Musings as we approach the CMS COP

Leaky shoes and face to face with a friendly giant.
(A few words from the WDCS Director of Science)

I have been sitting in the Scientific Council staring at a gorilla that I know.

Or, to be more accurate (and somewhat less excitingly), at a large photograph decorating the main stage at the CMS Scientific Council of a wild mountain gorilla that I happen to have met. His name is Rhingo. I don’t know if he knows this is his name but he is the one of two silverback males living in a particular group in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. I was once fortunate enough to visit then one rainy afternoon.

A male silver-back is impressive; a primate roughly the size of a cow and Rhingo had tremendous presence. His handsome placid face is deeply imprinted on my brain. He was the second and non-dominant mature male in his group – a phenomenon that I did not even know occurred. I had always assumed that each family group only contained one silver back. Rhingo’s friend Ghanda, the other silver-back apparently did all the mating and presumably fathered the young in this little group. Rhingo was a seemingly very peaceful soul. Despite his vast size and rippling musculature he fed quietly on tender bamboo shoots whilst his human visitors stood awed nearby. If he even glanced at us it was no more than a swift and casual look. He seemed happy just to hang out with his friend, his friends ‘wives’ and their kids.

Seeing him pictured here serves to remind us that the mountain gorillas are endangered and stranded now in an island of giant nettle and bamboo-dominated cold mountain forest that spans a zone where three countries meet. An island surrounded by hundreds of miles of fertile, intensively cultivated and highly populated farm lands. These gorillas are part of the family of animals that CMS seeks to help.



But are gorillas migratory species? Clearly they are affected by transboundary issues and, like other gorilla species and populations, their future rests in the liaison of the nations that still host them. This is where CMS can help. It has facilitated the development of a regional agreement to aid their conservation.

Indeed, arguably the primary and most important mechanism that CMS uses to help all species is the generation of independent regional agreements that relevant countries can join and which help to focus their efforts on particular species. For the whales and dolphins CMS has established one regional agreement for the North Atlantic and another (with which it rather interestingly slightly overlaps) for the Mediterranean and Black seas and contiguous Atlantic area. There is also a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cetaceans in the West African Area and another for these animals in the vast Pacific Ocean. These MoUs are a form of agreement in their own right and often lead to the conclusion of more formal and legally-binding agreements. Other regions could also benefit from such regional treaties for the conservation of cetaceans, and one of the challenges for the COP next week, is will the Country Parties put their economic concerns aside enough to help develop such initiatives and we are now looking in particular towards the Asian area.

It is very wet in Bergen at the moment. The rain is heavy, persistent with a high wetability coefficient. It forms small waterfalls cascading off roofs high above. Many buildings have awnings over their doors and locals and delegates run between them in a vain attempt not to be washed away. The roads have become rivers and ponds and the colours are being washed out of the surrounding landscape. Even the jaunty yellow sou’westers in our welcome pack cannot raise the spirits and my relatively new shoes are clearly not up to the task.

Will the creeping damp (including the state of my socks) affect the spirits of the delegates? Will there be contagion from the Euro-zone? Stay tuned.

Bergen in the rain.

Science Director and Gorilla (on the right).