DURBAN, South Africa, July 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Heritage Committee currently meeting here Wednesday called on the international community, particularly the African countries, to act quickly to protect natural heritages on the continent, where some rare animals are at the edge of extinction.

    The World Heritage Committee meets every year to discuss the inscription of world natural and cultural heritage sites, and to discuss the Danger List of the world heritage, encouraging a high-level protection of the existing world heritages.

    The Committee requested the Congolese to translocate a number of animals to safety in Kenya, with some delegates arguing for greater in situ protection with the support of armed forces and high-level intervention from the international community.

    Listed as "Critically Endangered," the northern white rhino is the most endangered rhino subspecies in the world, only found in Garamba National Park, a World Heritage Site currently listed as in Danger located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on the border with Sudan.

    The northern white rhino has managed to survive, due to the valiant conservation efforts of the Protected Area authority in DRC, and many non-governmental organization partners, despite decades of conflict and instability that has plagued this part of the continent.

    However, a rapid escalation of commercial poaching in the last 18 months has now brought the rhino population down to probably less than 10 individuals.

    "The northern white rhino is a flagship species for this site (Congo's Garamba National Park) and every effort must be made to protect the remaining 5 to 10 individuals," said David Sheppard, head of the world's largest environmental knowledge network, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

    "Important population of elephant and the endemic Congo giraffeare also present here and the IUCN mission proposed to visit the site later this year that will seek to evaluate the overall situation," said Sheppard.

    The World Heritage Committee is considering removing Garamaba National Park from the World Heritage List in 2006 if the northernwhite rhino becomes extinct by then.

    While the African sites inscribed represented only 7 percent ofthe World Heritage List, they made up 43 percent of the List of World Heritage in Danger, so besides DRC, which has five sites on the list, the World Heritage Committee also expressed concern at sites in other countries.

    For example, in Cote d'Ivoire and Central African Republic, armed conflict and poaching have led not only severe damage to wildlife, but also the tragic loss of life of park rangers.

    Cote d'Ivoire has two sites on the Endangered List following DRC, and the more famous one is the Comoe National Park, one of the largest protected areas in west Africa, characterized by its great plant diversity.

    But the site is faced with many threats, such as the present unrest within the country, the poaching of wildlife and fires caused by poachers, overgrazing by large cattle herds and the absence of effective management.

    The recent IUCN monitoring mission to the Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary of Senegal also found that inadequate management and monitoring of water flow to the globally important wetlands continues to threaten the property.

    "We are at a crossroads of success or failure, and failure is not an option," said Dawson Munjeri on behalf of an African Working Group that presented the African Position Paper on the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Africa.

    The paper, unanimously approved and applauded by the international community, outlines a 10-year plan for African WorldHeritage, including the initiative to set up an African World Heritage Fund.

    China and the Netherlands have pledged 30,000 US dollars and 20,000 euros (24,000 dollars) respectively to support a feasibility study of the fund establishment, plus financial aid pledged by other countries including India and Israel.

    Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) will lead the feasibility study before the fund is officially launched in February, 2006, said Rapulane Mogototoane with the DBSA.

    David Sheppard summarized that Africa's natural heritage has three urgent needs, namely the need to better link world heritage sites with surrounding local communities to ensure that conservation is linked to development, the need to strengthen capacity of Protected Areas agencies and the need for greater commitment and support from all levels, especially the decision-makers.

    While the African countries highlighted the African Position Paper, the regionally driven initiative as a historical step for African heritage, they also called for assistance from the international community.

    "Give us the tools and we will do the job," said Dawson Munjeri.Enditem