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<\/a>Dodging conflict for okapi<\/h2>\n
On June 24, 2024, a crowd gathered around a tree in the DRC\u2019s Okapi Wildlife Reserve with watery eyes. Planting this tree was a bittersweet symbol of life in the spot where two guards were set aflame in a horrific 2012 militia attack that killed seven people and all 14 resident okapi, including a 6-month-old calf.<\/p>\n
Twelve years later, Lukas says the Okapi Wildlife Reserve is better patrolled and more insulated from violence, but not entirely. Just three weeks prior to Lukas\u2019s conversation with Mongabay, he said there had been two attacks on guard posts, killing one ranger and wounding another. The United Nations and DRC military have struggled to keep insurgents at bay over the past 15 to 20 years, and the capital city, Kinshasa, is too far away for help. \u201cIt\u2019s been inescapable,\u201d Lukas said of the violence.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a place of devastating dichotomy. The Congo Basin is among the most biodiverse places on the planet, yet there\u2019s widespread violence. Beneath the soil lies $34 trillion worth of critical minerals \u2014 and yet, \u201cnone of that has benefited [local] people,\u201d Lukas said.<\/p>\n
Illegal mining, especially for gold, has become a more serious issue over the past decade. In Okapi Wildlife Reserve alone, rangers estimate there are about 100 illegal gold mines. Not only are okapi sensitive to noisy human disturbance and loss of habitat, they\u2019re also a valuable target for the illegal miners, who are often poor and poach wildlife for meat or to sell their skins and fat. Armed militias often live off these illegal mines, too, killing and raping members of local communities who then flee to other areas. Mitigating the violence and environmental destruction would require large-scale, national government involvement, Lukas said, since some mines are run by foreign corporations.<\/p>\n A new market for okapi oil, for unknown and unproven medicinal purposes, has created another financial incentive to kill the endangered animal. The \u201coil,\u201d which Lukas says is probably fat or bone marrow, looks similar to bacon grease and can be easily smuggled in tiny vials that are hard to find. Officials say they suspect the tubes are being transported to South Africa, where the fat is processed and sent back to the DRC in the form of ready-to-use products. So far, there\u2019s only evidence of okapi oil being used in the DRC.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s putting a target on the okapi\u2019s back,\u201d Lukas said. Before, hunters would sometimes accidentally kill an okapi while hunting for other bushmeat, but rarely intentionally.<\/p>\n With militia groups rampant throughout the forest, it\u2019s not safe to send researchers into the forest for okapi surveys.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been, and is still, a persistent effort to do a range-wide census of okapi, pending security issues being resolved,\u201d Lukas said. \u201cBut in the meantime, the best thing to do for okapi is protect the forest and stop illegal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n The Okapi Conservation Project partners with Conserve Congo and the Wildlife Conservation Society, organizations that have provided support for rangers to allow them to arrest wildlife traffickers. In June alone, they arrested four traffickers in the cities of Goma and Kisangani for possession of okapi fat and skins, he added. In 2014, the DRC also increased the penalty for trafficking to at least five years in prison and higher fines then the previous slap-on-the-wrist punishments. About 63% of the reserve is currently patrolled, Lukas said.<\/p>\n Although a new status assessment is imminent, counting okapi is less important than preserving intact forests. \u201cWe know how to protect them,\u201d Lukas said. \u201cIt\u2019s to save the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, deforestation has raged on, which means less habitat and food for the forest-dependent animals. Poverty-induced slash-and-burn agriculture is one of the major drivers, which is why the Okapi Conservation Project educates farmers about cultivating the same plot of land for at least a decade, Lukas said, which in turn increases crop yields. \u201cIt saves trees, but also provides food security,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Okapi can eat an impressive variety of forest plants, including toxic ones, but their options have severely dwindled. From 2002 to 2023, the Ituri Forest lost about 9% of its total area, according to Global Forest Watch. Meanwhile, the wider Congo Basin lost an area of forest bigger than Bangladesh in just 15 years.<\/p>\n Because the okapi population is concentrated in a relatively small area, protections can be more targeted. However, this also makes them more vulnerable to poachers. It\u2019s a delicate balance.<\/p>\n In 1919, the first okapi to leave its homeland found itself whisked away to a Belgian zoo. Buta, named for the capital of the Congolese province of Bas-U\u00e9l\u00e9, became the first of many okapi that the Belgian king gifted to countries across the Global North while maintaining a brutal colonial presence in the Congo.<\/p>\n These okapi were political gifts, similar to how China engages in \u201cpanda diplomacy\u201d today. But in the century since, captive okapi have formed the foundation of what\u2019s now considered a \u201cbackup\u201d for the DRC\u2019s wild okapi population, according to Sander Hofman, Antwerp Zoo\u2019s general curator. Hofman is also the international studbook keeper for captive okapi, which documents every one of the 186 okapi held in 67 zoos and other institutions worldwide.<\/p>\n The okapi studbook was created in the 1970s, when zoo directors and biologists convened in Antwerp to discuss ways of protecting the species.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was quite revolutionary, because at that time, zoos were not about conservation at all,\u201d Hofman said. \u201cThey were about showing animals.\u201d It was a pivotal shift. Starting in the 1990s, zoos became a major source of funding for the Okapi Conservation Project \u2014 and a pool of valuable okapi genetics.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not sure that the okapi that are currently in Congo will make it,\u201d Hofman said. But if international zoos can continue breeding captive okapi, \u201cwe will have a demographically and genetically viable population that, if needed in the future, we can send okapi to Congo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to scientific models, zoos would need at least 220 captive okapi for such a plan to be viable. But without a clear idea of how the DRC population is faring, it\u2019s unclear when or if the insurance population will be necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is important is that we really get a proper idea about the numbers and densities we have in Congo,\u201d Hofman said.<\/p>\n To close the knowledge gap, Hofman called for continued collaboration among different conservation groups and better-quality data. So far, data collection has been \u201clike little pieces of the puzzle,\u201d he said. \u201cThe puzzle was definitely not finished.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a tough 10 years,\u201d Hofman told Mongabay, referring to the period since the last assessment of the okapi\u2019s conservation status for the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, was published in 2015.<\/p>\n He\u2019s one person in a small group of IUCN okapi advisory board members now working toward an updated assessment by next year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing which is really lacking for okapi is a good understanding of where they live and how many there are,\u201d said David Stanton, an evolutionary geneticist at Cardiff University in the U.K. who conducted genetic research on the species nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of the most basic pieces of information scientists try to collect for any imperiled species, and yet the most difficult for scientists who study this animal because of the lack of security across its native range. Although Lukas\u2019s team currently uses camera traps to determine the age structure, physical condition and density of okapi in a specific area, these only provide a small snapshot in time and are limited to the reserve, he said.<\/p>\n Instead, Stanton suggests using genetic data from okapi droppings to help piece together an updated population estimate. Those same samples could also give clues into other aspects of okapi life, like their diet, gut microbe, parasite load, sex ratio, and more, thanks to major advances in DNA sequencing in recent years.<\/p>\n Stanton used a much simpler form of this genetic-sampling method in a 2015 paper published in the Journal of Zoology assessing the dispersal, mating habits and social dynamics of okapi. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like crime-scene forensic approaches,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to work with an animal you can\u2019t really see, or it\u2019s very hard to see them in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n Other methods aren\u2019t ideal either, he said. The reserve\u2019s camera traps can\u2019t capture the entire population; radio collars are costly and difficult to apply; and pitfall traps \u2014 giant dugouts that okapi can fall into but not climb out of, a common technique used by the region\u2019s Indigenous Pygmy hunters \u2014 causes unnecessary stress. Collecting fecal samples, on the other hand, is cheap and captures a wider sample size without being invasive.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing forward with okapi, that seems like the best kind of approach to me,\u201d Stanton said. \u201cTry and collect some dung and just do some sort of fairly simple genetic tests.\u201d<\/p>\nConservation Project.<\/h2>\n
A global insurance plan<\/h2>\n
An impossible task<\/h2>\n