Children walk and play music on plastic jugs at the Epulu village in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

A truck drives through the Epulu village in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Discoloration is visible in a river near mining operations at the Muchacha mine in September 2022, near the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo. (AP Photo)

Wendo Olengama, right, a Pygmy chief, stands with his wife Dura Anyainde in their village within the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Deforestation is visible near the Muchacha mine in September 2022 near the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo. (AP Photo)

In this undated photo, an okapi stands in a protected area as part of a captive breeding program in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo. (Okapi Conservation Project via AP)

Deforestation is visible near the Muchacha mine in November 2020, near the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo. (AP Photo)

Wendo Olengama, a Pygmy chief, sits in his village in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Trees cover the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo, September 2022. (AP Photo)

Muvunga Kakule walks through his farm outside Badengaido town in Congo, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Children sit in a classroom with no windowpanes, built by a Chinese mining company, Kimia Mining, in Badengaido town in Congo, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)