Dominique Bikaba Secures 600,000 Hectares For Gorilla Conservation Amid Persistent Conflict In Congo

Dominique Bikaba leads Strong Roots Congo in securing 600,000 hectares for Grauer’s gorillas and Indigenous Batwa groups amid ongoing conflict in eastern DRC.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 6, 2026, 9:37 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from The Guardian

Reclaiming Ancestral Lands Through Modern Conservation

Dominique Bikaba, a 54 year old conservationist, has dedicated his career to protecting the Grauer’s gorilla while advocating for the rights of displaced Indigenous populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Having been removed from his ancestral land in the 1970s during the formation of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Bikaba founded Strong Roots Congo to bridge the gap between state led preservation and community survival. His work focuses on the lowlands of South Kivu, a region defined by its biological richness and extreme political instability.

A Community Led Biodiversity Corridor Takes Shape

The central ambition of Bikaba’s current work is the creation of a massive biodiversity corridor spanning 1 million hectares. This corridor is designed to link Kahuzi-Biega National Park with the Itombwe Nature Reserve, effectively knitting together fragmented habitats to allow isolated gorilla populations to breed and recover. To date, Strong Roots has successfully helped 70 traditional chiefdoms establish 23 community forests. These areas now cover approximately 600,000 hectares and are legally recognized as community forestry concessions.

Impact Of Decades Of Warfare On Great Apes

The Grauer’s gorilla, the largest subspecies of primate, has seen its population collapse due to more than thirty years of conflict in the region. Prior to the First and Second Congo Wars, the population was estimated at 17,000 individuals, but surveys from 2016 suggested that only 3,800 remained. Bikaba notes that ongoing fighting makes it nearly impossible to conduct accurate new surveys. The decline has been further exacerbated by the widespread practice of slash and burn agriculture and hunting for bush meat during periods of displacement.