Saving the Virunga Gorillas

The Virunga Mountains of Central Africa is the lush habitat of mountain gorillas also known as Virunga Gorillas. The Virunga Mountains in Africa is found at juncture of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, their population has significantly decreased because of the ill-effects of war, murder and violence. There are only 700 or less living in the volcanic slopes of Africa and the Virunga National Park which is the home of about 200 Virunga gorillas.

The Virunga gorillas are now endangered and the place they consider their territory has slowly been wiped out by the wars that took place between the year 1194 during the Rwandan genocide and the ruthless civil war in Congo. Their habitat and way of life has been strongly threatened because of these human-caused dilemmas including the greediness of hunters who hunt gorillas either for meat consumption or for sale to others in exchange for some cold cash.

There are others who carelessly destroy the Virunga gorillas’ lovely and dense forest, cutting down trees just to create charcoal which ironically is becoming a lucrative business, reaching to nearly $30 million worth of profitable business.

The Virunga National Park is home to most of the last surviving kind of Virunga gorillas and efforts had been made to preserve them. Established in 1925, the Virunga National Park used to be named as Albert National Park, the first National Park in Africa and designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Virunga National Park is is a 7,800 square kilometer park that has been badly damaged by war and constant killings. Because of this, efforts had been made to save the Virunga National Park particularly to provide the Virunga Gorillas a safer environment to live and thrive.

Even when there are rangers and volunteers that guard the park doing their best to monitor and provide locals enough education programs to preserving these endangered Virunga gorrillas, many were still killed along the way due to murder and unrelenting chaos in the area. However, with the best management programs and stringent monitoring, Virunga Gorillas are faring a little bit better now as compared 10 years ago. One can only hope for the best as far as the Virunga Gorillas are concerned. There is always hope despite the uncertainty.

Saving the Virunga Gorillas Video