DRC: In the Salonga Park, camera traps highlight wildlife scenes

The Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, covering an area of 33,350 km², is a real wildlife reservoir in the African continent. The rich biodiversity of the park includes forest elephants, bonobos, bongos, giant pangolins, indigenous Congo peacocks, leopards, hippopotamus and many other species.

The large size of the park and apparent inaccessibility have always made it difficult to protect the rich biodiversity and wildlife populations which have been severely affected over the last two decades. The human population needs in the immediate vicinity and high demand for food from urban centers as far as Kinshasa, nurtured bush meat hunting and fishing in the Salonga Park at very critical levels. On the other hand, elephant poaching has become a highly lucrative activity in recent years, fueled by the upsurge in ivory prices on international markets.

To tackle these illegal activities and preserve this natural wealth of the DRC, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) signed a co-management partnership with WWF-DRC, thus contributing to the balance of ecosystems in the Congo Basin. Camera traps have been installed and thanks to this partnership, wildlife is quietly regaining its rights in the park.

Since then, wildlife scenes in the park are captured over weeks and months by these camera traps revealing the wildlife secrets of the largest forest park in Africa and the second largest in the World. We see pictures and footages of forest elephants, bonobos, bongos and other species.

Seeing all this wildlife- with ongoing inventory- and rich biodiversity  caught in camera traps, remains a source of hope for the conservation and preservation of one of the world's leading biodiversity reservoirs.
Despite the immensity of the park, anti-poaching patrols are now being carried out sustainably and park rangers are positioned in the park thanks to the ICCN- WWF partnership to prevent poaching and other illegal activities.

These measures yield fruit as images of wild animals are increasingly common in the park.
It should be recalled that since 1999 the Salonga National Park has been listed as a World Heritage Site in danger and the objective is to remove it from this list by 2021.
 
For more information, contact:
Dandy Yela, WWF-DRC Communication Manager, dyela@wwfdrc.org
Christian Mpassi, Communication Officer, cmpassi@wwfdrc.org