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I have been working in conservation since 1993 and started with
the conservation of gorillas in Eastern DRC. I went to Kahuzi-
Biega in 1993 to do the Eastern Lowland Gorilla Survey, and it
was at that time that I got in touch with gorillas, which I ended
up finding among the best excuses to study, because they are so
powerful, but at the same time they are so peaceful. Since then I
have been working on gorillas across their range, from DRC all
the way to Gabon and the species is among the charismatic spe-
cies for conservation. The reason is that – besides the fact that they
are among our sisters in their genetic lineage – they are a species
that does play a great role in their environment, because they do
disperse seeds and they do maintain their environment. Back in
1993, when we worked with gorillas, we found that there were at
least 14,000 gorillas in Kahuzi-Biega and adjacent forest, but
then came the disaster, so now we don’t even know how many are
left in the wild. We know that they have been declining because
of the war in the Eastern DRC. So my hope is that the UN Year
of the Gorilla will serve as a beginning of … an option for people
to try to save those gorillas that I have worked on back in 1993.
Even though they have decreased, I think there is still hope. If
we can put a lot of effort, if we put a little bit of will among the
international community I think gorillas can recover.
Dr. Inogwabini Bila Isia
Congolese conservationist, WWF DRC
INTERVIEW
“
I think there is still hope
”