Gorilla Protection

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
1. Nkunda’s Militias still occupying the gorilla sector:  This, of course, is our biggest challenge.  They are very aggressive against the rangers of ICCN, our organisation, and have threatened to execute any of us who return to the gorilla sector.

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.
The Good

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.
So we remain very worried about the future of the park, of the gorillas, and of ourselves and our families, but in remaining active and determined, there is still a lot of work to do, and through that we may just get ourselves back to the Gorillas sector.  I will give you some more details on the operations tomorrow.
Diddy

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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

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, national geographic, wildlifedirect

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The Humba family of Mountain Gorillas is one we have talked about many times as this is one of our habituated families. Humba and his family were last spotted mid November by the Ranger who was allowed in by the rebels to the Gorilla Sector to see what he could find. Since then we have no news.

Humba is habituated and calm. So for many Rangers he is actually their favorite gorilla to visit with tourists or visitors, as you know Humba is unlikely to charge or do anything too surprising!

Humba

Humba is the brother of Senkwekwe, the Silverback executed in July. Mapuwa and Ruzirabwoba are also his brothers. Humba was born into the Rugendo family and has been a Silverback since 1998, so he is aged roughly between 20 and 22 years.

In 1998 he had an interaction with his father, and the family split. Humba left with 8 individuals - 4 adult females, 1 sub-adult male (Kakendi) and 3 babies. In 1999 a baby was born into the family, called Lubutu, which meant the group size increased to 10.

Lubutu today

Here is what happened next:

2000 - Kakendi became a Blackback and left the family. Today we dont know where he lives - but he could be in one of the non-habituated groups in DR Congo. So the family number fell from 10 to 9.

2001 - The Humba family structure remained unchanged, and life continued peacefully for them.

2002 - 2 births! So 11 individuals. Matembela was born on 12th January to Magori, and Mahindure was born on 18th January to Gato.

Humba

2003 - 1 birth! So 12 individuals in total. Assan was born on 7th March to Bwoba.

2004 - Back to 11 individuals because Assan disappeared in March 2004. This was after an interaction between Humba and an unknown family. We have no idea what happened to Assan.

2005 - This was a busy year, and the family ended up with the 9 individuals that remain today.

9 February: Semakuba was born to Magori.

Magori & Semakuba, taken a few months ago

30 May: Sub-Adult Female Mburanumwe emigrated to the Rugendo family. She was one of the females killed in the July massacre.

16 June: Kanyarwunka was born to Gato.

Gato - she was called this because she is a small female compared to other gorillas. In KinyaBwisha language we usually call someone Gato when they are the smaller one of twins. In this case we named her Gato because she was the smallest female of the family.

Kanyarwunka, a few months ago

9 August: Sub-Adult Male Mukunda emigrated to the Rugendo family. Last time we saw the family in September (following July massacre) he had taken over leadership.

27 August: The adult female Bwoba disappeared; she was never seen again.

Matembela - this is the name of a Ranger who died. It is also the name of a vegetable that is like sweet potato!

10 November: Mayani is born to Mukecuru, but disappears. We do not know how or why, but this gorilla is presumed dead.

12 November: The adult female Mukecuru is found dead, presumably of old age. We thought when she gave birth to Mayani that she would not have the strength to be a mother as she always seemed to have trouble keeping up with the group. As you know Mountain Gorillas can move very fast.

Nyakamwe - this is the name of a Ranger who died in Rwindi (in Virunga National Park).

Mahindure - this means “lava” in KinyaBwisha. He was born right near the lava at Bikenge patrol post.

We are anxious to know how the Humba family is doing today. What births, deaths & interactions there have been. We hope that with the signing of the peace accord last week, we will soon get back into the Gorilla Sector. First we need to get our patrol posts back - they are still occupied by the rebels and the military. But when you have seen as much war as we have, it takes a while for the trust to start to come back. And all of us are still in this phase.

Diddy & Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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In January 1988 Phil visited the Rugabo Mountain Gorilla family with my father, Sylvestre, who was then head of the Jomba patrol post. Phil got in touch through the blog, and sent along these photos.

Phil and my father, Sylvestre Mburanumwe. In 1988 there were not many visitors to DR Congo to see gorillas. People still did not know if there were habituated gorillas here.

This is Jomba patrol post. It has changed a little bit since then - there is now a sort of welcome centre in the middle. Sabinyo volcano rises up to the right, with Mugahinga and Muhabura volcanoes in the background.

A tracker with a young gorilla.

Not much has changed in 20 years at Jomba. The lady on the right, Micheline, is the widow of a Ranger called Gachuma. He died during fighting between rebels and the army at Kibati in 1996. The girl on the left is the daughter of a Ranger called Sebagabo. He died of old age.

At Jomba. That is my sister on the far left in blue.

And here is Rugabo, the Silverback, in all his glory. He was killed in 1994 by poachers.

Rugabo, as you know, is the first family to be habituated in DR Congo in 1984 by Conrad Aveling and my father. At the time of Phil’s visit Rugabo was also called Marcel - he had 2 names. One given by Conrad for habituation purposes, and one given by us.

Rugabo was the name of a king who lived in Rutshuru, just north of our park station at Rumangabo. We gave the Silverback this name to show the king he needed to protect the gorillas, and to show the Congolese people that the gorillas belong to them.

Rugabo was also a king who loved nature. He used to help us catch poachers and bring them to the station. Today sadly there is not the same level of collaboration with the local communities.

Rugabo. In 1988 we had still not yet started naming each individual Mountain Gorilla. We usually just named the Silverback. It was in 1997 when we started monitoring them that we gave them all names.

These are the only pictures we actually have of Rugabo. So thank you Phil for sending them to us!

Remember Rugabo had 4 sons: Lulengo, Pili-Pili, Mareru & Mvuyekure. We have not seen Mvuyekure for some time and believe he was the other Silverback, with Karema, that was killed in January 2007. To read more about all our habituated Mountain Gorillas click here.

A juvenile in Rugabo family.

Also, today on our BBC Diary they put up a link of some videos that Diddy and I shot in December. There is one that is funny with Diddy imitating gorilla sounds. And I am also talking about Kadogo, my favorite gorilla. Go to the link and you will be able to watch us. BBC did lots of editing that we are not able to do here. Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, gorilla, iccn, wildlifedirect

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Since the end of December we have now seized over 40 tonnes of charcoal during anti-illegal charcoal patrols north of Goma. We are very pleased with this result and it sends a strong message that we will not stand back and watch our park be destroyed.

We blogged last week that the seized charcoal would go to schools, orphanages and hospitals - but instead ICCN decided it should go to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are in camps near the park, which makes perfect sense. You can see a map of these camps here - it was posted by Samantha on Friday. We have been working closely with Rob Muir of Frankfurt Zoological Society to do this. The camps that have benefitted are: Mugunga I, Mugunga II, Buhimba & Bulengo - which include a total of some 65,000 IDPs who have lost everything.

Charcoal distribution at an IDP camp south-west of Virunga National Park; that is Rob in the cap

This kind of shelter is commonplace in IDP camps

People were curious

And looked on

Then the distribution began

Sack by sack

The women helped with the organization

And took control

To ensure it was distributed fairly

The seized charcoal was not distributed to the IDP camp at Kibati, because they do not yet have food from UNHCR. Samantha will be providing an update on that in coming days and the fuel wood.

This distribution is an excellent idea, as the charcoal is badly needed by the thousands upon thousands of people fleeing the conflict. We hope the peace conference will work because the humanitarian situation is simply catastrophic. Although the camps are not right next to the Gorilla Sector, they are right next to Virunga National Park. And it is all part of one eco-system.

We are continuing our anti-charcoal patrols and the number of tons of seized charcoal is going up every day.

Here Augustin takes the details of the people we arrested with the charcoal

There are still many, many trucks

And we need to stop them all

Augustin, our head of the Anti-Poaching Unit, is currently sick with malaria and is in the clinic at Rumangabo. He will be on his feet soon!

Also, the 3 Rangers who were badly beaten last week are slowly getting better.

Thank you everyone for your continued donations and support. We will be doing a post soon on how money has been spent so far.

Diddy, Innocent & all of the Rangers on the anti-charcoal patrols

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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This is Samantha. In recent days I have received many emails asking me when the Rangers will be going back into the Gorilla Sector. DR Congo has featured widely in the international media, as a result of the imminent signing of a peace deal that aims to end the conflict that has claimed thousands of lives. The accord includes an immediate ceasefire, the phased withdrawal of rebel troops in North Kivu province, and the resettlement of thousands of villagers, including those IDPs near the park we have been blogging about.

As I write, Wednesday morning, rival sides have yet to finalize agreement and a firm commitment has yet to be made by the respective groups. They say it is the Mai Mai rebels and those led by ex-General Laurent Nkunda who are having major disagreements.

We are all waiting.

This story came out on Monday on the BBC, that was fairly optimistic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7199412.stm

Then on Tuesday the BBC reported that peace talks had stalled. So not quite as optimistic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7202002.stm

Supposing the peace deal is signed today, or this week - what does it mean for the Rangers and the possibility of getting back into the Gorilla Sector? Well reactions vary enormously. There are Rangers who, after 2 decades of conflict, view the situation with skepticism, and say that peace on the terms proposed will simply not last. When I ask them if this is all going to work, I hear “Je ne crois pas” very often. That is “I don’t think so“.

And there are many, who are tired, very tired. They want to move on. They want to work. They want to go home. And so they hope it will stick.

Rangers want to know if gorillas have been born during the recent fighting

On a practical level, before the Rangers can actually get back in to check on the Mountain Gorillas, the army and the rebels must leave the patrol posts that they occupy - namely Jomba, Bikenge & Bukima (see map below). Jomba has been somewhat of a High Command for the rebels since September. This required departure is not expected to happen from one day to the next, ie immediately post the signing of a deal - but that is obviously a key factor for the Rangers. The army and the rebels also have to stop shooting at each other. There have still been exchanges, and assaults, even with the peace conference going on.

The Gorilla Sector (aka Mikeno Sector) is in green

So that is all I can really say for now. The people of eastern DR Congo are waiting - they all walk round with portable radios stuck to their ear. The Rangers are waiting. And the Mountain Gorillas are undoubtedly wonderfully oblivious to everything.

Samantha

Technorati : congo, drc, gorilla, iccn, peace, wildlifedirect

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This is Innocent. Last week I was invited to Rwanda with fellow Rangers to visit the Kwitonda Mountain Gorilla family. Kwitonda emigrated to Rwanda in October 2004 from DR Congo. As you know Mountain Gorillas do not know international borders like us! Remember Ruzirabwoba who came back from Rwanda in September? Diddy & I also blogged about Kwitonda when we posted about the 4 sons of Rugabo.

I had not seen Kwitonda and his family since 2004, and it was wonderful to see how the family had evolved since that time. His family has grown from 14 to 16 members.

We and the Rwandans still consider Kwitonda Congolese, even though he is no longer in DRC. This is why we were invited and why we share the knowledge of deaths, births and interactions of this family. In 2004 I was of course not in charge of Gorilla Monitoring as I am now, but I was in charge of Gorilla Identification. And do I knew Kwitonda and his clan well.

I went with Director Norbert Mushenzi (who runs the southern sector of Virunga, including the Gorilla Sector), the Director of the whole of Virunga, Mr Wathaut, and also Joel, who works with Wathaut as his right hand man. The man in the beige fleece, Justin, is the Rwandan Director of ORTPN, the Rwandan equivalent of ICCN.

Here is the Silverback Kwitonda. It means “He who is calm” in KinyaBwisha. There are 16 members in his family - up from 14 in 2004.

Karevuro is 1 of the 2 blackbacks in the family.

This is Chiri, named after my uncle who was a Ranger in Kinshasa.

Marambo, a sub-adult male, looks out suspiciously at me.

Chiri again - who was very playful.

Kwitonda was still calm, much like Humba. He did not charge or show aggression at any time.

Karevuro seems like he will become a Silverback soon. It will be interesting to see what happens to him. He may be forced to leave the family and become a solitary.

Here I am with Kigoma, the other of the 2 blackbacks of the family.

The family is visited by tourists who come to Rwanda for gorilla-watching tourism and pay $500 to spend 1 hour with them.

Of course since 2004 the family had changed. Babies had become juveniles, and juveniles had become sub-adults and so on. Gorillas grow up, just like my own family.

Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, gorilla, iccn, wildlifedirect

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This is Innocent. A brief outline on the situation since last week.

At them moment Gatovu is held by the national army and the rebels have maintained their positions at Bukima. This is the stalemate that we have had to live with for over three months. It is a terrible situation for the gorillas, because the front cuts through the most important part of the gorilla range. It exposes the gorillas to the huge risk of getting caught up in the fire between the two sides.

However, for two or three days, there has been a reduction in fighting, possibly in anticipation of the delayed peace talks in Goma that are due to start on Sunday. We are all pinning our hopes on these talks, because there is nothing else that can bring peace to our lands. If they fail, the future gives no space for hope.

The Director of the National Park (my boss), may be participating in the peace talks, given that most of the fighting has actually been in the National Park. It gives us a chance to voice our concern about the park, the wildlife and ourselves, as one of the victims of the armed conflict that has turned our lives upside down these last four months.

Diddy has taken advantage of the quiet period in the fighting to travel through Rutshuru to see his family at Kiwanja. He will be back in a few days.

Patrols have continued to try to prevent the clearing of the forest around the displaced peoples’ camps, but the work is very difficult under the current security conditions. The acting senior warden of Rumangabo will be addressing of the staff tomorrow at the station, to give his orders and plans for 2008. I will update you on this in a couple of days.

Lastly, I would like to wish you all, who have helped us so much through 2007, a Happy New Year for 2008. I say that with our Kenyan Friends in mind, who are sharing our ordeal after their elections. We pray, it will not last.

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This is Diddy and Innocent. Thank you very much for all of your donations. It it amazing to us that we have reached the $20,000 fuel wood target in such a short amount of time (and even gone past it!). This blog has now been going for a year - and none of us ever imagined we would be able to make contact with so many incredible supporters and learn so much. Thank you.

We are still fighting the charcoal problem. We have been out almost daily to make arrests, and raise awareness. As we have stated, we need to provide fuel wood to refugees and IDPs, but we cannot let individuals destroy the forest for a short term financial gain. At the moment with the war, it is still chaos, and people take advantage of this because it is a good way to earn money. We, with our fellow Rangers, are protecting the forests for future generations.

We have been raising awareness at the local markets near the Gorilla Sector - we tell people that Virunga and the Mountain Gorillas are their heritage, and potentially an enormous source of revenue. We do not want to stop people from cooking, but it has gone way way beyond this.

And so we go on. Christmas is not celebrated that much here, but we were both with our families. We bought our children some clothes, some food and a fizzy drink.

The fighting continues. Lately it has been a lot round Gatovu, where the Kabirizi family used to roam. We hope and pray each day that our gorillas are safe.

The day before yesterday an infant of a Ranger called Maniriho died from malaria. So we will attend the funeral. Malaria is the biggest killer here, especially in children under 5.

Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement. We continue the fight with all of our Rangers at ICCN. We are very very positive about supplying the fuel wood.

Kwa Heri

Diddy & Innocent

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This is Samantha. Diddy & Innocent are still busy on anti-charcoal burning patrols. Diddy was at home in Kiwanja yesterday with his family for Christmas and Innocent was in Goma. Christmas is not celebrated in DR Congo like it is for most of us, but the family is together. The fighting has not abated, and the situation is still very bad.

The GREAT news is that we have SURPASSED the $20,000 target for fuel wood for the refugees. This is absolutely brilliant and is down to the generosity of spirit of each and every one of you. The total is $21,345. Just incredible. The donate item for fuel wood will be coming off the donations list as a result.  

Thank you from the Rangers and the WildlifeDirect team. This money is going to be utilized, as stated on this blog several times since the appeal was launched 12th December, to supply fuel wood to IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) at Kibati. The goal remains the same: to prevent IDPs who are in need of fuel wood to cook and boil water from cutting down the forest in Virunga National Park, and specifically in the Gorilla Sector.

One-time Donation 21^st-25^th December - Stanka M, 50, Grace B, 250, Danielle D, 15, S C G, 20, Pamela J W, 25, Jim L, 50, Debbie S, 25, james c, 500, Ruth A, 60, Megan F, 30, Michael C, 10, Lisa C, 100, GM W, 20, Justine B, 40, Jamie G, 80, Alexandra B, 25, Larissa B, 50, sanjay p, 100, Rebecca P, 100, jai a, 200, maria c, 30, Sherri M, 100, Adrian S, 100.

Fuel Wood for Refugees Donations 21^st-25^th December - Cheryl H, 40, Daphne H, 20, Naomi K, 20, S C G, 20, alisa d, 40, Michael C, 40, Megan B, 60, Lisa C, 20, Oliver T, 60, Håvard E, 20, Alain v, 20, alain v, 20, Arnold J, 40, Carmen e, 20, Jesse W, 100, Stephen B, 20, Albert B, 400, D A E, 20, THERESA S, 1,000.00, maria c, 20, alex f, 20, Michael B, 100, David L, 80.

SCG said “This donation is in honor of Isabella, she asked me (Santa)to donate to help animals (gorillas especially) and the planet. I was very happy to do so – Santa” Rebecca P said “Given in celebration of my wedding this December to Franc”

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