Tshiaberimu

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 11 2007 | By: admin

WHAT IS TSHIABERIMU

Tshiaberimu is an impressive mountain in the northen sector of Virungas national Park. It is situated near Ishango to the west of lake Edward in the north east of Democratic Republic of Congo.The small bamboo forest that envelops the mountain is home to a diversity of species including antelopes, monkeys, birds, elephants, bufaloes and small isolated group of 21 special gorillas.

The gorilla Organization, a UK based conservation charity inspired by Dian Fossey introduced a project called the Mount Tshiaberimu Conservation Project in 1996.The project uses the CRED(Conservation-Research-Education-Development) approach to protect the unique population of gorillas and its vulnerable habitat.

The Tshiaberimu project takes a holistic approach to gorilla conservation.It supports the ICCN(the Congoleses wildlife authority) to save gorillas within their habitat through patrols,infrastructure and monitoring activities;it works with the local communities on development and education projects; and it is researching the flora and fauna of the mountain. For more details about Tshiaberimu and the work of the Gorilla Organization have a look at www.gorillas.org

since the beginning of the project DRC has been travelling through a crisis period. some protected areas have been badly affected and other areas of the Virungas many gorillas have lost their lives. At Mount Tshiaberimu we suffersd great losses(which I will talk about in depth in alater blog post) and ther were periods where the gorilla conserevation became uncertain. But Tshiaberimu gorillas have so far been saved because of the dynamic work and determination of the Gorilla Organization’s field team, the congolese Wlidlife authority and the valuable donations that we have received.

Tshiaberimu has started blogging with Wildlife Direct this month as we are eager to send our message the outside world.Gradually the Tshiaberimu project is making progress and we hope that this progress continues. The ongoing crisis in North-Kivu could have a devasting effect on the Tshiaberimu gorillas but we believe that this can be prevented by involving local communities in their conservation.

Jean Claude Kyungu

Project Manager

Mount Tshiaberimu Conservation Project