Archive for February, 2008
This is Innocent, I just wanted to report on the charcoal campaign efforts around Mikeno. We still can’t get back into the sector, because the rebels have said that they will execute any rangers who go to Bukima or to Jomba. We don’t have enough support to face up to the rebels, who number in their thousands. We are only a little more than 100. That said, the reports that we have been receiving informally are that there have not been any gorilla killings, and that two baby mountain gorillas were born during the war, which is really encouraging for us. The other important thing is that we are finally making real headway in our efforts to stop the charcoal trade. A section of the Advance Force (the elite Rangers who are based in the north of the park) have come to join us, and in many ways, we have never been stronger. We have now seized over 100 tons of charcoal, which is being redistributed in the Internally Displaced Camps. We reckon that the flow of charcoal is now less than a third of what it had a couple of months ago. The problem is that we are making many enemies, especially among the military. Some of them have been making a lot of money from the charcoal and they are not happy with our efforts to stop the illegal trade.
Seizing Charcoal at Kibati. Because we have been successful in stopping people transporting charcoal, the military have started to use military trucks. Last week we had several incidents of military trucks smashing through our road blocks to get the charcoal through. We brought the Advance force in, as well as 5 military police officers, and managed to seize two military trucks. The soldiers couldn’t believe it and were really mad at us. They followed us all the way back to Goma. We offloaded the charcoal, and handed over the trucks to the military tribunal, who had them seized. Morning Parade, preparing for operations So the rangers won the day, but we have a load of really annoyed soldiers and we have to be quite careful. Fortunately, the local politicians have decided to support our cause, and we have a letter of support from the Governor, instructing us to seize all illegal charcoal. Slowly slowly attitudes are changing, and maybe, just maybe, we will be able to stop the forest destruction for charcoal before the gorilla’s habitat is permanently destroyed.
We were very caught up by what we call the Makala Campaign - the campaign to stop the charcoal trade that is destroying the forest of the park, and poses a very real threat to our mountain gorillas, so I am sorry for the delay in updating you. It has been an extremely difficult time since September last year, with some of the darkest moments that we have know. But there have also been some real successess, and although we have not been able to return to Bukima and Jomba, we have launched a number of major initiatives that will help us to protect the park for years to come. So I wanted to summarise some of that, just to remind ourselves of the challenges, but also of the fact that it is worth continuing the struggle. The Bad 2. Parallel administration: the rebels have established their own system of tour leaders and trackers. They are not qualified and have received no training to work with the gorillas. They have to go. 3. Illegal Tourism in the park: The rebels have started to take tourists coming from Uganda to see the gorillas as a way of making money. At the moment we reckon they are taking about two groups per week, which generates money for their militias. Unfortunately, they are not, as far as we can tell, respecting the basic regulations to ensure that the gorillas are kept safe from disease and disturbance. They send in more than one group of tourists per day, and the groups are bigger than the maximum allowed. 4. Bukima mined: Anti-personnel land-mines have been set on the road to Bukima, making it impossible for us to get there for a long time, until it has be demined. Checking for Illegal Charcoal at Kibati 1. Ending Charcoal: As you know, a major long-term threat to the gorillas is the clearing of their habitat for charcoal. This increased massively with the outbreak of armed conflict, much of it going to Rwanda. Since December, we have launched what we call the makala campaign, which is an unprecedented effort to block the charcoal that has been illegally obtained from the park and handing it over to the internally displaced people for free. This discourages the illegal loggers from cutting down the forest. So far we have seized over 60 tons of charcoal and delivered it to the internally displaced camps through UNHCR, the UN refugee organisation. 2. Little equipment loss: We managed to secure all the equipment that would otherwise have been looted by the rebel militias, which means that we are ready to hit the ground running as soon as we can get back into the gorilla sector. This includes the Bukima Camp and the vehicle that was bought through WildlifeDirect. 3. Rumangabo re-launched. Rumangabo, the main park station for the Gorilla sector has been at the centre of much of the fighting, and so had to be evacuated. Now the station has been re-launched and is the centre of operations for the Makala Campaign, with office equipment, radios, wireless internet and so on has been re-established. It is, we hope, a first step towards re-establishing control of the Gorilla sector 4. The Force Avancee, with new leadership, is with us in full force to help manage the Makala campaign. This put a lot of weight behind our efforts. 5. Monuc Support: Monuc, the UN peace keepers are providing us with real support on the ground through joint patrols with members of their Indian Battallian. This is a big impact on our security and effectiveness in protecting the forest.
More frustrations today. Norbert Mushenzi, the Director responsible for the Gorilla Sector organised a team, led by himself, and supported by MONUC, to Bunagana and Jomba, on the edge of the Gorilla Sector, close to the Uganda border, to try to gain access to the gorilla sector so that rangers can continue their conservation work. It was a risky trip, and unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. However, it revealed a lot of important information on what is going on in the gorilla held Gorilla Sector.
Normally, the Goma peace agreement should have provided free access to the area to the wildlife authorities. Unfortunately this is not the case because the Gorilla Sector is under the control of a man called Kanamaragi, who is a former ranger who mutineed and joined the ranks of Nkunda’s troops. He has appointed himself as the Director of National Parks for rebel held territories. He is said to fund his activities by selling gorilla permits to unsuspecting tourists coming from Rwanda. It has been reported that a conservation group has also been sending him funds. Kanamaragi has forbiden any legitimate rangers from coming back to the Gorilla Sector.
A photo taken before the expedition failed to convince the rebels to let them through and was turned back. Norbert Mushenzi is third on the right. The fellow on his left is Nkunda’s younger brother, on his right, in Rwandan military uniform, is a rebel officer.
Efforts continue to restore effective conservation in the Gorilla Sector.
We planed to go to Bukima today but at the last moment, Monuc asked to delay a joint mission. This is important because rebels still keep there positions and we heard that there are some “releve” (change) of troops from Rwanda. We have an appointment tomorrow with Monuc at the catholic parish of Rugari, at 8h00 we will be climbing to Bukima. The aim is to do an assessment on the ground and to ensure that rebels will not attack us and our rangers as we do our work. We have had some sporadic news from the front-runners. We heard that there are 2 babies born in Mapuwa and Kabirizi family. It sounds too good to be true, but we remain cautious as the news is not certain, and we have been disappointed so many times in the past. We cannot provide more information about mothers and those babies. We need to do an assessment to certify what female get the baby as well as to know the actual status of the families. We can certify that 3 big families have been found: Humba and Kabirizi and Mapuwa but we cannot know if its composition remains the same. We are still looking for 3 other small families Rugendo, and Muniaga (5 individuals each) and Lulengo (4 individuals). In Gatovu sector, another group of 10 individuals has been found under the leadership of a non-habituated silverback. This may result from a dislocation of some families or from the threats of bombing few days ago, some individuals may get lost. We need to verify this information and to establish the real origin of this new family. We hope that the appointment of tomorrow will be helpful to launch early Thursday (February 13th) a general assessment after a long period without a monitoring. Tomorrow I will update you on our struggles to stop the charcoal trade. For now, let me tell you that we are all extremely excited and impatient to get back to work.
It has been a very long wait, but there are now signs that the fighting may have diminshed enough for us to relaunch the conservation work in the Gorilla Sector. We’re not quite there yet, as the positions are still occupied by rebel soldiers, but this would be a very big moment for us, after all the waiting and frustration. As soon as we get back to Bukima, we will immediately launch a survey to know what has happened to our gorillas. It has been an enormous worry over the past six months.
With Rob Muir, of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, we have started to get equipment and materials back to Rumangabo, the park headquarters for the southern sector. Until now, Rumangabo was in the thick of the fighting and was very nearly seized by the rebels. Hopefully this is the beginning of a return to normality.
Innocent.
National Geographic Magazine is currently visiting us in Virunga National Park to cover our story - that is us, the Rangers. Mark the writer and Brent the photographer are spending a few weeks here. We think the story will finally come out in about 6 to 8 months.
Coincidentally Brent is also the photographer who was here last July when Rugendo and his family were massacred. So he was kind enough to bring us some photos that we can use on this blog. Here are some of our favorites. Diddy & Innocent
This is Director Mushenzi with an update on the seizures of illegal charcoal. Remember this charcoal is made in Virunga National Park, the oldest part in Africa that is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We cannot stand back and let this destruction happen.
This truck was stopped last Sunday by Rangers. It was on its way to Goma, like so many of the trucks that we stop. Since we started the crackdown on the illegal charcoal trade, we have confiscated over 60 tonnes and distributed this to IDP camps near the park.
This truck was full of sacks of charcoal.
So the truck was escorted to Goma, and the charcoal confiscated. Since we started doing these seizures, primarily on the road north of Goma, the charcoal mafia has tried to avoid the Ranger road blocks by crashing through them. Now they are trying to hide the charcoal sacks in military vehicles, and avoid being stopped by my Rangers at the barriers we have set up on the road. So we all need to now work together, with the military, to put a stop to this. The fact that the charcoal mafia are now resorting to more creative ways to get their illegal produce to market means that we are being successful. But there is much more to be done.
Director Mushenzi
This is Samantha. I just wanted to provide you with an update on the fuel wood for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Kibati. I last posted on this on 18th January. For those of you who don’t know, we all raised $20,000 in December to supply fuel wood to the IDPs next to the Gorilla Sector to stop them from chopping down the forest. It was always an anticipatory measure - but one that we have needed. Despite the signing of the peace accord 2 weeks ago, no IDPs from the area have returned home. Mistrust still reigns.
The following information has been provided to me by Bruno at World Wildlife Fund with whom we are working closely on this. We are also working with Rob at Frankfurt Zoological Society.
So on 9th January, according to UNHCR (the United Nations High Commission for Refugees), 2,975 people were transfered to the Kibati site.
This means that 133 steres per week were needed. Now like me you are probably wondering what a stere is. Well technically it is a cubic metre of wood, but in this case, because the wood is not densely packed (ie not one solid piece), it is 0.7 cubic metres. 1 stere on average weighs 500 kilos. An adult consumes 2kg of fuel wood/day, and a child 1kg. So a family of 5 needs 7kg fuel wood per day.
Fuel wood was delivered to Kibati like this: - on 23rd January, 15 steres - on 25th January, 24 steres - on 28th January, 35 steres - on 29th January, 39 steres - on 30th January, 37 steres
That is 150 steres, or 75,000 kilos - or enough fuel wood for just under 3 weeks for the 2,975 IDPs at the Kibati camp. WWF started delivering fuel wood 1 day before UNHCR started distributing food. But they had to interrupt the delivery on 24th/25th January as there were problems with the food distribution. UNHCR spotted some irregularities, stopped the distribution, and then the IDPs became violent. It wasn’t sensible to go into the camp while the IDPs were in a state of unrest so WWF resumed on 28th January.
So the campaign has been a success. Distribution will continue til the money runs out. And by then I hope we are looking at a less violent future in eastern DRC that will enable the thousands upon thousands of IDPs to return to their homes.
The Kabirizi family will benefit from less pressure on the park.
I should also like to take this chance to say goodbye to you all. My last day is Thursday and this will be my final post. Today I saw Diddy & Innocent for the last time. Tomorrow I will go to Rumangabo and see Augustin, Norbert, Jean-Marie and others. Thank you for your support, comments & donations since all this took off in January 2007 - a web whirlwind if ever there was one, all made possible by you.
My replacement will be arriving soon (hopefully end March) - but until then Emmanuel will be taking over management of the blog with Diddy, Innocent & all the other Rangers. So nothing will change for you all - keep coming, keep supporting, keep donating, and we shall see each other right here. Kwa Heri! Samantha
I am currently at Rumangabo park headquarters working on the anti-charcoal patrols and other duties. Since the signing of the peace accord a couple of weeks ago the security has improved at our park station. We have not yet brought back any of the equipment we evacuated in November and December, but at least we cannot hear shelling or bombing in the Gorilla Sector. So all in all things are looking a little better.
Here is the Mikeno volcano rising up. The gorillas live on the flanks of the volcano. The house here is in our park station. The first door on the right you see is Innocent’s house. My house is just opposite.
The Rangers’ children play football in the afternoons after school.
Rob Muir from FZS is doing some construction up at Rumangabo because he wants to move his office up here and leave Goma. The truck had a bit of an accident!
While on patrol we came across this recently slaughtered bushbuck. The animal had left the forest just briefly, and was killed by local villagers. The head had already been cut off by the time we got there.
Augustin with the slaughtered animal.
The anti-charcoal patrols have continued relentlessly. We are now up to 56 tons of confiscated charcoal, up from 40.8 last week. We are very proud of this achievement. The fight against the charcoal mafia is one of the main threads of WildlifeDirect and a new blog called Ending Charcoal has been started up by Rob in the US who is helping out enormously to find a solution to this fuel crisis. We continue to await news of the Gorilla Sector. We are still waiting for peace to become more of a possibility (or even a reality) before we venture back in. On Sunday it will be FIVE MONTHS since we were last in there checking on the Mountain Gorillas. It is years and years since that has happened. Diddy (PS here I am with my wife Justine and 2 of my children)
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