The Okapi Conservation Project (OCP) was founded to protect okapi and their Ituri Forest habitat in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The project later became a key local base for conservation and wildlife surveys carried out with government partners, including primate monitoring work tied to protected-area management.
The Okapi Wildlife Reserve (OWR) was created in the Ituri Forest and placed under the management authority of ICCN (the national protected-areas agency). Creating the reserve provided a formal framework for long-term biodiversity fieldwork, including primate surveys and routine patrol-based monitoring.
Research in Kahuzi-Biega National Park during the 1994 dry season included field observations and transect-based work to understand gorilla and chimpanzee ecology. Although outside the Ituri Forest, these methods and findings were part of a broader shift in eastern DRC toward more systematic primate field surveys that ICCN and partners could use for management decisions.
UNESCO added the Okapi Wildlife Reserve to the World Heritage List for its exceptional biodiversity, including okapi and multiple primate species. The listing strengthened international attention and helped justify expanded scientific surveys and conservation support, even as regional insecurity grew.
From the mid-1990s into the 2000s, armed conflict and insecurity expanded across eastern DRC, affecting protected areas and field operations. This period is widely linked to intensified hunting, illegal mining, and weakened enforcement—factors that shaped where and when ICCN and conservation partners could conduct primate surveys and patrol-based monitoring.
The Okapi Wildlife Reserve was placed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger, reflecting escalating threats tied to conflict and illegal exploitation. For field teams, this period increasingly connected primate survey work to immediate security realities and to evidence needed for protection planning.
During renewed insecurity, inventory work to understand remaining gorilla and elephant numbers in Kahuzi-Biega’s highland sector restarted with outside technical and financial support. UNESCO reported that WCS was among the organizations providing major scientific organization and budget support, alongside ICCN involvement—illustrating how surveys increasingly depended on partnerships during conflict.
After major conflict subsided, intensified patrols and management support in the Tshivanga highlands of Kahuzi-Biega were linked to improved Grauer’s gorilla numbers in that sector. WCS reported that, with ICCN efforts, the highland population increased from about 130 individuals in 2000 to about 213 in 2015, showing how protection can change survey outcomes over time.
The Epulu Conservation and Research Center inside the Okapi Wildlife Reserve served as a base for conservation, research, and ranger operations. Maintaining a stable field base in Epulu supported routine wildlife monitoring and made it possible to coordinate survey logistics and protection activities in the Ituri landscape when security allowed.
An armed attack on June 24, 2012 struck the Epulu conservation center and nearby facilities in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. Reports describe the center being looted and burned, with many captive “ambassador” okapi killed along with human casualties; the event forced a major shift toward security-first operations and reduced the feasibility of some field activities.
WCS summarized evidence that Grauer’s gorillas had suffered a major population collapse over roughly two decades of civil unrest, illegal hunting, and mining pressures. This type of synthesis drew on years of survey and monitoring data and reinforced the need for coordinated ICCN–NGO field programs to measure trends and target protection in remaining strongholds.
In September 2016, Grauer’s gorilla (eastern lowland gorilla) was recognized as facing an extremely high risk of extinction, following a large documented decline. The listing increased the urgency for continued surveys in eastern DRC—both to track remaining populations and to guide where ICCN and partner patrols and community efforts could be most effective.
By the mid-2020s, reporting highlighted expanding industrial mining pressures affecting parts of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, despite its protected status. This attention underscored a core lesson of the 1990s–2010s survey era: primate and biodiversity field data matter most when paired with enforceable boundaries, sustained patrol capacity, and governance that limits illegal exploitation.
Ituri and Eastern DRC Primate Surveys by WCS and ICCN (1990s–2010s)