Gorilla Protection

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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