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European Space Agency

Press Release

ESA maps satellite help for gorilla guardians
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14 February 2003

A joint ESA/UNESCO project to protect African gorillas with data from
space is entering its second phase, an official from a conservation
programme told an ESA workshop. 

Known as BeGO, for Build Environment for Gorilla, the project will
provide Earth observation imagery and products to conservation groups
and authorities that are monitoring and protecting the habitats of
mountain gorillas in national parks located in Uganda, Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire).

Data from ESA satellites will help produce maps, detect changes over
time in how land is used, and create three-dimensional digital
elevation models of the terrain, according to Maryke Gray, regional
monitoring officer with the International Gorilla Conservation Program 
(IGCO).

Speaking to a workshop held in late January at ESA's ESRIN facility on 
the Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation (TESEO)
effort, Gray said the space-based maps and analytical tools will allow 
better insights into the gorillas' habitats than possible with only 
on-the-ground inspections. 

"The advantages of remote sensing is that it allows us to monitor
extensive areas and monitor remote regions with difficult access," she 
said.

Analysis of land-use changes will be employed, for example, to study
habitat areas that are being deforested for agriculture, assess the
impact of refugee camps at park boundaries and analyse how volcanic
activity affects the vegetation in the areas of interest. 


Joint ESA-UNESCO agreement
--------------------------
BeGO is a follow-on programme to a joint ESA-UNESCO agreement signed
in 2001 for a bilateral project in support of the World Heritage
Convention to demonstrate remote-sensing methods in east and central
African habitats. This pilot project, Surveillance of Gorilla Habitat 
(SOGHA), also was designed to support the creation of a UNESCO 
remote-sensing unit at WHC, along with capacity building in the 
African countries, Gray said.

Under BeGO, detailed maps will be created at a 1:50 000 scale,
compared with the 1:200 000-scale maps provided under SOGHA. Layers of 
geographical and other features will then be added to incorporate such 
features as altimetry to create topological maps, roads, settlements, 
park boundaries, and vegetation types. 

While the Earth observation data, maps and land-use analyses highlight 
the advantages of space-based data, Gray said, there are limitations 
to what can be accomplished as far as detecting direct threats, such 
as poaching, to the gorillas. "Clearly remote sensing cannot 
substitute for all activities," the conservation official said.

Such threats to the endangered mountain gorillas - brought to the
attention of the world by the work of the late primatologist Diane
Fossey - are an ever-present reality to the conservation officials and 
national authorities working to preserve them.

In late January, three Rwandan poachers were convicted of killing two
mountain gorillas and stealing a baby one, according to recent Reuters 
news story. The poachers had planned to sell the baby abroad and had 
stolen it in May, killing the two female adults protecting it. In a 
separate incident in October, poachers killed four other gorillas 
living along the Rwanda-Congo border, news reports stated.


"Cautious optimism" over gorillas' future
-----------------------------------------
But thanks to the efforts of IGCO and other conservation groups, there 
is room for cautious optimism that the gorillas' numbers are on the 
increase. According to estimates from the World Wildlife Fund, one of 
ICGO's parent organisations, groundbreaking work by conservation 
groups has helped the population grow from 620 in 1989 to 
approximately 674 as of last October.

Two of the gorillas' habitats, the Congo's Virunga National Park and
the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, have been designated
World Heritage sites. The two other habitats in Rwanda and Uganda are
under consideration for the designation.

The involvement of UNESCO and the World Heritage Convention is part of 
a broader plan to use Earth observation data more fully in monitoring 
the risks to the man-made and natural sites that have been deemed to 
have "outstanding universal value," explained Mario Hernandez, head of 
UNESCO's Information Management Programme, at the TESEO workshop.

On request, ESA is currently providing Earth observation data for
World Heritage sites of interest. In the ESA-UNESCO partnership,
Hernandez added, "we are looking to ESA for the scientific tools for
monitoring the sites and warning national authorities about risks to
the sites."

Additional negotiations and discussions are underway with other space
agencies and national authorities, including NASA, India, Canada,
Australia, Brazil and France, to establish similar arrangements for
satellite data. 

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