Community patrols aid Grauer’s gorilla Survival in DR Congo
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local communities are patrolling forests to help protect the critically endangered Grauer’s gorilla.
Roughly 6,800 Grauer’s gorillas, also known as eastern lowland gorillas, remain in the wild, a steep decline from the 17,000 counted in the mid-1990s. Hunting, habitat loss, and armed conflict have driven this decrease, placing the subspecies on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Since 2011, the conservation group Fauna & Flora has partnered with communities to patrol roughly 1,500 square kilometers of forest west of Maiko National Park. These patrols act as a buffer zone, monitoring gorilla groups, removing snares, and tracking other threatened animals like chimpanzees and okapi. The patrols have unexpectedly revealed previously undocumented groups of Grauer’s gorillas in remote, high-altitude forests. The project also provides local households with improved cookstoves to reduce deforestation.
Conservationists believe connecting fragmented habitats is crucial for the long-term recovery of the species, but ongoing insecurity in the region remains a challenge. Continued support for the community patrols offers a path towards increasing the gorilla population.
