{7 November 2013 \u2013 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the United Nations has been supporting efforts to end armed violence, protect civilians and spur economic investment and political stability, the Organization is also fighting an environmental battle to save great apes, the region\u2019s iconic local totem and a key link in its rich biodiversity.}<\/p>\n
\u201cIn years past, the fear was always that armed conflict would damage great apes and wipe out wildlife,\u201d said Douglas Cress, Programme Coordinator at the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), led by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).<\/p>\n
Mr. Cress stressed the mixed blessing of the DRC\u2019s rich endowment of resources. \u201cIn terms of natural resources, it is one of the most potentially lucrative regions in all of Africa,\u201d he told the UN News Centre from Nairobi, Kenya, where he is based. DRC has rich reserves of timber, gold, tantalum \u2013 used in cell phones and computers, and now potentially also oil and other resources. In terms of natural resources, it is one of the most potentially lucrative regions in all of Africa.<\/p>\n
However, the fight for possession of these resources, as well as land and political power, is a major cause of conflict with rebels such as, most recently, the March 23rd Movement (M23) , the Lord\u2019s Resistance Army (LRA) and other armed groups that have emerged from the area or entered from neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
That conflict, in turn, endangers the natural environment. \u201cAll natural resources suffer tremendously during conflict. But it\u2019s not always a certainty that your wildlife would be exploited to death, often it\u2019s just exploited,\u201d Mr. Cress added.<\/p>\n
It is to stave off extreme degradation of the DRC\u2019s precious resources \u2013 so important for the future of the country and for the Earth \u2013 that the UN and its partners are working with international law enforcement, Governments and local communities to save magnificent wildlife and their habitat.<\/p>\n
The forests of the DRC represent half of the total area of tropical rainforest in Africa, providing shelter for great apes, such as the mountain gorilla and the bonobo, as well as the okapi and elephant, among other mammals and countless species of magnificent birds and reptiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou fly over the area and it\u2019s just green for three hours,\u201d Mr. Cress said.<\/p>\n
The rich biodiversity led to five natural sites in the country \u2013 Garamba, Kahuzi-Biega, Okapi, Salonga, and Virunga \u2013 being designated between 1979 and 1996 to the UNESCO World Heritage List, and since then, with nearly all species of animals declining in the DRC, to the List of World Heritage in Danger.<\/p>\n
The dangers come from traditional conservation threats \u2013 deforestation, mining and bush-meat hunting, but are also fuelled by armed conflict, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless, and forcing them to survive in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and on the scarce natural resources, along with corruption and the lack of rule of law resulting from the ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n
{{Monetizing great apes}}<\/p>\n
The Virunga Mountains and the gorillas that migrate through them \u2013 among the great apes the UN-partnership is striving to save \u2013fall geographically in the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda.<\/p>\n
The countries, each of which has had its share of violent turmoil, have worked out a tripartite agreement to share the revenues from the tourists eager to explore the primate habitat.<\/p>\n
The DRC has wanted to imitate the multi-million ecotourism industry developed in Rwanda and to a lesser extent in Uganda, but its instability is a hindrance. There are reports of rebels acting like forest rangers and taking tourists into the mountains, but recurrent fighting makes the area inaccessible to most would-be visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat eastern DR Congo strip that passes through Goma that everyone\u2019s been fighting over is so tricky because of the Virunga Mountains right there,\u201d he noted, referring to intense struggle between the M23 and the national forces known by their French acronym, FARDC, on the periphery of what is Africa\u2019s oldest park. \u201cThat\u2019s the stronghold of mountain gorillas and yet it\u2019s the prime territory that everyone wants a piece of.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to instability which cuts off access for tourists, it also prevents rangers and researchers from tracking families of the gorillas to check on their health and safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I saw a gorilla was in 1986 in the DRC, then Zaire. There\u2019s nothing like it, just takes your breath away,\u201d Mr. Cress recalled: \u201cThe grace of something so powerful allowing you into its world, even if just for an hour\u2026it\u2019s spellbinding.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least 100 gorillas have been killed in Africa through illegal trade since 2005, part of the more than 22,200 estimated great apes lost from the wild during that time, according to GRASP figures based on confiscation records, international trade databases, law enforcement reports and arrival rates from sanctuaries and rehabilitation centres.<\/p>\n
These figures are just the tip of the iceberg. At least 2,972 great apes are lost from the wild each year, according to the \u2018Stolen Apes: The Illicit Trade in Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos and Orangutans\u2019 report.<\/p>\n
Gorillas illegally sold to a zoo in Malaysia in 2002 reportedly went for $400,000 each, according to the report. Orangutans can fetch $1,000, and live chimpanzees sold at $50 can be marked up by the middleman as much as 400 per cent by the time they are resold.<\/p>\n
African great apes – chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos – are listed on Appendix I of the CITES convention on international trade of endangered species. Appendix I lists the highly endangered species at risk of extinction and prohibits any commercial international trade of these species.<\/p>\n
Jane Goodall, a UN Messenger of Peace, whose eponymous institute is part of the GRASP network, has for decades advocated for conservation of the region\u2019s habitats.<\/p>\n
{{Fighting environmental crimes}}<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in northern DRC, alleged involvement in elephant poaching and ivory smuggling of the Lord\u2019s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan-based rebel group notorious for kidnapping children to fill its ranks, led the UN Security Council last December to call for an investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe historic call reinforces concerns about the links between illicit wildlife trafficking and the regional security in Africa,\u201d John Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) said after the Council action.
\nIn mid-May, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the 15-member Council that armed groups in the area are employing increasingly sophisticated weapons to execute wildlife in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoaching and its potential linkages to other criminal, even terrorist activities, constitute a grave menace to sustainable peace and security,\u201d Mr. Ban said at the historic meeting.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cress said the Secretary-General raised wildlife crime to a global level with his statement to the Security Council, \u201cThat voice, that global advocacy, that platform is one of the most important things that the UN provides.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to discussing environmental concerns in conflict and post-conflict areas, the Security Council is now intent on incorporating protection of natural resources and engagement with local communities into UN peacekeeping mandates such as MONUSCO\u2019s which was extended for a year in June.<\/p>\n
The General Assembly might also get involved. In a meeting last week with its current President, John Ashe, Mr. Cress proposed efforts to establish a UN International Day on Great Apes by 2014.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, this week, UNEP and INTERPOL are holding a joint conference in Nairobi on international environmental compliance and enforcement directed at individuals, such as the rebels operating in DRC, who are decommissioned soldiers trained in military tactics with access to sophisticated weaponry.<\/p>\n
The overriding message from the conference seems to be \u2013 there is a gap in needed resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re underfunded,\u201d Mr. Cress said. \u201cThe bad guys are smart and getting smarter. And we are lagging behind. Until we think the way they do, with the resources and the technology and the tools that they have, we are never going to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strengthening state institutions<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number one thing is getting law and order back,\u201d Mr. Refisch stressed when asked about the best way to safeguard natural resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are rules and legislation, but they are not enforced. There are also many beneficiaries of the corruption,\u201d he noted, describing a circle where illegal revenues from natural resources go to buy more weapons which yield more power which yields a need for more exploitation of resources.<\/p>\n
The DRC has one of the highest number of artisanal miners without provisions in national law for regulation and without a regulatory framework for resource extraction<\/p>\n
Mr. Refisch stressed that people are not willing to invest in their communities out of fear that they will lose it to armed groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are not willing to invest and just wait for aid. It\u2019s a very dangerous cycle which really undermines development,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Along with more investment, he also highlighted the need for more national pressure from within the country to develop a proper regulatory framework for resource extraction, and greater consumer knowledge in the consumer countries of where products originate, how they got there and whether the production is sustainable or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about saving that great ape, or elephant, or saving that rosewood,\u201d Mr. Cress said. \u201cYou begin to not only lose your natural resources, you begin to strip away revenue from host country. All that illegal ivory is not coming back to the Government. It\u2019s being stolen. It promotes instability. You have Governments which are being held up at gunpoint, really.”<\/p>\n
{{Strengthening state institutions}}<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number one thing is getting law and order back,\u201d Mr. Refisch stressed when asked about the best way to safeguard natural resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are rules and legislation, but they are not enforced. There are also many beneficiaries of the corruption,\u201d he noted, describing a circle where illegal revenues from natural resources go to buy more weapons which yield more power which yields a need for more exploitation of resources.<\/p>\n
The DRC has one of the highest number of artisanal miners without provisions in national law for regulation and without a regulatory framework for resource extraction<\/p>\n
Mr. Refisch stressed that people are not willing to invest in their communities out of fear that they will lose it to armed groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are not willing to invest and just wait for aid. It\u2019s a very dangerous cycle which really undermines development,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Along with more investment, he also highlighted the need for more national pressure from within the country to develop a proper regulatory framework for resource extraction, and greater consumer knowledge in the consumer countries of where products originate, how they got there and whether the production is sustainable or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about saving that great ape, or elephant, or saving that rosewood,\u201d Mr. Cress said. \u201cYou begin to not only lose your natural resources, you begin to strip away revenue from host country. All that illegal ivory is not coming back to the Government. It\u2019s being stolen. It promotes instability. You have Governments which are being held up at gunpoint, really.”<\/p>\n
Source: UN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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