Paris, January 6 {No.2000-01} - The governors of the United Nations Foundation (UNF) have decided to support a project promoted by UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, "Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict: Protecting World Natural Heritage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo" with an initial donation of US$2,895,912 to be channelled to five National Parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The project is expected to require US$4,186,600 in total. US$1,290,688 are yet to be raised from other sources to help fund a range of activities destined to, among other things, protect endangered species unique to the sites targeted: the northern white rhino and northern savannah giraffe of Garamba National Park, the okapi of the Okapi Faunal Reserve, the mountain gorilla of Virungas National Park and Guaer's gorilla of Kahuzi-Biega National Park.

The influx of refugees along border areas, rebel activities, banditry and increased poaching are affecting these sites adversely. The expansion of commercial hunting is also seriously undermining the hunter-gatherer way of life of the Mbuti Pygmies of the Okapi Reserve and other indigenous peoples who largely depend on wildlife for survival.

Salonga National Park, another Natural World Heritage site in the DRC, is also to benefit from the project. All five sites targeted by the project have been included in the List of World Heritage in Danger, due to the continuing armed conflict in the eastern part of the DRC.

Millions of dollars invested in the parks over past decades may be lost if the sites are not protected through the present period of trouble. For several years now, the sites have received no financial support from the DRC government and tourist revenue has also dried up.

The project, developed by UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and the Organization's Division of Ecological Sciences, was approved last November by both the United Nations Foundation, the U.S. charity which administers the US$1 billion donated in 1998 by CNN founder Ted Turner to promote UN-supported causes, and by the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP) which is part of the United Nations. It has been developed in co-operation with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and a Task Force of partner organisations notably, GTZ-Germany and the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF).

The project will seek to facilitate UNESCO's interaction with relevant authorities with a view to supporting local staff in their duties. It will provide salary substitutes and field equipment to help site staff carry out their work; take steps, including staff training, to enhance surveillance; monitor the status of biodiversity; support programmes integrating indigenous community needs and site protection; and establish long-term financing mechanisms for the conservation of sites in the DRC.

This is the second UNF/UNFIP project benefiting World Natural Heritage sites since May 1999, when the Foundation decided to support another UNESCO initiative, the project for the "Control and eradication of invasive species: A necessary condition for conserving endemic biodiversity of the Galapagos World Heritage site". In addition to approving these two projects the governors of the UNF also endorsed, at their November 1999 meeting, a Biodiversity Programme Strategy that will target World Natural Heritage as an instrument for conserving globally significant biodiversity. The Strategy is due to lead UNF/UNFIP into a multi-million dollar commitment in favour of World Natural Heritage and will be implemented in co-operation with several United Nations agencies, including UNESCO.