- Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) shelters some 470 mammal and bird species, including up to 20% of the world’s remaining endangered okapi (Okapia johnstoni), which are related to giraffes.
- While Okapi Wildlife Reserve has escaped much of the environmental destruction affecting surrounding areas, satellite data show deforestation has been increasing in the reserve in recent years.
- Satellite imagery shows the expansion of what appear to be gold mines in the latter half of 2021.
- Conservationists say illegal mining is attracting more people to the reserve, which in turn increases poaching and deforestation.
Okapi Wildlife Reserve protects more than 100 mammal and 370 bird species, including 17 known species of primates – more than any other single forested area in Africa. The reserve is also home to the Indigenous Efe and Mbuti peoples.
But perhaps the reserve’s most famous resident is the enigmatic okapi (Okapia johnstoni), after which it was named. Sporting the head of a giraffe and the stripes of a zebra, the okapi was unknown to the scientific world till the 20th century and is found only in the northeastern portion of the DRC. Also known as the “African unicorn” of forest giraffe, the species is listed as endangered by the IUCN, and Okapi Wildlife Reserve harbors as many as 20% of the estimated 30,000 remaining wild okapi.
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