The Democratic Republic of Congo is the most biologically diverse country in Africa with the largest portion of the continent’s tropical forests and top of the list for Africa in virtually every group of organisms except plants (second to South Africa). Flowing through this immense forest is the second largest river system on earth, the mighty Congo.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also has striking cultural diversity with some 250-300 different languages spoken. One of the most interesting people of this country, the Mbuti Pygmies live in the forests of northeast Congo and are among the few true forest people. They are the smallest people on earth with men averaging 4’8″ and women 4′ 6″.
In 1888, when he led the first expedition across the forests of the northern Congo, Henry Morton Stanley surmised that this region “held the greatest marvels of Africa”. He was right. The Congo (DRC) has a number of globally important flagship species, the best known being the bonobo or pygmy chimpanzee, the eastern lowland gorilla, the Congo peafowl, the northern white rhino, and the okapi, all of them endemic (found only in the DRC) and of great international significance.
OKAPI ( pic copyright WOCC)
The okapi or forest giraffe is the most unique of all the flagship species and is the national symbol of protected areas of the DRC. Not known to science until 1901, when then Governor of Uganda Sir Henry Johnston came across a skin while traveling in the central Congo, the okapi was named Okapia johnstoni in his honor. The okapi’s unusual coloration helps to break up the shape of the animal in the dense rainforests where the canopy breaks up the sunlight into shifting patterns barely penetrating to the forest floor.
Highlighting the biologically and culturally important okapi as a flagship, Gilman International Conservation (GIC) works to conserve the home of the okapi, the rich Ituri forest (175,000 km2) in the heart of Africa. Rallying support to protect okapi habitat, in turn, provides a secure environment for millions of rainforest species of plants and animals. To save okapi an intact forest ecosystem must be protected. By doing this, there is a chance of preserving a part of the greatest biological diversity on the African continent.
Since 1987, Gilman International Conservation has partnered with the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) to help insure the survival of the okapi and its home, the Ituri Forest in northeastern Congo. The Okapi Wildlife Reserve was gazetted in 1992, encompassing 13,700 square kilometers to protect a significant population of the endemic okapi. Listed as a World Heritage Site in 1996, the Reserve represents a global effort to preserve rare plant and animal life and a significant human culture.
The primary objective of the Okapi Conservation Project is to develop an economic and educational base on which a functioning okapi reserve can operate. A management plan is in place to guide development and management of the Reserve. Gilman International Conservation is responsible for supporting the mandates of the management plan and is actively doing so with additional financial assistance from partners in the US, Europe and Japan.
The Okapi Conservation Project is a model example of what can be achieved when local people and local government, in collaboration with a non-governmental organization, come together at every level, creating a strong, sustainable base for the future of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, its forest, its wildlife, and its peoples.
