We want to invite you to come on a conservation journey with us.
In the heart of the Congo Basin, a transformative conservation project is taking shape. The Usala Conservation Corridor, a project initiated by local communities and supported by GRACE, aims to create a safe haven for Grauer’s gorillas and other endangered species. But this project is not just about wildlife conservation. It’s about human rights, cultural heritage, and creating a sustainable future for those who call this region home.
This many-layered project is a thrilling combination of an Indiana Jones adventure story – with teams trekking days through dense rainforest and crossing hundreds of rivers on floating logs and unstable bridges – and a serious scientific expedition dedicated to uncovering the biological mysteries of a new land using the most sophisticated and advanced tools.
Through a series of blog posts, we will bring you behind the scenes so you can see everything that goes into protecting a vast area of intact rainforest in the Congo Basin while securing land rights and other benefits for local communities.
This project is the Usala Conservation Corridor.
What is the Usala Conservation Corridor?
The Usala Conservation Corridor is nothing short of a lifeline for Grauer’s gorillas and a host of other threatened and endangered species in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Grauer’s gorillas, the largest of the great apes, are under constant threat from habitat loss, illegal hunting, and human conflict. These threats have put Grauer’s gorillas on the critically endangered list, with a precipitous decline in their population in the last 20 years from nearly 17,000 in 1995 to only 6,800 today. They are only found in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the grim reality is that the existence of these majestic animals is hanging by a thread.
Like the gorillas, the communities living in the Congo Basin are vulnerable. Their rights to ancestral land and cultural practises are not protected by law, and decades of insecurity in the region is causing human migration on a staggering scale. However, it’s these very communities that hold the keys to successful conservation. Their knowledge, connection to the land, and commitment to protecting it are essential in the fight against biodiversity loss.
If you look at the map to the right, you will see that the 284,000-acre corridor connects the community-managed Tayna Nature Reserve to Maiko National Park. Each of these is a biodiversity hotspot that provides important habitat for wild populations of endemic species like critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas and endangered okapis, as well as other endangered species including chimpanzees, pangolins, forest elephants, African gray parrots, and red colobus monkeys.
Also on the map, you can see a yellow wave advancing towards Tayna Nature Reserve from the east and the north. This yellow wave represents deforestation and human development, and Tayna stands as a bulwark against that advance. If the forests around Tayna are cleared, the reserve will quickly become a fragmented biological island.
We simply can’t allow that to happen.
Why are wildlife corridors important for Grauer’s gorillas?
As humans, we take connectivity for granted. According to the CIA World Factbook, there are nearly 25 million miles of roads in the world and an estimated 801,000 miles of railroads. There are also countless footpaths, shipping lanes, and, for many of us, the ability to hop on a plane and travel anywhere in the world in a matter of hours.
For species like the critically endangered Grauer’s gorilla, it’s not so simple. They need to be able to move to find food, mix genes with suitable mates, adapt to a changing climate, and establish new home ranges. The only way they can do that is by moving through intact forest, and leaving its protection is not an option.
Protecting gorillas means protecting rainforests, and protecting rainforests means protecting gorillas.
What are the steps on this conservation journey?
This initiative wasn’t born in a boardroom or a scientific laboratory. It was born from the vision of a traditional leader, Mwami (King) Eric Mwaka Eliba. For a decade, Mwami Eric had been pushing for the protection of the Usala Forest, an area encompassing over 284,000 acres. He knew that the protection of this forest was crucial for the survival of the gorillas and the well-being of his people.
He approached the Union of Associations for Conservation of Gorillas and for Development in eastern DRC (UGADEC) for assistance, who then approached GRACE. We were able to secure generous funding from the Rainforest Trust, along with other individual and foundation donors, and we are now working with UGADEC and the Reserve des Gorilles des Usala (RGU) to ensure the establishment and preservation of the Usala Conservation Corridor. The end goal: creating a safe haven for the Grauer’s gorillas while upholding the rights of the local communities.
There are many more steps to take to establish this conservation corridor. Over the coming months, be on the lookout for new blog posts that will answer questions like these:
Why is it critical to protect the forests of the Congo Basin?
What legal structure are we using for the corridor?
How are we respecting the rights of communities? (Spoiler alert: it’s through a process called Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC))
How do you map boundary lines in a tangled jungle with no roads?
How will we survey the epic biodiversity we expect to find in this corridor?
Once these Local Community Forest Concessions are created, how will they be maintained?
This initiative is a testament to what can be achieved when human rights and biodiversity conservation converge, and this series of posts will be a rare opportunity to get an insider’s view into how conservation is done.