Due to escalating violence, Congolese rangers have been run out of the country's Virunga National Park, threatening the safety of some 200 mountain gorillas that live there. "There are documented cases of the gorillas getting caught in the crossfire and getting killed," says a park spokesperson. "It's the chaos of war and they are right in the middle of it." Only about 700 mountain gorillas remain in the wild.

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A new gorilla census in the Republic of the Congo has found about 125,000 more western lowland gorillas than expected living in the northern part of the Montana-sized country, effectively doubling the known population of the species. Western lowland gorillas are one of four gorilla subspecies, all of which are in danger of extinction. "These figures show that northern Republic of Congo contains the mother lode of gorillas," said Steven Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society. However, very real threats to the gorillas remain, including hunting, disease, and habitat loss. "Far from being safe, the gorillas are still under threat from Ebola and hunting for bush meat. We must not become complacent about this. Ebola can wipe out thousands in a short period of time," said Emma Stokes of the Wildlife Conservation Society. A separate study released this week by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that almost half of the world's 634 kinds of primates are in danger of extinction due to deforestation and hunting.

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A 12-day United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ended Friday with just a wee bit of progress toward salvaging the world's rapidly disappearing flora and fauna. Perhaps most encouraging: The 191 countries present agreed to ban the controversial practice of seeding the ocean with nutrients to encourage growth of carbon-sucking algae. In addition, Germany, which hosted the conference, agreed to spend $785 million on forest preservation by 2013 and an equal sum annually after that. Indonesia said it will create a 77,000-square-mile marine protected area, the largest in the world; Bosnia, Malaysia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo also agreed to create nature preserves. But those relatively small steps forward aren't nearly enough, say critics, pointing out that three species go extinct every hour. "Of course we achieved less than we should have given the dimension of the problems," admits German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. "Achieving unanimity among 191 states is difficult."

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Some of the world's largest banks and construction firms gathered with seven African governments Monday to chat about plans for an $80 billion hydroelectric dam on the Congo River. The proposed Grand Inga dam could generate twice the electricity of China's controversial Three Gorges Dam and greatly increase the amount of cheap and clean power currently available in Africa, according to supporters. "It is the greatest sustainable development project, offering Africa a unique chance for interdependence and prosperity," says Gerald Doucet of the World Energy Council. But critics say electricity generated by the dam would be exported to urban centers as far away as Europe and Israel, while rural, poor areas in the Congo and surrounding countries see none of the benefit. Backers of the dam say they'll be mindful of the social and environmental implications of the project. If Grand Inga gets the green light, it could be operating by 2022.

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A swath of Congo rainforest larger than the state of Massachusetts will be designated as a nature reserve in a collaborative effort between American and Congolese environmental groups and agencies. Advocates hope the reserve will be a significant step toward protecting the endangered bonobo, one of humans' closest ape relations. Bonobos, which live only in the Congo, are often targeted by poachers. They are also the only primates other than humans known to have sex not just for procreation, but for pleasure. And if that's not worth preserving, we don't know what is.

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The World Bank's encouragement of industrial forestry as a means of economic recovery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is counter to the organization's legal commitment to protecting the environment, according to a new report. An independent inspection panel charges that the bank overestimated possible export revenue from forestry, leading to a logging scramble "at the expense of pursuing sustainable uses of forests, the potential for community forests, and for conservation." The report also accuses the bank of endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies living in the forest, basically by ignoring their existence. Says one Pygmy leader, "Roads are going ever deeper into the forests, opening it up. We are increasingly deprived of our foods and drugs. We have never seen anything from the bank except promises."

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Six species discovered in Congo, four endangered gorillas shot

A research expedition to a remote forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo found six new animal species -- a bat, a rat, two shrews, and two frogs -- and may have found new plant species as well. The trip, which ran from January to March and was led by the Wildlife Conservation Society, represented the first scientific access to the isolated, violence-prone area since 1960. "If we can find six new species in such a short period, it makes you wonder what else is out there," said Andrew Plumptre of WCS. Dreamy! But hold on to your feel-good hat: the country is also struggling with the aftermath of the bewildering late-July slaughter of four endangered mountain gorillas. Officials from the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization will venture to Virunga National Park next week to investigate and to encourage more protection. "If we can't stop these attacks," said Russell A. Mittermeier, head of Conservation International, "our closest living relatives will disappear from the planet."

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Rebels kill ranger in Congolese national park, threaten officials and gorillas

Rebels attacked three ranger posts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park this weekend, killing one wildlife officer, wounding three more, and taking 13 hostages. While the human prisoners were released, the Mai Mai rebels still have hostages of a sort: they have made it clear that they'll start killing endangered mountain gorillas if rangers try to retaliate. About half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas live in the 2-million-acre Virunga, which is Africa's oldest park and a United Nations World Heritage site. It has been a long-standing hotspot for conflicts between locals who live in the park illegally and conservationists; more than 100 rangers have been killed in recent years trying to protect wildlife there. The Mai Mai are only one of several groups who have used violence to vie for power and resources in the area. "It's sometimes quite difficult to see what really triggered the violence," says one ape advocate. "The situation is very fragile."

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World Bank has been OKing illegal logging in the Congo, says Greenpeace study

You've probably developed an immunity to scandal and outrage, but we'll keep plying you with it anyway: a two-year study by Greenpeace International has found that in the past three years, Congolese village chiefs have handed over vast expanses of the world's second-largest rainforest to European and U.S. logging companies in what some might call, um, uneven exchanges. African teak can bring in almost $8,000 per tree; in exchange for huge tracts of forest, tribes were offered simple buildings costing perhaps $20,000 -- which sometimes didn't materialize -- while some communities were paid only in sugar, salt, tools, and beer. While the loggers, which have "rights" to the forest for 25 years, aren't in Greenpeace's good graces, the report focuses criticism on the World Bank, which encourages such "social responsibility" agreements -- and is not enforcing its own logging moratorium. "If the trees go, then we will have nothing," says one local. "We will be consigned to poverty forever." Social responsibility ain't what it used to be.

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Polar bear and hippo added to list of at-risk species

Animals and plants considered threatened with extinction now number 16,119, including 20 percent of assessed shark and ray species, the polar bear, and the common (no-longer-happy) hippopotamus. So says the latest Red List of Threatened Species, produced after two years of study by the World Conservation Union (confusingly acronymed IUCN). Unregulated global fishing is largely responsible for the shark decline; climate change in the Arctic may reduce polar bear numbers by over 30 percent in the next 45 years; and rampant hunting in the Democratic Republic of Congo has led to a 95 percent decline in hippos in the country since 1994. The Red List includes one in three amphibians, one in four coniferous trees, one in eight birds, and one in four mammals (!). Oh, and 16,119 is a "massive underestimate of the true problem," according to an IUCN researcher. The main culprits: human activity and global warming. Sigh.

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Corneille Ewango.

Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize.

In the vast Democratic Republic of the Congo, dense equatorial rainforests line the sprawling basin of the Congo River. Corneille E.N. Ewango, a Congolese botanist, has a particular appreciation for these lush stands, which represent about half of the continent's tropical forests. To him, they are a scientific puzzle, a refuge for plants, wildlife, and people -- and the place he considers home.

As the director of the botany program for the 3 million-acre Okapi Faunal Reserve, Ewango risked his life to protect these forests and their people. During his country's civil war, which lasted from 1996 to 2002, Ewango saw the reserve threatened by mining, poaching, and widespread violence, but he refused to leave the area. He hid the reserve's herbarium and other data, and even hid himself in the forest for three months.

After the war ended, Ewango received a scholarship to study tropical botany at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. When he finishes his master's degree later this year, he plans to return to his work in the Congolese forests.

Corneille Ewango, 41, was awarded one of six 2005 Goldman Environmental Prizes at a ceremony in San Francisco on April 18. He spoke to Grist from San Francisco.

What first drew you to the natural world?

Congo, my country, has the largest forest in Africa, maybe the second-largest in the world. I was born in a forest area, and when I was growing up I assisted my uncle, who was a poacher. That was good, because it grew my passion for protecting the forest and plants. When I went to university, I decided that I would like to do something related to plant ecology, because I felt that plants were so beautiful. When I am studying plants, I feel like I am talking with some kind of supernatural life, like I am talking with someone who does not speak.

Would you tell me about the Okapi Faunal Reserve -- what are its land, people, and wildlife like?

It's in the northeastern Congo, and it protects the okapi, a forest giraffe found only in the north Congo. Its plants and animals are very diverse -- so far we have identified about 700 species of plants, 400 species of trees and shrubs, and 300 species of lianas [forest vines]. There are 13 species of primates, and many different species of other large mammals, including antelopes. Before the war, it was estimated that there were 4,000 okapis in the forest and 4,500 forest elephants -- we have a census going on right now to find out how many remain.

Ewango helped protect the endangered okapi, or forest giraffe.

Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize.

The reserve is also the homeland of Pygmies [Mbuti]. They are the first people who inhabited the forest, and their lives are closely related to it -- they get everything important to their lives from the forest. I grew up in the western part of the country, and when I came to the reserve, in the east, I did not speak the dialect. I learned the language of the area, and now I can interact with the people. I feel like I am home.

After civil war broke out, you stayed at the okapi reserve while most of the rest of the senior staff fled. Why did you decide to stay?

When the war blew up, my colleagues were leaving the area, but I said, my history is here. I felt like leaving would mean leaving everything, leaving my life and my work -- the work I was doing was related to my life. So I said, I think I will stay and take care of the field team, and see what is going to happen with the herbarium. If I had gone somewhere, I wouldn't have gone to my homeland -- my homeland is here. I prefer to die here, prefer that people know what I died for.

I understand you directly confronted military commanders in an effort to stop poaching of primates and elephants. What gave you the courage to take such a risk?

During the civil war, Ewango once hid out at the foot of this bridge.

Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize.

I kindly explained that they were destroying everything, and told them that having a protected area was going to increase their reputation outside [the country]. Sometimes we became friends, but sometimes they continued their activities. What I could not understand was that they killed an elephant in the village, very close to the zoo. I was very angry -- I said you are joking, what kind of liberation or democracy are you fighting for if you are without law, if you are destroying everything? I said, it's like you are killing your son and eating him, like you are not normal. They saw that I was strongly committed, and that I was serious.

What does the reserve look like today?

During that time [of the civil war], people have been doing whatever they want -- there were mining camps everywhere, and problems controlling the reserve. It was like there were no laws. Now, it's a bit more OK, because our team in the field has started working again. We are also developing a more ecological system of agriculture with the local people and communities.

How can people in industrialized countries help in the protection of places like the okapi reserve?

We have many problems as a country emerging from 10 years of war -- the realization of our infrastructure, our socioeconomics. We depend so much on international NGOs giving more support to people working in the field, people working specifically for conservation. Pressure from northern countries can also stop other governments from supporting the militias, those that are occupying some of our most pristine areas.

What do you plan to do with the award money?

Though my country has the largest forest in Africa, it is one of the least known -- we don't have so much research in botany in the Congo, except what we are doing. I hope to build a new herbarium for protected-area flora -- I'm thinking that this prize is an opportunity to finish that herbarium. For a long time, we have been working in the shadows, but now we see it coming into the light.

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Concerned about threats to Africa's remaining rainforest, the New York City-based Wildlife Conservation Society has been forming closer ties with logging companies. The group believes that in some cases, working hand-in-hand with loggers is the best way to protect what's left. Last year, the group helped negotiate a deal that traded away 260 square miles of the 2,000-square-mile Lope Reserve in Gabon to a timber company; in exchange, logging was prohibited throughout the remainder of the reserve and 160 square miles of forest were added to it. In July, the group brokered an arrangement whereby a logging company agreed to protect 100 square miles of forest in the Republic of Congo, forgoing timber harvests valued at $40 million. Some other environmental groups, however, criticize the conservation society's tactics, saying they result in only minor victories and draw too much positive attention to logging companies.

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