The Okapi Wildlife Reserve, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to one-sixth of the remaining wild okapi in the world. It protects many other wildlife species as well as one-fifth of the Ituri forest. But despite its status, the reserve is under threat from human activities.
Mining, deforestation (森林破坏), and illegal hunting are all threatening the reserve, and criminals have murdered several people, including forest guards, since 2012. Forest loss is expanding rapidly. In 2020, the most deforestation in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve since records began in 2002 was recorded via satellite data. Since 2002, the area has lost about 7% of its total forest cover. Most recently, satellite data shows deforestation along the Ituri River in late 2021, likely from illegal gold mining.
"Miners are actually eating the reserve out of its wildlife by hunting animals for food. There is almost no wildlife left around the mine itself, and wildlife numbers are greatly reduced around mining towns," said John Lukas, co-founder of the Okapi Conservation Project.
Protecting the reserve is important for the endangered okapi and other wildlife that call the region home, but preserving the area's forests is of particular significance in dealing with climate change.
"The forests of Congo, more than forests in the Amazon and in Asia, store carbon even in times of drought and rising temperatures," explained Lukas. "Preserving the forests not only provides habitats for okapi, elephants and chimpanzees but gives humans time to adjust our source of energy to be more sustainable and carbon neutral (碳中和). Hopefully the Western world will financially support the countries of the Congo basin to value their forests as sources of life and not just a kind of goods to be sold."
