Gorilla Protection

This is Pierre. Yesterday I went to Mt Tshiaberimu, which is in an area of Virunga National Park that is safe from the rebels and that has an isolated group of 19 gorillas.

In this video, you see Safari, the Ranger who took me up the mountain, as well as the silverback Tsongo and two juveniles called Mwasa and Kambula. As you can see, the young ones spent a lot of energy trying to impress us!

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 Here are the donations you gave us in April and the beginning of May. Thank you so much for your support- it really makes a big difference!  

Diddy and Innocent

       

Donations 29th March-4th April: $2,637 

One-time Donations

Kristian N $120; Maximilian H $10; Mary H $10; Karen S $300; Cori E $40 

Monthly Donations

Angela S $25; Bhavani J $10; Brian M $100; Chloe F $15; Claude H $50; Cynthia J $25; Cynthia W $30; DARIO R $50; David G $10; diana t $50; doug b $20; Etienne B $50; gregory k $10; Haishin O $27; Janice G $10; Jeanie N $10; Jeffrey W $20; Jennifer B $15; Joseph S $20; julia b $20; justin m $20’ kari h $40; Kari S $5; karith c $100; Kevin C $20; Kindree B $10; Lalita S $20; Lina G $10; Mark H $20; Mark S $20; Mark T $20; Martana R $15; Meghan L $25; Micaela B $10; Michel S $15; Michelle P $30; glyn c $15; reisa v $30; ruth t $15; Shawn K $30; Shawn M $15; Sheryl B $10; Shine W D 25; Stephani A $25; Suzanne C $30; Tasha C $20; william c $35  

Donations 5^th–11^th April: $2,462 

One-time Donations

Pirjo I $100; ARNAU T $157; James F $50; THERESA S $50; Laurel R $50; Katharine F $300; Gearing Up 4 Gorillas $970 

Monthly Donations

Deborah B $10; Kathy M      $30; Alan M $20; Anna R $25; beth m $15; Brenda P $50; Donald T $35; Erin M $20; James H $55; Jesse W $20; Jim H $100; Joy E $10; Kathy B $30; Kevin F $15; Kristin O $100; Lisa H $50; Michael D $25; Patricia L-O $15; Paula G $15; PRISCILLA C $30; Ramsay B $50; rebecca w $10; Sherri S $25; Teresa E $10; Thomas T $20  

Karateka from the Humba Group   

Donations 12^th-18^th April: $955 

One-time Donations

Oliver T $25; Ragen T $50; THERESA S $50; Rustin M $40 

Monthly Donations

David S $20; Tresha D $20; Andrea D $10; ATV ORS $20; Brad M $40; Cathy R $15; Chris S $40; Daryl P $20; david b $20; Gregory F $15; Hayez V $20; Jennifer K $20; Joyce K-G $25; Kim M $40; Lera M $50; Madeleine P $40; Marilyn L $20; Martha A $30; Maryann S $30; matthew c $10; Michelle W $20; Nicholas M $5; Nikki N $25; Petrina L $50; Pirjo I $20; Piya K $70; Rebecca P $25; Robin D $20; Ross W $10; Sean H $40  

Donations 19^th-25^th April: $1,328 

One-time Donations

Stephen D $240; Jacob F $100; Christine G $100; josh r $22; Martin B $25; Minou M $30 

Monthly Donations

MIRIAM C $10; brad h $100; Jennifer A $20; A Brown $20; Anne K $20; Baerbel W $50; Carol H $15; Caroline N $10; Charla M $10; Daniela M $25; Deanne D $15; elizabeth d $40; Eric O $10; Jacqueline T $20; Jana S $5; l a kidd $6; mandi c $10; Maria H $30; Michael G $15; Michael S $30; NATHANIAL W $20; Paul J $15; Richard I $50; Salim J $10; Sandra S $15; susan r $20; Tonia W $15; wild e $25

   

Donations 26^th- 2^nd May: $1,481 

One-time Donations

Lisa s $25; Angelica V $1; Michael J $100; THERESA S $100; Jarvis C $25; Chantal A $25; Elizabeth R $50; Jorge G $40 

Monthly Donations

Carol G $15; g roberts $20; Sharon C $40; Angela S $25; Brian M $100; Chloe F $15; Chris V $50; David L   $20; diana t $50; doug b $20; Elizabeth V $20; Eric S $25; Etienne B $50; gregory k $10; Jeanie N $10; Jeffrey W $20; Jessica I $20; julia b $20; kari h $40; Karin T $55; Kelly M $50; Kevin C $20; Lalita S $20; Lara D $10; Mark H $20; Mark S $20; Martana R $15; Michelle P $30; glyn c $15; Paige W $10; reisa v $30; Robert J $10; Shawn K $30; Shawn M $15; Sheryl B $10; Stephani A $25; Suzanne C $30; Tammie F $25; Tasha C $20; Ted W $20; Timothy S $10; william c  35; Yvette L $20  

Donations 3^rd- 12^th May: $2,262 

One-time Donations

Tribal Collaboration $385; mark j $105; Ayako U $10; Deborah B $10; Jennifer A $20; Kathy M $30; Christine L $5; Paul S $200; James F $30; anon $50 

Monthly Donations

Bhavani J $10; Claude H $50; David G $10; Haishin O $27; Janice G $10; Jennifer B $15; karith c $100; Kindree B $10; Lina G $10; Micaela B $10; Sherri S $25; Shine WD $25; Cynthia W $30; Joseph S $20; justin m $20; Mark T $20; Meghan L $25; Michel S $15; Brenda P $50; Donald T $35; Jim H $100; Joy E $10; ruth t $15; Anna R $25; PRISCILLA C $30; Kristin O $100; rebecca w $10; Thomas T $20; Erin M $20; Jesse W $20; Kevin F $15; Kim M $40; Michael D $25; Paula G $15; Ramsay B $50; Alan M $20; Kathy B $30; Lisa H $50; Madeleine P $40; Teresa E $10; Anne K $20; beth m $15; Deanne D $15; elizabeth d $40; Eric O $10; Jana S $5; mandi c $10; NATHANIAL W $20; Paul J $15; Martha A $30; Ross W $10; DARIO R $50; Patricia L-O $15 

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This is Diddy. Below is the video that Pierre filmed 10 days ago at the Kibati charcoal checkpoint.

As you can see, people are hiding bags of illegal charcoal under sacks of potatoes. The truck in the video had 30 bags hidden!

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This is Diddy. As you know, most of the Mikeno Sector (where the gorillas are) has been out of bounds for us for the last 8 months. Before the rebels took over, we had 5 Patrol Posts in Mikeno: Jomba, Bikenge, Bukima, Gatovu and Kibumba. Kibumba is the only one we have had access to.

Well today I have good news: this morning we sent a team from our anti-poaching unit to the Gatovu Patrol Post with the help of the Congolese Army (FARDC). We had heard that the rebels were no longer controlling Gatovu, so we wanted to check it out.  

                       

The Reconnaissance Team 

 

The Patrol Post   

We were pleased to discover that the Patrol Post building has not been destroyed by the rebels, although we did find that a large area of trees around it had been cut down for charcoal.

    

We also found a FARDC position nearby- they told us that they would collaborate with us in re-establishing our presence in Gatovu. We hope to send a team of Rangers next week to stay there permanently.  This is a fantastic development: re-opening Gatovu is an important first step on our way back to seeing the gorillas once again. Hopefully the Jomba, Bikenge, and Bukima Patrol Posts will follow, although we know that the rebels are still very much present in those areas.   

I’ll let you know how things go next week.

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This is Diddy. I am back at Rumangabo Station and I want to tell you about the living conditions of the wives and children of some of our Rangers.  

  Hopefully in the future we will find the money to bring this building up to standard.

 

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This is Pierre. I am the newest member of the WildlifeDirect team, and I will do my best to continue the fantastic work that Samantha did over the past year.

I have just moved to Goma from London, where I was working for the BBC making documentaries. One of my goals will be to put more video on the Virunga blogs, and I welcome any suggestions you have in terms of what you would like me to film.

In the meantime, here is some footage that I shot last week at the Rumangabo Station, where you can see the smoke coming from charcoal kiln fires burning within the Virunga National Park.

Later this week, I will post footage from the Kibati charcoal roadblock, where we looked on as the Rangers confiscated about 30 bags of illegal charcoal from a single truck.

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This is Balemba. Great news: the villager that went missing last month has finally reappeared. He showed up dehydrated, thin, dirty, and barefoot, but alive!

This is what he told me:

 

Having walked from Rumangabo to his village in Bukima, he got started working in his crop field. After a couple hours, two young men with guns approached him and asked him why there weren’t any other villagers around. He told them that he was just there earlier than the others.

 

The men then became threatening and took the food he had with him (sweet potato with beans). They ordered him to follow them, taking him to an area near the Bukima Patrol Post. For three days, he was subjected to interrogations and beatings.

 

Once they were satisfied that he actually knew nothing, they transferred him from Bukima to Bikenge. There, he witnessed widespread poaching and saw other villagers forced to work for the rebels. At one point he also saw a group of gorillas in the forest (Diddy thinks it was the Kabirizi group). This was the first time he had seen gorillas in their natural habitat.

 

Kwibesha from the Kabirizi group

  

He was forced by the rebels to bring 200 liters of water every day from a spring several hundred meters into the forest. He survived on potatoes and slept in an abandoned hut, with the rebels in their tents nearby.

 

He did the best he could to hide his fear and fatigue from the rebels. In the end, he was finally freed because he was smart enough to do everything the rebels ordered him to do. Oddly enough, the rebels asked him to come back from time to time to bring them cigarettes. They even offered him a job as a tracker, with the promise that he could one day become a park ranger. He of course declined the offer and left, eventually finding his way to the displaced people’s camp at Kabaya.

 

He is still very traumatized by his ordeal, but hopefully he will get better soon.

 

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