Gorilla Conservation in Virunga

Gorilla Conservation in Virunga

Gorilla Conservation in Virunga: After the “murder” of five members of the Rugendo family in the July of 2007 and several other atrocities that had been committed to the gorillas before, Virunga was for some time in its darkest hour. This sparked a need for constant protection of the Virunga wildlife and not just the gorillas.

Since then, the park has undergone a series of institutional and security reforms to prevent this tragedy from happening again. Since then the gorilla population has also increased tremendously and the critical reforms have been a success in this national park.

The dedicated ranger force that risks their lives on a daily basis to protect these endangered gorillas and other wildlife with in the park and also the lives of the people in and around the park boundaries is breathtaking.

The extra effort they make can’t go Unrecognized as without their effort the gorillas in this park would be extinct. This has also pulled more international organizations to step in and offer more support to these conservation efforts

The fact that the rangers in this park monitor the gorillas full time unlike in the other park that are home to the same animals, they need a lot of things to keep this work going. Such include boots, communication material and much other safety gear. There has been some help more so from the international organizations in providing more so the basic gear to ensure that the patrols go on.

Like in other parks that house these gorillas, part of the money from each gorilla permit sold goes back to the community for their social welfare and as an encouragement for them to also engage in conservation. It has worked in Rwanda and Uganda.

To work very well in the DRC more people have to track the gorillas such that more money is realized and hence more conservation work.