The Spanish government has contributed 368,000 U.S. dollars to a UN Environment Program (UNEP)led initiative to help protect gorillas, chimpanzees and their habitats in the DRC.
A statement from the Nairobi-based UNEP said on Thursday the Spanish funds will be channeled through the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP)as part of UN agency's program to help improve the conservation of endangered and economically important animals and ecosystems there as requested by the DRC government.
"The funding by the Government of Spain is a welcome development in this troubled country and region. At risk are the nature-based assets upon which many of the people of the DRC rely for livelihoods," UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said.
Steiner said comprehensive environmental laws are urgently needed to ensure that these natural resources are harvested by international companies in ways that will guarantee their integrity and productivity for years and decades to come.
"The German government is also stepping up funding to the DRC under its new Life Web initiative. I would urge other countries to also join hands with the people and biodiversity of this key African country," he said. The news comes as the country continues to face one of the greatest environmental challenges in Africa today.
The last few years have seen a rise in the killing of rare wildlife and environmental destruction as the region is caught in the crossfire of conflict.
As serious instability continues to plague eastern Congo, 500,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have spread across the region and rebel groups have occupied large swaths of the national parks and important forest ecosystems.
The UN environmental agency is assisting the national authorities in drafting and developing national environmental laws, facilitating dialogue in the region and helping boost cooperation to tackle the country's environmental challenges.
Meanwhile the first international agreement for the conservation of gorillas enters into force on June 1, offering hope for a new era of stronger protection for the apes.
The agreement was concluded among the ten gorilla range states in Paris in October 2007, under the auspices of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS).
The announcement of the new Spanish funding comes as 191 countries gather in Bonn for a key meeting on biodiversity this week in a bid to agree on ways to significantly reduce biodiversity loss by 2010.
The forests of DRC, which cover 1 million square kilometers, are a treasure trove for biodiversity.
They house some of the world's rarest and most remarkable species, including the bonobo (the closest living relative of the human species) and the okapi (a unique forest giraffe) as well as the rare mountain gorilla. More than half of the 720 mountain gorillas left in the world live in Eastern DRC.
But this biodiversity is under threat as a result of the decades of instability which has racked the country.
The instability has taken a severe toll on the region's natural resources and wildlife, and the situation has been exacerbated by factors including poor capacity to enforce existing wildlife laws; widespread poaching; and rapidly increasing mining activities and opening up of forests which are facilitating access to previously remote forest areas.
In 2007, seven of the highly endangered mountain gorillas were killed in eastern DRC. Virunga National Park, which is at the heart of the current tensions and conflicts, has also seen its hippo population drop from an estimated 29,000 to a herd of just a few hundred.
Elephants are also under threat: new figures from the Convention on International Trade in endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES)show alarming levels of poaching in Central Africa- in and around eastern DRC.
Source:Xinhua
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