World’s rarest gorilla gets its own forest reserve
World’s rarest gorilla gets its own forest reserve
mongabay.com
April 18, 2008
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The government of Cameroon has established the first sanctuary exclusively for the world’s rarest type of ape: the Cross River gorilla, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which helped support the project.
The Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary — created by Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni’s decree — covers 19.5 sq km in a mountainous region of Cameroon. WCS estimates the area is home to 20 of the world’s remaining 300 Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli).
The Bronx Zoo-based group says that the gorillas of Kagwene have been protected from the poaching that otherwise affects apes in the region by the local belief that gorillas are people. The consumption of gorilla meat is therefore taboo.
Courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society |
Outside of Kagwene, the Cross River gorilla has been greatly affected by habitat loss and fragmentation due to logging, forest conversion for agriculture and grazing lands, and road construction.
“The creation of this sanctuary is the fruit of many years of work in helping to protect the world’s rarest gorilla subspecies,” said Dr. Roger Fotso, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Cameroon Program.
“Hopefully, this and other sanctuaries like it will give us time to protect and learn more about the world’s rarest great ape,” added Dr. James Deutsch, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa Program.
WCS worked with the Cameroon Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and used funding from the United States Fish & Wildlife Service to create Kagwene.
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