By Lucas Meers | Program Officer, Okapi Conservation Project
OCP’s agroforestry team built a new tree nursery in Wamba, bringing the total number of OCP tree nurseries to five, which produced and distributed 17,153 tree seedlings to 400 farmers in the first quarter of 2018. This fifth nursery will help us reach our goal of 60,000 seedlings grown and distributed by the end of 2018.
Agronomes collected 1,463 kilograms of rice, 304 kilograms of peanuts and 527 kilograms of beans from first-year farmers to be stored until the next growing season when the seeds will be redistributed to new farmers joining the agroforestry programs.
OCP educators have been extremely busy distributing 3,000 calendars with conservation messages to schools, businesses and government offices around the Ituri landscape. In order to make it clear to local communities which species of animals are totally protected in DRC, five thousand posters depicting images of 16 totally protected endangered species with their scientific, French, Swahili and Lingala names were distributed to communities inside and around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.
OCP support of ICCN is the cornerstone of protecting okapi habitat. The construction of a new office, an immigration processing building and sanitary facilities at the Zunguluka Patrol Post is nearly complete. Once in operation, this major access point to the Reserve will be much more efficient and thorough in processing people and vehicles travelling through the Reserve on the only East-West road in Eastern DRC.
We truly are making a difference for the animals and communities around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. All of these advancements for okapi conservation are not possible without your continued support, and for that, we thank you!
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