World Wildlife Fund - Annual Report 2007 - (Page 18)

This would wreak havoc on one of the most important conservation areas in the Congo Basin. WWF is working with the Chinese company and the government of Gabon, as well as other mining interests in the region, to develop high standards that will mitigate the environmental and social impacts of such development schemes. Many of the issues that face conservation are human issues. Across much of Central Africa, civil society has broken down, agriculture has fallen apart, infrastructure has deteriorated, access to markets and health care simply doesn’t exist, and many people have become refugees because of political conflict or economic and environmental stresses. “For conservation to work in these areas we have to rebuild civil society,” says Richard Carroll, managing director of our Congo Basin work. “That means rebuilding the countries’ social, economic and political structures from the grassroots up. In this region, we’re increasingly putting conservation at the nexus of this effort, as we did in Namibia. We are empowering local people to manage their natural resources and helping them to build out from that, both environmentally and economically.” The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the models of potential success: the country has emerged from years of conflict and, for the first time has an elected president. But even during times of conflict the people and government of the DRC held a strong commitment to maintaining their natural resources. They knew that their mountain gorillas were a large foreign income earner, through ecotourism. Their economic interest in keeping the species intact has been an effective conservation motivator, and until recently poaching incidents had become rare. But tragically, nine gorillas were found killed this year. The reasons are still a mystery, but the call for more vigilance is clear. We have sent financial support to the Congolese park service so they can increase patrolling of the area. With partners and donors, we are also looking at longer-term solutions such as greater involvement of local communities. In the swamp forests of the DRC’s Lac Tumba, WWF teams have discovered a new population of bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees. Their habitat in gallery forest and savanna allows them to exploit the year-round fruit supplies and live in larger group size and higher population density than bonobos living in dense forests. This population of bonobos has been ■ WWF negotiated an agreement with the Baka pygmies of Minkebe Forest in which they work as artisanal gold miners in an economic alternative to poaching elephants for ivory. 18 worldwildlife.org http://worldwildlife.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Wildlife Fund - Annual Report 2007

WWF - Annual Report 2007 Contents The Landscapes of People's Lives The President’s Report Africa, Land of the Soul Building Prosperity from Africa’s Natural Wealth A Namibian Odyssey Natural Capital: Putting a Price on Nature Investing in Fish and Fishermen Wildlife in the Balance Africans on the Move WWF Results Across the Globe A Different Kind of Fieldwork A River Dammed Pooling Efforts in the World’s Aquarium More Than Just the Daily Catch All Along the Equator A Partnership for Freshwater Funding and Financial Overview Statement of Activities Ways to Give Staff National Council Board of Directors

World Wildlife Fund - Annual Report 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.