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LATEST NEWS...
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| According to the World Wildlife
Fund for Nature (WWF), only 887 hippos remain in the Virunga National Park
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - down from 1,307 in 2003 and around
29,000 just 30 years ago.
The park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a 400 mile long boundary, continues to be occupied by soldiers and armed groups in the park, the WWF said. Following a five-year war in this central African country, the postwar transitional government has had little success in calming the east, where killings, looting and rapes continue almost unabated. "Soldiers are left in the park without being fed nor paid and that's a recipe for disaster," said Marc Languy, who heads WWF's regional program. |
The disappearance of hippos also triggers
serious secondary effects for the population, the WWF said. Because hippo
dung provides vital nutrients for the fish in Lake Edward, its absence has
led to a rapid decline of the lake's fish stocks and has affected the thousands
of fishermen living around Lake Edward, inside the national park.
"If the government does not take the hippo situation in Virunga seriously, this will not only lead to an environmental disaster, but also to an economic crisis for local communities," said Languy. Created in 1930, Virunga Park stretches 8,000 sq km along DRC's border with Rwanda and Uganda. The aerial survey was carried out by the Congolese Institute for Conservation of Nature, the European Union and WWF. For more information, see: Hippo Population in DRC Decimated
Sources: Various including ABC News
(online) and USA Today (online) 12 September 2005; enn.com and BBC (online)
13 September 2005 |
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