Mountain Gorilla Numbers Rise Despite War
Posted 29th January 2001

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 25, 2001 (ENS) - Conservationists and park officials have managed to protect the Virunga population of highly endangered mountain gorillas despite the armed conflict that rages in and around their habitat - the mountains where Congo-Kinshasa meets Rwanda and Uganda. The Virunga population represents more than half the total world population of mountain gorillas. The only other population lives in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The population of the Virunga group has increased by at least 11 percent since the last full count in 1989.

The group grew from 320 to 355 individuals, based on monitoring data from the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, a joint initiative by the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna and Flora International and the World Wide Fund for Nature International, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. "This success proves that even in a region hammered by conflict and crises, there is hope," says Annette Lanjouw, Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme. "There is a future for both people and wildlife, when people work together despite political differences," agrees R. Michael Wright, president of African Wildlife Foundation. "The increase in the mountain gorilla's population is one of the most remarkable conservation accomplishments of the last decade," says Wright.

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