Okapi Wildlife Reserve

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve (French réserve de faune à okapis ) is a UNESCO - World Heritage Site in the Ituri Rainforest in the north- east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the borders with Sudan and Uganda. Its size is about 13,700 km ², about a fifth of the total area of the forest and is mostly in the valley of the Congo River.

As the name suggests, the area is home to many of the okapi. Their number was estimated in 1996 to 3900-6350, with a total population of about 10,000-20,000.

There is at Epulu River and the Epulu Conservation and Research Center located. This goes back to a foundation of the American anthropologist Patrick Putnam in 1928 as a fishing station for wild okapi for zoos in America and Europe.

Today, the approach is somewhat different: the okapi are caught and bred, only their offspring will be shipped to zoos that has such a lot higher chance of survival than wild-caught. However, only very few are exported - just as much as necessary to maintain the genetic diversity of zoo populations. The center also provides important research and conservation work.

The reserve is also home to many other interesting or endangered animals, such as the forest elephant and diurnal species of at least 13 anthropoid primates. Nomadic Mbuti Pygmies and Bantu- speaking farmers living in the reserve.

The reserve since 1997 is already on the red list of endangered world heritage. The main threats are deforestation caused by slash and burn for agriculture as well as by commercial hunting of wild game meat for sale. The mining of gold and coltan are also problematic.

In the places along a road leading through the reserve, there are many years a creeping immigration from the densely populated eastern parts of the country. That is why now a program has been started, with which this trend is to be controlled. The focus is to improve the income is on existing agricultural land.

Due to the political and economic conditions in the Congo there is no adequate funding for the facilities of the reserve, the hoped-for ecotourism and a rethinking of the population are still far away.