Gorilla Conservation Leadership is Making a Difference in Africa
By: Earl L. "Buddy" Carter
No matter how far you travel, you can never outrun the influence of the great state of Georgia.
I was reminded of this during a recent congressional delegation to Rwanda, where I had the opportunity to see firsthand how an organization headquartered out of Atlanta is bringing Rwanda’s mountain gorillas back from the brink of extinction.
Since 1995, Zoo Atlanta has been home to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (the Fund), the world’s largest and longest-running organization devoted entirely to gorilla conservation.
Zoo Atlanta, which is also home to one of the largest gorilla populations in North America, opened its doors to the Fund with pro-bono office space and has since become a partner in the Fund’s mission, providing not only technical and administrative help but also an invaluable collaboration between both organizations to protect and sustain our world’s wildlife.
Dian Fossey, the Fund’s founder and namesake, began her pioneering work in mountain gorilla conservation and protection in 1967.
What began as a single researcher in a tent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo grew into a massive 400-person field operation, spanning Rwanda and Congo.
When Fossey began her work, Rwanda’s mountain gorilla population had shrunk to only 254.
Today, there are more than 600 in Rwanda and another 400 in neighboring Uganda.
The Fund has found success by deploying a daily protection strategy, which ensures that gorilla families are safe from poachers, snares and other threats to their livelihoods.
Once mountain gorillas are habituated to human interaction, Fossey Fund trackers keep daily tabs on the gorillas’ location, health, appearance and changes in the groups’ populations.
This data has proved critical in scientists’ understanding of gorilla habitats, genetics and behaviors, which improves global conservation efforts.
In 2022, the Fossey Fund’s Ellen DeGeneres campus opened in Rwanda, telling the story of more than 55 years of successful gorilla conservation.
The center is located near Volcanoes National Park and is a world-class research and education center, where the work being done by scientists and Rwandan trackers can be studied by experts, students, researchers and the public alike.
My visit to the area was unforgettable. As we made the uphill climb on our “gorilla trekking” experience, the work and value of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund was evident.
We were up close with the gorillas in their natural habitat and witnessed how the years of work by this great organization has led to the protection and safeguarding of these great animals, one of our closest biological relatives in the animal kingdom.
The benefits of protecting gorilla habitats reach beyond the gorillas themselves.
Gorillas’ diets play an important role in maintaining the health and biological diversity of Africa’s forests.
Without gorillas to clear out debris and spread seeds, these mountains and forests would not have the sunlight or new growth needed to continue to thrive.
In the Congo Basin, the second largest tropical rainforest in the world and home to the Grauer’s gorilla, another subspecies protected by the Fossey Fund, the work being done to conserve the gorillas’ habitat has a global impact.
Not only does the Congo Basin’s moisture provide rainfall globally, but this rainforest is also a critical carbon sink that is helping purify our air and naturally offset some of the worst impacts of climate change.
In Central Africa, Indigenous peoples depend on the health of gorillas’ habitats for food, water, medicine, building materials and more.
If my visit to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Rwanda campus taught me anything, it is that when gorillas are given the resources to thrive, the entire planet reaps the benefits.
As I say often, conservation is conservative, and we must continue to pour federal resources into programs that sustain critical animal populations and habitats.
That’s one reason why I was proud to support the FY24 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Act, which included $9.9 million in international conservation funding and helps to combat wildlife trafficking.
No one loves the environment more than Georgians, and I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to have the same access to nature that I did, whether they’re red snapper fishing off the coast of Georgia, hiking in the Okefenokee or gorilla trekking in Rwanda.
As a native Georgian, I couldn’t help but feel a great deal of pride as I witnessed the great work being done halfway around the world.
The collaboration of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Zoo Atlanta are proof once again of the positive impact the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia have on the world.
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