Alumni Couple Active in Congo Wildlife Conservation

BACKGROUND

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been much in the news of late, generally in the context of its recent civil war and the many ensuing problems facing the country. Recent coverage has included a New York Times article suggesting that the worlds worst current human crisis is occurring in the eastern part of that country, with thousands of deaths every month. Periodic fighting and civil unrest still continue throughout the DRC in the uneasy aftermath of the war, a conflict that was complicated by the involvement of foreign troops. Uncontrolled militias operate outside the law in much of the country, causing (among other problems) a crisis of internally displaced persons. Conflicts in neighboring countries, including Rwanda, have caused foreign rebel groups and refugees to cross into the border regions of the DRC. Most recently, concerns over an outbreak of cholera in refugee camps have surfaced.

Amidst the human chaos, and to a major extent because of it, the stress on the environment has worsened and the normal strategies for protecting it have proven inadequate. One cause of continued violence is the desire to profit through exploitation of the countrys natural riches, including diamonds, gold, timber, and ivory. Income from this exploitation, in turn, helps to maintain and arm both government and militia forces. Endangered species such as forest elephants and mountain gorillas have become targets in the search for food.

MAIN ARTICLE

Two MSU alumni, Terese and John Hart, are working to foster conservation in the midst of armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Terese is currently the director of the Wildlife Conservation Societys (WCS) operations in the DRC, and her husband John heads up a major wildlife inventory and monitoring initiative in that country involving the Okapi Wildlife Reserve and several national parks. The Harts did their graduate research in the DRC (then called Zaire) in the late 1970s and early 1980s and have been working on environmental issues there ever since. Terese earned MSU masters in entomology in 1979 and a Ph.D. in botany and plant pathology in 1985; John earned a masters in geography in 1979 and his doctorate in fisheries and wildlife in 1986.

The DRC is Africas third largest country, roughly the size of western Europe, and home to more than half of Africas rain forest. According to the WCS website, the Harts extensive surveys of wildlife in the tropical Ituri Forest, near the eastern border with Uganda, helped pave the way for the 1992 establishment of the 5,200-square-mile Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a protected area inside that vast forest system. The reserve was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

The Harts have conducted extensive studies of the okapi, a shy relative of the giraffe that lives in wooded areas of eastern and northern DRC. Although not officially endangered, the Harts consider Okapia johnstoni to be an at-risk species, vulnerable to deforestation and human encroachment. As they have studied the okapi and other area wildlife, they have lived for long periods of time with the local Mbuti people residing in the Ituri forest. They have relied heavily on Mbuti trackers, who helped to capture a number of okapi so they could be equipped with radio collars and their movements tracked. The couple has published a number of works on okapi that are helping environmentalists better understand the ecosystem they inhabit.

The Harts and other WCS staff are currently based in Kinshasa, the DRC capital, hoping that a tentative peace will open up opportunities to move conservation to a national scale. We now have activities in Salonga National Park, Kahuzi Biega National Park, and Maiko National Mark, as well as the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Terese said. WCS has joined with several other environmental organizations in Kinshasa to encourage the new Congolese government to step up efforts to protect the national parks. The threat of violence limits their activities in some areas. After a recent return visit to the Ituri, Terese reported, The Okapi Faunal Reserve is not accessible throughout. Our monitoring team estimates that it can work in about half of it. There is serious elephant poaching happening in the rest of it. The poaching is facilitated by military that are not yet integrated into the national army.

The Harts have recently published a number of articles built on their recent conservation efforts in the context conflict. Among their plans for the future is the continuation of work in the Itombwe Upland just west of northern Lake Tanganyika. According to Terese, it is a highly diverse part of the Albertine Rift--not yet protected--home of Grauer's gorilla. Our hope is to help create a protected area and help contribute to its effective protection in this important area.

-- Jay Rodman

To appear in the spring 2005 issue of the MSU INTERNATIONAL, www.isp.msu.edu/international