If Rwanda and Congo Clash, Mother Nature Will Lose
Date: 01-Dec-04
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Author: Ed Stoddard
A Congolese government minister said on Tuesday that Rwandan troops have entered neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, attacking and burning villages near the border.
The steamy tropical region along the two states' frontier is home to a multitude of wild animals including the last of the majestic mountain gorillas and their endangered lowland kin.
Past wars in the region have already been hard on its wildlife. Rwanda has invaded Congo twice over the past eight years to pursue Hutu rebels it blames for its 1994 genocide.
"In 1996 we estimated there were 17,000 eastern lowland gorillas in the region," said Ian Redmond, the chief consultant for the UN's Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP).
"Now we fear it is something like to 3,000 to 5,000 precisely because of the warfare," he told Reuters by telephone from his office in Britain.
Over the last week, Rwanda has repeatedly threatened to send troops into Congo to target the Hutu rebels. On Tuesday, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame said his country may have already launched a planned attack on Congolese rebels.
ANIMALS TARGETED FOR MEAT
In Africa, armies -- be they state-backed or rag-tag rebel forces -- tend to live off the land, which is usually bad for the local wildlife.
Conflict can also force civilians into the bush where they have little choice but to hunt wild animals for food.
"Displaced people cannot live off their own produce and so they are forced to live off bushmeat," Redmond said.
Hippos and various antelope species in the area had all seen marked declines in recent years and renewed fighting would only make things worse, he said.
The region's elephant populations are also believed to have suffered hugely because of the instability.
Fresh conflict would be a huge setback at a time when there are a few positive signs, other environmentalists said.
"There's just been a survey of the highland section of Kahuzi-Biega park in eastern Congo suggesting that more of the wildlife in the park had survived than people had feared," said David Jay, project coordinator for the Born Free Foundation.
"But the lowland section hasn't been surveyed since 1996 because of insecurity and we don't know if we will be able to carry one out now," he said.