Gorilla Protection

This is Diddy. The last few weeks have been very difficult, with more pressure than ever being placed on those of us who are based in the park, trying to prevent the forest destruction.

Inspite of the difficulties we have had quite a lot of success, with charcoal supply being reduced to about a third of what it was. Also our rangers are now very present in the park, and regularly make arrests of poachers and teams going in to clear the forest. Three days ago, one of our patrols seized a group of poachers with snares and poison.

Poison seized from poachers in the Nyamulagira Sector

The impact of poison on wildlife can be devestating, and we are very concerned about its increased use near the gorilla sector. Again, one incident could destroy a whole family of mountains gorillas, and so we have to be incredibly careful. Snares have also had a terrible impact on our gorillas. You will remember Karema, who was killed at the beginning of last year, had also lost his hand to a snare when he was a young juvenile black back.

A second troop of 15 rangers of the Advance Force has been deployed in our area. They are here to strengthen the existing patrols and road blocks. We have also been carrying training with the rangers, to continuously build up their skills and update them on new techniques. Yesterday we trained them in using GPS. We have been donated a GPS by Andrew C, in Colorado, which will be extremely useful in the remoter parts of the park.

GPS training

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This a major breakthrough. Honore Mashagiro has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the mass killing of Mountain Gorillas in June and July Last year. He was in a position of great responsibility, and allegedly used his authority to promote the destruction of forest for charcoal to make money. This threatened the gorilla habitat, so when the rangers tried to protect the forest, he allegedly orchestrated the gorilla massacres to discourage them. Many of you will remember those terrible days when we discovered the burned remains of Safari, and the the bodies of the rest of the Rugendo family, including Senkwekwe, the silverback.

Senkekwe, shortly after the Massacre in July last year

The charges against Mashagiro were brought against him by the state, through ICCN, the wildlife authority, and is testimony that the rule of law can be brought into effect, even when it concerns powerful people. It is definitely a moment of hope for all of us, but obviously we await the outcome of a trial before saying any more.

Results like this take time, but it is so important never to give up. We don’t yet have all the details, but will update you in the coming days.

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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.

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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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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

Technorati : charcoal, congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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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)

Technorati : congo, drc, 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 Samantha. I know you have all been waiting for an update on the fuel wood for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Kibati. This follows on from December’s fuel wood campaign when WildlifeDirect request $20K to provide fuel wood to 7,000 people for 4 weeks. This was to prevent IDPs from cutting down the park for fuel wood, something that would take years and years for the park to recover from.

This was always intended to be a stop-gap measure, until the humanitarian agencies provided the fuel wood to the IDPs themselves. There is simply no way that a small conservation organization like WildlifeDirect can commit to providing fuel wood in the long term to IDPs. We just do not have the funds, despite amazing generosity from all the blog readers.

To refresh your memory courtesy of WWF, with whom we are working closely on this issue as they have the expertise: Mikeno Sector is aka the Gorilla Sector. Kibumba site and around there is where IDPs have come from. Kibati is where the IDP camp has been set up. Nyamulagira Sector is the other part of the southern sector of Virunga National Park (with Mikeno Sector).

So on 27 December I blogged that we had reached the $20K campaign target - in fact we ended up surpassing it and reached $21,385. So these funds in their entirety will go to the IDP fuel wood.

Now when we started this campaign, I was clear that in the end we may not need to provide fuel wood. In other words the conflict may have ended and the IDPs could all return home. Regrettably this has not been the case. While the conflict has diminished in intensity due to the ongoing peace conference (see below), the insecurity is still there and no IDPs are returning home. So we absolutely need the money for the fuel wood.

You may have read in the press there is a peace conference currently being held in Goma that aims to find a solution to this conflict that has dogged the east of DRC for far too long. The conference, with 1,300 participants, over 60 working commissions, and reaching a cost of nearly $5 million (funded by the European Union), will continue toward the end of Jan. We all hope a compromise will be reached, that the fighting will end, that people will be able to go home and that the Rangers will once again be able to patrol the Gorilla Sector. We shall see.

So, back to the IDP camp at Kibati. I went there last Sunday. Last time I was there was mid-December, and I blogged about it, with pictures. In mid-December there were just a couple of “hangars”, large structures made of tarp. Nothing else.

Now the camp looks like this:

One of the “hangars” is to the left of the photo, and on the right is the water supply.

This was an empty space when I visited in December. Now there are some 4,500 IDPs living here.

Each shelter houses at least 4 people. Conditions are cramped and sanitation lacking.

IDPs are waiting for delivery of food.

The water truck in background and water storage in fore.

Children & adults mill about, waiting.

There are an estimated 4,500 IDPs in the camp, in what I can only describe as miserable conditions. UNHCR, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, is in charge of the camp, with management subcontracted out for the most part to NRC, the Norwegian Refugee Council. That is how it works basically, UNHCR subcontracts to other humanitarian NGOs for the management of IDP camps.

So the people have been moved there from around the Gorilla Sector. This is positive in the sense that now they are all in one place to help. The UNHCR however has yet to deliver food to the camp - which of course means we cannot deliver fuel wood. I have no idea how on earth people are getting by. I am hopeful that the food delivery will happen next week, and WildlifeDirect is coordinating with Rob at FZS and Bruno at World Wildlife Fund to see if the fuel wood can be delivered at same time as the food. Logistics as you know are fairly challenging here. In addition the price of fuel has gone up as a result of the Kenya troubles - everything in eastern DRC comes from Mombassa. But nevertheless we are ready to jump.

So the long and short of it is that the fuel wood has not yet been delivered, but it will be very soon, and so the campaign has been a success. In other words, we have ended up needing those funds that you all donated to this effect. Thank you to each and everyone of you who donated. This is a small step toward protecting the forests of Virunga National Park, and the habitat of the Mountain Gorillas.

Samantha

Technorati : congo, drc, fuel wood, iccn, idp, wildlifedirect

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This is Emmanuel at WildlifeDirect. We just received some quite disturbing news from Norbert Mushenzi, a senior warden in Virunga, that two infant lowland gorillas were found by a MONUC patrol near Kanyabayonga, just outside the park, near the southern shores of Lake Edward. The infants were transferred to the park station at Mutsora this morning, where they are being looked after by Godefroid Wambale, who is the officer in charge. The younger one, who weighs about 10 kgs apparently, is in fairly good condition, but very young and vulnerable. The older one, about 20kgs, has been quite badly wounded by a machete to the shoulder and to the arm. We will be trying to get Dr. Jacques of MGVP up to Mutsora to stabilise their condition.

These gorillas probably come from the area to the west of the park, where to lowland forest starts, possibly from the Tayna Reserve. Eastern lowland gorillas are very similar to Mountain Gorillas, but live at lower altitudes. They are more abundant than the mountain gorillas, but have been badly affected by the war, and they have probably been decimated over the past 15 years. We don’t know that much about them because they live in very remote and insecure parts of Congo.

Unfortunately, there were no arrests when the MONUC patrol seized the infants from the poachers. The rangers are following up at the moment to see if they can secure the arrests and press charges.

Godefroid will try to update you on his blog over the next few days.

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