AFRICA鈥檚 first national park, on the borders between Zaire and Rwanda, is being destroyed by Rwandan refugees and Hutu soldiers from camps around the town of Goma in eastern Zaire. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) reported last week that some 300 square kilometres of Virunga National Park have been 鈥減artly or completely deforested鈥� in the past six months by refugees seeking food to eat and wood to burn (see Map)
鈥淲ith 850 000 refugees living in or next to the park, the situation is desperate. The destruction is spreading,鈥� says the report, which has been circulated for a meeting of UNESCO鈥檚 World Heritage Committee next week. At the meeting, the IUCN will ask UNESCO to put the park on a 鈥渄anger list鈥� of world heritage sites at imminent risk of destruction. Its report says that 鈥渕ajor international investment鈥� is necessary to protect the park.
According to Jim Thorsell, senior adviser on natural heritage at the IUCN and author of the report, 90 per cent of the refugees around Goma are camped within walking distance of the park, and up to 40 000 people enter the park every day. 鈥淏etween 410 and 770 tonnes of forest products are taken out of the park daily.鈥�
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He criticised relief agencies, including the Red Cross, M茅decins Sans Fronti猫res and Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) for establishing a 鈥渄efecation zone鈥� and a dump for medical wastes inside the park. 鈥淭he risk of disease transmission to wildlife is serious.鈥�
Soldiers are cutting much of the wood. The Mugunga camp, which is inside the park, 鈥渋s mostly occupied by Rwandan military personnel [Hutu militias], who sell wood and wildlife products taken from within the park鈥�. In addition, according to Thorsell鈥檚 report, 鈥淶airean army trucks are regularly seen bringing wood out of the park to Goma for sale to refugees and the relief organisations.鈥�
The Virunga National Park is 鈥渙ne of the most iinportant in Africa for biodiversity,鈥� says Thorsell. Virunga was the first national park in Africa. It was established by the Belgian colonial authorities as the Albert National Park in 1925, after several decades as a hunting reserve. But in the 1960s, much of its big game was killed by rebels, government soldiers and poachers during the civil war in the Congo.
In 1979, UNESCO nonetheless declared Virunga as Africa鈥檚 first national park world heritage site, its premier designation of cultural and ecological places worthy of protection. Now it is likely to become the fifth ecological site on UNESCO鈥檚 Heritage in Danger list. The others are the Air and T茅n茅r茅 desert nature reserve in Niger, recently taken over by Tuareg guerrillas; the Manas tiger sanctuary on the border between India and Bhutan, where Assam separatists are active; the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, caught up in the conflict in former Yugoslavia; and the Everglades wetland in Florida, threatened by development of water resources.
The Virunga park鈥檚 current problems predate the refugee crisis, however. Political breakdown in Zaire 鈥� a country the size of the European Union, but with a population smaller than England鈥檚, has left the park without funds and its rangers without salaries for more than a year. A research station at Lulimbi is in 鈥渢otal disrepair and has ceased to function鈥�, says Thorsell.
Visits by tourists have ceased, and the northern part of the park has been overrun by Zairean soldiers. Between 1989 and 1994, the population of hippopotamuses in the park halved to 11 000 animals, mainly because of poaching. A patrol paid for by UNESCO last year found an abandoned poachers鈥� camp with the remains of 155 hippos 鈥渁nd a mound of buffalo carcasses too numerous to count鈥�.
The IUCN complained in October 1993 that the 20 000 inhabitants of two large villages within the park were chopping down trees, hunting animals and over-exploiting the fish stocks of Lake Idi Amin. The World Wide Fund for Nature has asked the World Bank to fund a $2-million project to revive the park.
Next week, the IUCN will ask UNESCO鈥檚 World Heritage Committee to write to the UN High Commission for Refugees, which is in charge of the Goma relief camps, requesting it 鈥渢o promote a stronger attempt in future to adhere to its own [environmental] guidelines鈥�. These state that 鈥渢he utmost care should be taken to avoid the establishment of refugee sites in or near national parks 鈥︹��
The UNHCR reacted angrily last week to the suggestion that it could have prevented the crisis at Virunga park. Thousands of people crossed the border to Goma within a few days, says Fernando de Mundo of the UNHCR. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have any alternative but to set up the camps. It was a life and death situation.鈥�
Thorsell concedes that 鈥渢hey couldn鈥檛 have done much different鈥�. The park provided spare land with water and wood in one of the most densely populated regions in Africa. But he says it was not necessary for the relief agencies to establish a medical dump inside the park.
Now that the camps are there, he says, the UNHCR and other relief agencies 鈥渓ack the capacity to move the camps elsewhere鈥�. Nor is there any likelihood of the refugees going home in the near future. But he says that 鈥渇or the future there should be contingency plans to prevent future refugee crises in other places turning into environmental crises as well. These kinds of things are going to happen again in Africa.鈥�