The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) has been working in the Virunga-Bwindi region in Central Africa since 1991. The program is a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). IGCP’s mission is the conservation of mountain gorillas and regional afromontane forests in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo, or DRC), and Uganda. These forests are divided into two forest blocks forming separate ecological units. The forest blocks span the border of Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda and are separated into four national parks. (See Annex B for maps.)
Prior to the arrival of IGCP, the four parks were managed as separate entities by the national protected area authorities. Yet the Virunga ecological unit spans the borders of the three countries, and the threats to the ecosystem come from all sides of the border. The second ecological unit, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, lies along Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, and as in the Virungas, the threats to the Bwindi forest come from both sides of the border. High human population density, human encroachment, poaching, deforestation and civil unrest all threaten the forest habitats. IGCP believes that only by addressing these threats from all sides can the habitat be effectively protected.
The benefits of establishing a regional framework for collaboration and transboundary natural resource management can be demonstrated by the fact that most of the threats to the natural resources are from people living all around the shared ecosystems. Threats from one side will impact the entire ecosystem. The potential and real benefits of the forest ecosystems, from an ecological, cultural as well as economic perspective, are also similar on all sides of the border. The incentive, therefore, to protect the ecosystem, and to benefit from its various functions, is comparable within the three countries. The costs of effective management and protection are also comparable.
Regional management of the two forest blocks as effective units can be based on a variety of strategies, ranging along a continuum between non-conflicting management approaches to full collaborative management. The International Gorilla Conservation Programme has worked with the national protected area authorities toward regional conservation of the shared ecosystem using a number of different strategies along that continuum. The choice of strategies has been based on the needs, opportunities and constraints in the region. The emphasis has been on effective conservation at the field level, building gradually toward the formalization and institutionalization of these approaches into formal mechanisms and agreements at political levels.