IUCN & UNESCO sends mission to investigate gorilla shootings in Congo(DRC)

IUCN The World Conservation Union and UNESCO are sending a mission to investigate shooting of four critically endangered Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park, in Democratic Republic of Congo, last week. The joint IUCN and UNESCO mission departed on August 11. The team will spend 10 days in Congo and will have meetings with Government representatives in Kinshasa, the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the park’s guards and political and military leaders. The mission will suggest measures to protect the animals and improve the conservation of the national park, which has been on the list of World Heritage sites in danger since 1994. Virunga National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979 for its aesthetic and geological importance and for being a biodiversity hotspot. It was added to the danger list 15 years later amid concerns of poaching, deforestation and the effects of armed militia.