers continue to drastically decrease. As YoG Ambassador, Redmond travels the world, talking with politicians, NGOs and addressing the public to promote the conservation of gorillas and to gather funds for projects.

We thank all organizations and individuals who helped to make this tour happen, in LA (see below) and elsewhere!!

Ian Redmond, Year of the Gorilla Ambassador, has concluded his US lecture and fundraising tour. He started out on the West Coast, speaking in San Francisco, San Diego and the LA area and finished with a press event at the German Embassy in Washington DC.

Redmond’s talk is built around the fact that large mammals like gorillas and elephants are keystone species in habitats that provide ecosystem services like fresh water and clean air for the whole planet. Gorillas fertilize and disperse seeds through their dung, which regenerates the forests. Saving the gorillas will help preserve these ecosystems that directly determine human survival.

He also talked about his own experiences working with gorillas in Africa, showing videos of gorillas in the wild and describing his recent fact-finding mission to the gorilla range states.

According to Redmond, by 2030, only 10 percent of gorilla habitat will remain free of human impacts. Gorilla populations have had some recovery successes, but their numbers continue to drastically decrease. As YoG Ambassador, Redmond travels the world, talking to politicians, NGOs and addressing the public to promote the conservation of gorillas and to gather funds for projects.

We thank all organisations and individuals who helped to make this tour happen, in LA (see below) and elsewhere!!