WWF's Approved Projects
in Africa (General)

WWF in Zaire

Located in the heart of Africa, Zaire is the third largest country in this continent. Zaire boasts almost every African biome except desert. The spectacular green forests in the country's central basin contain some of Zaire's 8,000 km sq of tropical moist forest -- over half the continent's forest reserves.

Zaire has a wealth of plant and animal life. It has more plant and animal species than any other African country. Over 10,000 different plants can be found here, of which 3,200 grow nowhere else in the world. Straphanthus kombe, a threatened medicinal plant once used by Mbuti pygmies to poison their arrow heads, is today much sought after by western doctors to cure heart disease.

Zaire's 409 different mammal species include the elusive okapi, sometimes called the forest giraffe, which was discovered only in 1901. The okapi exists solely in the humid forests of eastern Zaire. The country also has the world's last viable population of northern white rhinos. It is home to 31 primate species. And the pygmy chimpanzee, with its unusual black face, can only be found here.

The endangered manatee, an aquatic mammal resembling a huge sea lion and believed to be a close relative of the elephant, lives in the estuary of the Zaire River. Of the 51 species of amphibians found in Zaire, the unusual hairy frog is particularly threatened.

Zaire's bird life is equally important. Of the 1,426 bird species, the golden-naped and yellow-legged weavers are endemic. So is the large Congo peacock.

Unlike many other countries in the region, Zaire has an impressive record in nature conservation. It houses the continent's oldest park, Virunga National Park, established in 1925. Moreover, four of the country's protected areas have earned UNESCO World Heritage Site status because they contain exceptional ecosystems.

Yet, uncontrolled use of its forest products could reverse these gains. Each year, an estimated 200,000 ha of forest are cut down to meet local fuelwood needs. Widespread shifting agriculture and a rapid population increase in the eastern highlands are encroaching on the country's humid forests. Although commercial logging is limited, it is posing a problem.

Over the years, poaching has also greatly depleted Zaire's elephant population, which used to be one of the largest in Africa. Similarly, the northern white rhino, which ranged across much of Zaire, Sudan, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Chad in the early 1900s, was decimated by poachers by the mid-'80s, reaching near extinction levels. Rhino population figures fell drastically from an estimated 1,300 in 1962 to a precarious 15 in 1984.

The fate of other animals is not much better. They are being threatened by uncontrolled hunting to meet the protein needs of a growing population.

WWF has been in collaboration with the Zaire parks department -- Institut Zairois pour la Conservation de la Nature (IZCN) -- and other international aid agencies in Zaire for over 30 years. During this time, it has funded projects ranging from pure species and habitat protection to rural development and education initiatives.

One of its early projects focused on protecting the highly threatened mountain gorilla population. In collaboration with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), the project accustomed four gorilla groups to tourists and established a controlled gorilla viewing programme. A radio network was installed between park headquarters and outlying guard posts to help in coordinating tourism and anti-poaching efforts. The project also included regular gorilla censuses and research.

WWF teamed up with IUCN - the World Conservation Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Institut Zairois pour la Conservation de la Nature (IZCN), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), and UNESCO to develop a rhino conservation project at Garamba National Park in northeastern Zaire. Thanks to these efforts and added protection from anti-poaching units, the rhino population has doubled from 15 to 31 in less than a decade.

WWF has also helped the IZCN to train game wardens in ecology and wildlife management at the Ecole de Faune de Garoua in Cameroon.

Another WWF achievement: after years of lobbying, the government finally upgraded the globally important Ituri Forest to a faunal reserve in 1992. The forest is home to the Bambuti pygmies, some Bantu tribes, and the endemic okapi. Together with the IZCN and other institutions, WWF is designing a management plan which integrates the needs of indigenous people with the reserve's conservation goals.


Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature