The five sites in danger include Virunga, Garamba, Kahuzi-Biega, and Salonga National Parks, and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, which are home to a unique range of flora and fauna including the Mountain Gorilla and the Okapi.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

In 1987, Mr. Gilman sent John Lukas, a zoologist who heads White Oak's conservation program, to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to work with pygmy tribes to capture an okapi, an extremely rare animal that resembles a cross between a giraffe and a zebra.

WSJ: Hard Times Force Famed Southern Refuge's Sale

Its ten-year-old Radio Okapi, run in tandem with the Fondation Hirondelle, a Swiss NGO that promotes free media, has 14m daily listeners, a fifth of the population.

ECONOMIST: The United Nations in Africa