Gorillas in their midst

Posted by jamie — 6 June 2007 at 5:23pm - Comments

The BBC have published a gallery of images focusing on the work of the rangers in Virunga National Park. Found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's the oldest reserve in Africa and home to the DRC's remaining mountain gorillas.

Magnificent as the images are, they're accompanied by some depressing facts. Like all apes and gorilla numbers are low, shockingly low - only 100 remain in the park, and less than 800 in the world. The rangers are doing their best to protect them, but despite the current ceasefire in the country, they suffer attacks from rebels and many have been killed. It's not exactly what you'd call job satisfaction.

As we've said before, industrial logging is one of the threats facing gorillas and other endangered species in the Congo rainforest and decisions made by the World Bank and the DRC government could mean the difference between survival and extinction. If you want to find out more about exactly what this means, watch our film and then take action. And then take action again.

About Jamie

I'm a forests campaigner working mainly on Indonesia. My personal mumblings can be found @shrinkydinky.

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