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Helping the world by preserving biodiversity

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Subido el 19 de septiembre de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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Helping the world by preserving biodiversity
Short documentary on biodiversity in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding regions -- here, you'll meet the forest rangers of the Virunga national park. Their job is to fight against poaching and protect the biodiversity of their national park. Helped by the European Union which has financed their training, these rangers are actively working to protect endangered species, such as the hippo.

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We're in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 00:00:00
Contrary to appearances, these men are not soldiers. 00:00:18
Their forest ranges from the ICCN, the Congolese Institute of Nature Conservation. 00:00:21
Their job? To fight against poaching and protect the biodiversity of the Virunga National Park. 00:00:27
For a decade, from 1992 to 2002, this area was devastated by successive wars. 00:00:35
From 1994 to 1996, hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the massacres in Rwanda 00:00:41
flowed into the Congolese National Parks. 00:00:47
Refugees almost totally destitute, 00:00:49
completely dependent on natural resources of food and water to be able to survive. 00:00:52
Apart from the human misery it created, and despite food aid which was delivered 00:00:56
by humanitarian aid organizations, this situation 00:01:01
had catastrophic effects on the animal and plant life. 00:01:04
Despite the difficulties, the ICCN managed to continue its biodiversity conservation work, 00:01:10
after a fashion, throughout all these years, with help from the European Union. 00:01:16
This work continued in spite of the war. 00:01:21
The rangers remained on the job. 00:01:26
The European Commission continued to support the programs from near and far. 00:01:28
Today, the European Union is still involved. 00:01:35
For example, it financed the rebuilding of the infrastructure and the training of the rangers. 00:01:38
Training is essential because illegal hunting is a huge problem in this area. 00:01:43
I can give you an example. 00:01:51
Nearly 30 years ago, there was a population of 35,000 hippos in the Virunga National Park. 00:01:54
The last census gives an alarming figure of just 836 hippos, 00:02:00
which are now registered on the list of animals on the way to extinction. 00:02:05
That shows you the extent of the poaching that there was. 00:02:10
The ICCN rangers are also trained to take on the more social and rather 00:02:14
delicate task of raising awareness amongst the local people. 00:02:17
It's not easy to make the villagers, who live in difficult circumstances around the parks, 00:02:22
understand that they must stop cutting wood and killing animals. 00:02:27
One can't think of making a partition wall between the people who live around this nature 00:02:35
and the resources that the nature can provide them. 00:02:40
The difficulty is to help them understand that it's in their own interest to protect 00:02:45
the nature which surrounds them in order to ensure their survival. 00:02:49
There's an expression which says that one can preserve only what one knows and one loves. 00:02:57
So it's necessary to show these people that it's in their interest to preserve 00:03:03
the inheritance for future generations. 00:03:06
Not long ago there was a forest here. They're starting to realise that there's less rain. 00:03:10
We're starting to make them understand that they need to play their part in conservation 00:03:15
for the benefit of the country, but also for their own benefit too, and for future generations. 00:03:19
Their benefit but also ours, because the conservation of biological diversity 00:03:26
is actually something essential to human survival, to our survival. 00:03:31
In fact, we're all dependent on even these remote ecosystems. 00:03:36
They have a direct effect on the regulation of the climate. 00:03:40
They provide us with essential natural resources and contain wealth which has still to be discovered. 00:03:43
The situation is paradoxical. In fact, the poorest countries possess the richest ecosystems, 00:03:51
which is why Europeans must invest in the protection of biodiversity 00:03:56
and support these countries in their conservation efforts. 00:04:01
Biodiversity is regarded as a world public good. 00:04:06
Everyone needs to join together to preserve it for the present and future generations. 00:04:10
For the European Union, environmental protection is an integral part of its development aid 00:04:19
programmes. The protection of biodiversity is clearly stated in the Millennium Objectives 00:04:24
of the United Nations. We need ecosystems to fight against poverty. 00:04:29
Central Africa is the second-largest forest area in the world, 00:04:35
and it's already 15 years ago that Europe launched its ECOFAC programme here. 00:04:38
ECOFAC helps eight countries in the region to preserve and develop their biodiversity 00:04:44
in collaboration with the governments as well as local and international NGOs. 00:04:49
To conserve and develop, that's increasingly what local people want too. 00:04:54
Mohindo Simbendiri is a local chief in the North African government. 00:04:59
He's someone who thinks that preserving nature can provide more than just wood and food for 00:05:03
the local people. The park is our wealth. We'll profit when tourism develops. We're fine. 00:05:07
Eco-tourism is indeed one of the means of adding value to biodiversity. 00:05:22
Eprim and Baudouin are trackers in the Virunga Park. 00:05:26
Eprim and Baudouin are trackers in the Virunga Park. Their job is to accustom the large monkeys 00:05:29
to the presence of humans and to take visitors to see them. These visits to the gorillas are 00:05:35
actually the best way of protecting them. In the areas where tourism has been introduced, 00:05:40
poaching has almost ceased because the poachers avoid areas where people are. 00:05:46
The gorillas, who are used to visitors, are not worried by them as long as a few 00:05:51
definite rules are respected. No more than seven people in a group, 00:05:55
the length of visit limited to an hour, and no flash photography or direct contact. 00:06:00
The eco-tourism is good for the local economy and so can help the people with their conservation 00:06:06
effort. It's clear that, above all, it's a tool for the protection of biodiversity. 00:06:11
We're now closer to the capital Kinshasa. This is the Kisantu Botanical Garden. 00:06:17
This 100-year-old garden contains no less than 3,500 species in 225 hectares. 00:06:22
A public park which aims to concentrate the incredible wealth of Congolese flora in one place. 00:06:29
A garden open, above all, to the local people. The managers of the botanical garden want to show 00:06:35
that a well-managed environment can bring about a concrete improvement in quality of life. 00:06:42
We grow here what we call caterpillar plants. That is, we cultivate plants which caterpillars 00:06:47
come to feed on. And from then on, people can find food. In these areas, 00:06:55
there's not much cattle breeding. It's the caterpillars which provide the protein. 00:06:59
These caterpillar plants are cultivated and then replanted to help people living 00:07:08
near the botanical garden. Experiments which can then benefit large numbers of people. 00:07:12
Kisantu is a great success. Thanks to the hard work and the exceptional devotion of the Congolese 00:07:19
people, supported by Europe, the botanical garden was able to survive the country's troubled times. 00:07:24
We're off now to Gabon, another country which benefits from the ECOFAC program. 00:07:32
Here, too, Europe helps with the preservation and development of biodiversity. 00:07:37
In practice, it's resulted in an institutional support to make it possible for the country to 00:07:43
advance its national parks legislation. We provided considerable support for training 00:07:48
to allow Gabon to have the framework necessary to fight against poaching. We have also worked 00:07:54
to support research institutions to get a better understanding of the environments we want to 00:07:59
protect. The Lope Park is one of 13 national parks in Gabon. More than 5,000 square kilometers 00:08:04
of tropical forest and savanna where monkeys, gorillas, elephants and buffalo live together. 00:08:19
In the middle of the park, the Mikongo Camp welcomes visitors. Guyla and Sidouan are guides 00:08:25
in Mikongo. Every day, they go into the forest with small groups of people, 00:08:30
who they introduce to the tropical forest, its fauna and its sometimes unexpected richness. 00:08:35
When we're in the village, we go into the forest. If you're wounded, because we're in a place where 00:08:43
there's no hospital. So this tree, you pierce it like that and you take a leaf. 00:08:49
You take the sap and you put it where you're wounded and that stops the bleeding. 00:08:59
Guyla and Sidouan are not amateur guides. They first had to study for months to learn their job. 00:09:12
In fact, conservation of biodiversity requires very particular and varied skills. 00:09:18
In Gabon, the very best training is at the ENEF, the National School of Waters and Forests. 00:09:24
In this institution, young people are trained from all over the subcontinent. 00:09:30
These are the future protectors of Africa's ecosystems. 00:09:34
To develop, but also conserve, you need well-trained men and women and training is an 00:09:38
expensive area. The EU supports us in the field of capacity building. 00:09:43
We especially appreciated the EU program to train the trainers. 00:09:48
In the middle of the Lope Park is a research center which works with the European Union. 00:09:57
Several scientists, as well as Gabonese and French, 00:10:02
Several scientists, as well as Gabonese and foreign NGO members work here. 00:10:05
Their principal job is to monitor and count the animal species. 00:10:10
How many elephants or gorillas are there in the park? Where are they? 00:10:15
How are their populations developing? The researchers also study threats to the species, 00:10:19
poaching or the terrifying killer virus Ebola, responsible for the deaths of so many gorillas. 00:10:24
At the moment, there's nothing much that we can do about Ebola. 00:10:31
Nobody has been able to stop it yet, but at least if we know it's happening, it's important. 00:10:35
The solution for a vaccine against Ebola is maybe to be found in the jungle. 00:10:44
The ecosystems are vital to advanced research. 00:10:48
The national parks are home to a multitude of species, plants and molecules, 00:10:52
which could provide the medicines and vaccines of tomorrow. 00:10:56
Against the Ebola virus, which affects not only animals, but also humans, 00:10:59
or malaria, which continues to kill 3,000 African children every day. 00:11:03
To get to know and protect the ecosystems in danger is an absolute priority today. 00:11:10
The developed countries must become aware of the extent of the danger 00:11:15
and invest in conservation, or risk seeing incalculable wealth disappear forever. 00:11:18
We often forget that the ecosystems are necessary to safeguard life on Earth. 00:11:24
The time has come for action. 00:11:29
In the long term, the survival of humanity itself depends upon it. 00:11:31
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
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      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
The European Union
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
819
Fecha:
19 de septiembre de 2007 - 10:06
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
11′ 46″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
448x336 píxeles
Tamaño:
27.36 MBytes

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