The mystical slice of Africa where the gorillas live may sound idyllic, but there's trouble in paradise, and the dimensions of the challenges are daunting.

Threats to the gorillas' habitat:

• The forested homelands of the mountain gorillas are endangered by clearing trees for agriculture: the rich volcanic soil of the Virungas is excellent farmland and gorilla habitat has lost probably 36 million trees, most chopped down for firewood
   
• The region's human population density the highest in Africa and threatens the gorillas with encroachment on their habitat and transmittal of human diseases, to which mountain gorillas are highly susceptible.
   
• Poaching of other forest animals also has a brutal impact on the gorillas with some losing limbs to wire snares, set for antelope or duiker.
   
• The now famous film, ‘Gorillas in the Mist’, graphically depicted the illegal trade in gorilla infants and the sale of gorilla hands and feet
   
• But the most fundamental challenge to protecting the mountain gorillas and their habitat is that all three nations - DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, have experienced conflict and war in recent years. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which as many as one million people were killed, and the ongoing civil war in DRC have caused massive human migration. Over a million Rwandans were encamped in eastern DRC from 1994 to 1996.
   
• Gorillas have often been caught in the crossfire and there were many reports in 2000, of gorillas being hunted for bushmeat, with the civil war leaving many people desperate for food.
   
• In March 1999, the massacre of tourists and a senior park warden in Bwindi harmed Uganda's tourism and, ultimately, the gorillas.
   
• "Tourism is critical to the mountain gorillas' survival," explains Annette Lanjouw, director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP). "Tourist dollars are a powerful economic incentive to preserve the forests where these gorillas live."