To the Editor:
Your Aug. 25 news article on the expulsion of Rwandan refugees by Zaire refers to environmental degradation caused by the massive, yearlong encampment.
The situation warrants widespread attention and concern. Large camps in the Goma area of Zaire are within walking distance of the world-renowned Virunga National Park. The Mugunga camp is within the park. Camps to the south, in the Bukavu-Uvira vicinity, are near the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
The parks are the refugees' major source of wood for fuel and construction. A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in October 1994 documented the intensive and uncontrolled deforestation, estimating that each day an average of 30,000 to 40,000 refugees enter the Virunga Park to remove wood. The dumping of human and medical waste within park boundaries adds to the environmental damage.
Both the Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega parks are World Heritage Sites, deemed worthy of protection by agreement of 142 nations under the World Heritage Convention of 1972. Virunga was the first national park in Africa and is considered, with Kahuzi-Biega, to be of outstanding value for biodiversity of plant and animal species.
Because of the effects of the refugee encampments, the World Heritage Committee, in December 1994, placed Virunga National Park on a list of World Heritage in Danger.
The situation in Zaire should bring international attention both to threatened world heritage and to the environmental cost of massive refugee movements and encampments. ARLENE K. FLEMING Great Falls, Va., Aug. 26, 1995 The writer is a cultural resource management consultant.