The Virunga Volcanoes Region (also known as the "Virunga Massif" or the "Virungas"), located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Rwanda and Uganda, represent one of the richest biological areas of the world—and a region that, since 1990, has been the scene of some of the world's most tragic human conflicts. A series of wars, still ongoing in 2001, have taken an enormous toll in human lives and triggered massive transboundary migrations. Warfare also has shattered human institutions, leading to widespread deforestation and serious loss of wildlife. Vulnerable, threatened species have been harmed. This case study provides a brief history of the recent conflicts, examines their impact on the region's biodiversity and on the livelihood of those who depend on it, analyzes responses from various international agencies, and suggests alternative solutions that could have diminished the negative effects of these conflicts on the environment.
The Virunga Volcanoes are part of the afro-montane forests of the Albertine Rift, covering southwestern Uganda, western Rwanda and Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This region was once uniformly covered with forest, but demographic pressures in recent centuries have led to intensive deforestation—a process that accelerated to unsustainable levels in the 20th century. The region around the Virungas is one of the remnants of that original vast forestland.
Consider the Virunga Volcanoes as a single uninterrupted forest covering approximately 450 square kilometers and divided among three countries. Map 1 shows this forest region as well as the main towns and roadways. The fragmented topography of the region corresponds to a chain of dormant volcanoes (Weber, Vedder, 1983), and the climate is cool and humid. Altitudes range from around 2300 meters to the 4511 meter-tall Karisimbi Volcano.
During the Pleistocene Era, the Virunga Volcanoes served as an ecological refuge. As a result the region currently harbors exceptional species diversity with high levels of endemism, set in numerous ecosystems that vary according to altitude. During the 20th century, the integrity of the Virunga Volcanoes was altered to varying degrees, depending on the country. For example, the Congolese section of the region has managed to conserve significant portions of all its representative vegetative zones. In contrast, the Rwandan and Ugandan sections have lost practically all of their lower-altitude, Neoboutonia zone, the habitat of choice for a number of animal species, including the mountain gorilla.
Even before the onset of the recent armed conflicts, the entire Great Lakes region surrounding the Virungas shared a set of environmental threats. The worst of these were widespread deforestation, coupled with a general lack of alternative energy sources (IGCP, 1996); feeble environmental legislation; weak institutional mechanisms; inappropriate agricultural practices; the degradation of the environment inside protected areas, posing a threat to biodiversity; and approaches to environmental education and awareness-raising that were inadequate at best.
Recognizing the serious damage done since 1990 to the Virunga Volcanoes first requires an understanding of the network of protected areas that existed at the time the recent wars began and their effectiveness in conserving the floral and faunal resources of the region. This network included three protected areas: Virunga National Park (ViNP) in DRC (originally Zaire), Volcanoes National Park (VNP) in Rwanda, and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (MGNP) in Uganda.
Virunga National Park (ViNP) – Mikeno Sector (DRC)
Virunga National Park (ViNP) encompasses a remarkable variety of ecosystems: high-altitude forests and mountainous habitats, low-altitude forests, lava fields, plains and savannas, lakes and wetlands. These ecosystems harbor exceptional biological diversity. The park was initially created to protect the mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei), but today it also shelters a small population of eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla graueri) and many endemic species, both plant and animal.
NOTE 1. In April 2000, the IUCN (SSC/IUCN primate specialist group) revised the classification of gorillas by proposing definitions of two species: Gorilla gorilla (western gorillas) and Gorilla beringei (eastern gorillas), as well as four subspecies. The eastern lowland gorilla therefore becomes "Gorilla beringei graueri," and the Virunga gorilla becomes "Gorilla beringei beringei." The status of the Bwindi gorilla has not yet been determined. It may be either a separate subspecies or a population of G. b. beringei.
In all, ViNP covers 8,000 square kilometers, and its administrative subdivision includes sectors in the south (Mikeno and Nyamulagira; Rumangabo station), center (Rwindi station), east (Lulimbi station) and north (Mutsora station) (Kalpers, 1996). The Mikeno sector is the portion of ViNP that forms the Congolese component of the dormant volcanoes and is thus contiguous to VNP (Rwanda) and MGNP (Uganda). Mikeno is the largest component of the Virunga Volcanoes, both in terms of biodiversity and of surface area (approximately 250 square kilometers, or more than half the total area of the Virunga Massif). It is the only component to have conserved its lower reaches, which play an important role in the seasonal movements of a number of animal species: buffalos, elephants and, especially, gorillas.
ViNP was already experiencing acute problems prior to 1991 (Kalpers, 1996). One major problem was the institutional weakness of the Zaire Institute for the Conservation of Nature (Institut Zaïrois pour la Conservation de la Nature, IZCN), an official agency with parastatal status charged with the management and conservation of protected areas in Zaire. This institutional weakness, just as evident at IZCN's Kinshasa headquarters as at its field stations, was primarily due to a lack of technical and logistical resources. These shortages were compounded by the socioeconomic and political crisis that had gripped the country for a number of years.
Another problem prior to 1991 was human pressure from populations living in very dense enclaves adjacent to all sectors of the park. People made their overwhelming presence felt through a range of illegal activities: poaching, cutting wood and bamboo, encroaching on park limits (Jobogo, 1999), and overfishing in and around Lake Edward. Well before 1991, various military groups had set up bases within the Volcanoes region and were practicing extortion on the local populace. Ugandan rebels began operating inside Zaire-Congo, launching attacks into Uganda, well before 1991; and by 1991, regular army units permeated the area, hunting their enemies as well as running extortion schemes.
A new set of acute problems appeared in September 1991, when the deteriorating sociopolitical climate drove away most of the biodiversity conservation development projects.
Volcanoes National Park - VNP (Rwanda)
Volcanoes National Park (VNP) covers approximately 160 square kilometers and represents the Rwandan component of the Virunga Volcanoes (Butynski, Kalina, 1998). In relation to the initial size of the forest, between 1958 and 1979 VNP lost approximately 55 percent of its natural habitat, mainly as a result of the demand for land for growing pyrethrum (Harroy, 1981 in Bouché, 1998)(Bouché, 1998). When tourism proved to be a boost to the local economy and a source of hard currency (WWF, IUCN, 1985), the steady shrinking of VNP's surface area stopped.
But this new influx of cash came too late to prevent the loss of an important portion of the Rwandan Virungas. By the time Rwanda discovered ecotourism, the lowest vegetative zone (below 2,500 meters), the Neoboutonia zone that is so important to such animals as gorillas, had already disappeared almost entirely.
VNP is located in the most densely populated region of Rwanda and, like these regions, is confronted with the most extreme demographic pressure in all of Africa. Even before the recent period of turmoil, the country was already grappling with enormous environmental constraints. Viable biodiversity conservation was already jeopardized by a spectrum of natural-resource imbalances (Kanyamibwa, 1998). Mathematical models developed in 1991 predicted significant reductions in the size of protected areas over the next 20 years, as well as notable loss of biodiversity (Scott, Zalla, 1991). . That is, even before the outbreak of war, the future for Rwanda's ecosystems already looked bleak. These models did not take into account the effects of armed conflict on the environment in general, nor on the protected areas in particular. The war simply worsened an already declining situation.
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park - MGNP (Uganda)
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (MGNP), in Uganda, is the smallest component of the Virunga Volcanoes (34 square kilometers) and the part that suffered the most before 1991. Intense human activity in such a small area has turned MGNP into the least biodiverse component of the Virunga Volcanoes. It entirely lacks a Neoboutonia zone (Werikhe, 1991).
Since 1951, MGNP has undergone several modifications in status and size, culminating, in 1991, in its classification as a national park (Butynski, Kalina, 1993; Uganda National Parks, 1996).
Mgahinga Gorilla NP's problems prior to the period of armed conflict were relatively standard—the results of intense human pressure on the natural resources of this protected area. The park ecosystem was heavily stressed by wood and bamboo cutting, by the demand for agricultural land, by poaching (especially such mammals as buffalo and antelope), and by such forest-based practices as apiculture and harvesting of medicinal plants. All this pressure was greatly exacerbated by the way Mgahinga was managed up to 1991: holding dual status as a wildlife reserve and a forest reserve, the park was operated jointly by the Game Department and the Forest Department. The result of this dual status: lax and often confused management, a situation the local populace manipulated to its full advantage (see Appendix 2). Between 1951 and 1991, farmers took over and intensively cultivated approximately nine square kilometers of the Park's lower section—an area that came to be called Zone 2. It was only in 1991, when Mgahinga was classified as a national park, that negotiations began between representatives of local populations and various administrative bodies to recover this portion of the Reserve (Adams, Infield, 1998). In exchange for compensation granted by USAID (via CARE-International's Development Through Conservation project), the local residents agreed to move out of the Park. Zone 2 has since begun to regenerate, but in 2001 still includes many exotic species.
As far back as the 1950s, the growing population adjacent to the park began to develop a keen resentment toward it. The park's neighbors came to regard the Virunga forests as unused land, and felt they should be able to use that land for farming, woodcutting and hunting. Since that time, various initiatives have sought to change the negative attitude of the local people toward the park. One of the strongest factors changing this negative attitude, it must be said, is the infusion of tourist dollars, rapidly expanding the region's economy.
It is interesting to note that the start of armed conflict in the Virunga Volcanoes coincided with the classification of MGNP as a national park and a period when the population nurtured an intense hostility toward the park.