Paris - The population of mountain gorillas in central Africa has grown by 10 percent in the last decade despite a series of armed conflicts in the region, conservationists said in Paris on Wednesday.
On the Virunga massif, which straddles Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the number of gorillas has risen from 320 in 1998 to 355, according to a joint press release issued by the International Programme for the Conservation of Gorillas (PICG), the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund International and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).
According to PICG official Jose Kalpers, the Virunga forests have served as transit points and refuges for a number of armed groups, who survived largely by hunting antelopes and farming.
Although about 50 gorillas were also killed by soldiers, the impact on the population has been far less severe than feared, Kalpers said.
The current gorilla census, carried out by research and tourist groups as well as some native groups, "definitely underestimated" the number of gorillas now inhabiting the massif, he noted.
In all, approximately 650 mountain gorillas currently exist in the world.
Despite the favourable development, however, the survival of the species is far from guaranteed, the conservationists said.
Poaching, the destruction of their environment, the transmission of human diseases and armed conflicts remain threats to their existence. - Sapa-DPA