_Africa: December 2007 Archives

Here's a useful tool: Friends of World Heritage has a list of community tour operators in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America that have been approved by the UN World Heritage Foundation.

Tour operators include the Shampole Community Trust in Kenya (offering eco-friendly, luxury accommodations which we wrote about here), the Talamanca Initiative in Costa Rica (a biodiversity conservation group that focuses on reducing poverty) and the Bunaken National Marine Park Management Advisory Board in Indonesia (which offers homestays and eco-friendly lodging on Bunaken Island).

One hundred percent of funds raised through the Friends of the World Heritage Fund will go to World Heritage projects. Likewise, Expedia and the UN Foundation frequently match and triple the amount already raised.

Last Sunday night on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper took us to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to cover the sad story of a family of highly endangered mountain gorillas that were executed in July in Virunga National Park. There was no sense in the killings: the gorillas weren't threatening anyone, they weren't killed for meat, and the babies were not kidnapped to be sold on the black market, as has happened before. 

WildlifeDirect, one of the nongovernmental organizations monitoring the situation, suspects the gorillas were killed by people involved in the multi-million-dollar charcoal trade who are operating illegally in the national park. Since July, the situation has grown worse, as rebel militia groups have moved into the park and kicked out the park rangers who were tracking and protecting the gorillas there. For the past several months, all contact with the remaining gorilla families has been cut off (there are only about 700 of them in the wild, and half of these live in Virunga National Park). Before the July massacre, Virunga National Park operated a successful gorilla tourism program, where very small groups of travelers were permitted to view the gorillas in their natural habitat under strictly controlled conditions for a limited amount of time.  Revenue from tourism helped pay the rangers' salaries and gave them a way to support their families, who lived with them in the park.  The rangers got to know the gorillas personally, and were devastated by the murders.

Virunga National Park is a World Heritage Site, and UNESCO is monitoring the situation closely. In their news report, they stress that the killing of gorillas also has an impact on the local population:

The current fighting has also added to the human suffering of local communities around the World Heritage site and the humanitarian crisis is starting to take on catastrophic proportions. Already an estimated 425,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, including 70 park ranger staff. As a result of the conflict, a number of makeshift camps of displaced people has sprung up right next to the park, adding further pressure on its natural resources due to people desperately looking for food, firewood and building materials for temporary shelter.

National Geographic magazine scooped this story two weeks ago on their website, posting a video about the gorilla massacre and a page on How To Help, which lists the websites of non-profit organizations that are helping to equip and protect the rangers as well as the gorillas. Please visit their site to learn more about how you can help.

The Fire Dance, by Grete Howard

Photographer: Grete Howard, England.

Getting the Shot: The shot was taken on Christmas day, 2006. The Fire Dance was held in a clearing in the small village of Tinadou, just outside Kparatoa, some miles from Sokode in Togo. There was a large sign at the roadside advertising the dance. Villagers from many nearby settlements came to witness the show, as well as us. The dance takes place round about a month after the festival of cutlasses. The dancers will attempt to prove their prowess by various daring stunts. We were sitting on little wooden benches around a small clearing in the village, so the dancers were about a metre or two away from us. It was quite an intense experience.