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Conservation of the Mountain Gorilla and its Habitat in Rwanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Alexander H. Harcourt
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Biology, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3DX, England; Project Coordinator, Fauna Preservation Society, Mountain Gorilla Project
Kai Curry-Lindahl
Affiliation:
Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Box 16121, S-103 23 Stockholm 16, Sweden; Vice-President, Fauna Preservation Society.

Extract

Over the last twenty years, the population of Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) in the Virunga Volcanoes region of Rwanda, Uganda, and Zaire, has halved from an estimated 400–500 to fewer than 250. The major cause of this decline is loss of habitat through large-scale appropriation of National Park land in Rwanda for agriculture, and through encroachment by local people and their cattle which causes extensive damage to vegetation within the protected area.

Type
Main Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1979

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