Gunmen attack Belgian head of African gorilla reserve

Unidentified armed men on Tuesday critically wounded theBelgian head of Africa's oldest wildlife reserve, the Virunga National Park inDemocratic Republic of Congo, officials said.The victim, Emmanuel de Merode, "was shot in the chest," North Kivu provincialgovernor Julien Paluku told AFP, following the attack 30 kilometres (20 miles) northof the capital Goma.Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders tweeted his best wishes for De Merode'sswift recovery, adding that "we are opening an enquiry", into the apparent ambush.A Congolese army official also said that an enquiry was underway.Paluku said the attack happened as De Merode was driving himself, unescorted, from Goma towards the big ICCN (Congolese Institute for Conservation and Naturecentre in Rumangabo.De Merode was in hospital in Goma where he was said to be in intensive carefollowing an operation to remove bullets from his body.The Virunga reserve, on the border with Uganda and Rwanda, covers 800,000hectares (two million acres) has attained worldwide renown, notably for its rare andendangered mountain gorillas.The area is exceptionally rich in biodiversity, but is located in scarred North Kivuprovince, tracts of which have been ravaged by successive conflicts for more than 20years.Poachers and logging teams have damaged the reserve, as elsewhere in Africa, butthe park is also criss-crossed by rival armed groups and soldiers, while local peoplehave taken up illegal residence.The quest for oil is the latest threat to Africa's most venerable wildlife reserve,already hard hit by deforestation, poaching and armed conflict.Created in 1925 in the far east of what was then the Belgian Congo, the whole parkhas been declared an "endangered" part of the global heritage by UNESCO.The WWF conservation group argues that the DR Congo has more to gain ineconomic terms by protecting the park and developing sustainable tourism, fishingand hydroelectric projects, rather than undertaking a search for oil that might not even be there.