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On Friday I went on patrol with Rangers Diddy and Yaya to cover areas recently sponsored through the Protect the Park program. As you can see on the map below, we patrolled 6 sponsored areas (in yellow) and cleared them from snares and other threats to wildlife.

The patrol took 5 hours and the areas were found to be free of snares. However, we did find that a poacher had been in the area recently, so we are keen to check adjacent areas as soon as possible.

The squares in green have not yet been taken- please sponsor them so that we can check them for snares too!

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Today a team of Rangers arrived to Bukima after 5 days spent in the forest patrolling an area near the Visoke volcano. The team leader was Ranger Bosco Hakizimnana and he showed me yet another way that poachers threaten the wildlife of Virunga National Park:

Ranger Bosco holds two bundles made with banana leaves

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I was driving with Ranger Roy on the road that goes north from Goma towards Rumangabo. (see map) We had just passed the Kibati Ranger patrol post when Roy noticed something in the park to the left (ie west) of the road. When we stopped we could hear voices and dogs not far away in the scrub.

We quickly drove back to Kibati to pick up 5 more Rangers as back-up and within 5 minutes we were back in the area. Even though this was the same place where Ranger Janvier was badly injured in a machete attack only two weeks ago, the Rangers did not hesitate and four of them immediately melted into the vegetation towards the sounds while two stood guard on the road with me.

After about 20 minutes the Rangers re-appeared with a poacher in custody and a dead bushbuck antelope he had killed. The Rangers escorted the the man to Rumangabo Station, where they also buried the bushbuck.

Just another day in the office for the Rangers of Virunga National Park…

The poacher is in red lying down - he was armed with a spear

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I have bad news: a two-month old gorilla has died in the Humba Group. The infant belongs to Bonane, who became a first-time mother on 14 March this year.

Yesterday morning one of our trackers reported that he saw that one of the two baby gorillas in the group was dead, but couldn’t confirm which one. Remember we even misidentified the female when the birth was first reported.

Bonane looks at the small immobile body

I rushed up to Bukima and this morning went to see the group- I was very sad when I saw that it was Bonane and that she was still carrying the small lifeless body of her son.

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Today ends the Fuel Briquette campaign launched last month to raise $28,897 for the 100 pressing machines and accessories to be installed in the month of May. We have raised $25,332.50, including the 2 checks for $5,000 each from Gary W and Andrew C.

Downloading a truck full of fuel briquette sacks in a refugee camp

From Balemba, Jean Bosco, myself, and all the Park Rangers who help us on the ground daily, we would like to thank every one of you who has contributed to make this happen. Every person who has made a donation and left a comment of encouragement is responsible for the continuation and success of the program. Read the full story »

Here is the latest video from the rescued baby gorilla Amani:

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We’ve just received a very strong endorsement from the UN Security Council in our struggle to overcome the charcoal trafficking in the park.

Charcoal is still considered to be the single greatest threat to the park and to the mountain gorillas.    It was the charcoal trafficking that provoked the gorilla massacre in July 2007 (a detailed account of this was given in last year’s July edition of National Geographic Magazine).  Just to give you an idea of the scale of the problem, this photo was taken by Pierre earlier today, on the way back from Bukima.  It shows the forest in flames: the work of the charcoal traffickers.

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But there is an even darker side to the illegal charcoal trade.  Many of the profits from the illegal trafficking of charcoal go straight to the FDLR. These are the Rwandan Rebels, formerly known as the Interahamwe, who are held responsible for the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.  They were forced out of Rwanda and most of them took refuge in Congo.  Many of them are now hiding in the forests of Virunga National Park.  They represent one of our greatest problems as they are heavily armed and well trained.  They are also deeply involved in the destruction of the forest for charcoal.  Because of that, they attack and kill our rangers who have been trying to protect the gorillas’ habitat.  You will remember that Janvier was badly wounded by an FDLR militiaman two weeks ago.

The UN Panel of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo produce a very influential report for the Security Council.  They recently completed their enquiries into the funding of armed groups, and yesterday published the report.  7 sections refer to the support that goes to the FDLR.  Two of those sections concern our work in Virunga:

65. The Group has gathered information on intense charcoal production controlled by FDLR in the Virunga National Park, along with other forms of exploitation of the Park’s resources. The Group is concerned about the continued presence of FDLR elements in the Park who obstruct the activities of the Institut congolais pour la conservation de la nature by perpetrating frequent attacks on its rangers during patrols to stop illegal charcoal-making activities. The Group has also received verified information that FDLR elements are collecting a charcoal tax imposed on civilians.

66. The Group of Experts is encouraged by the Institute’s initiative to promote production of combustible briquettes as an alternative to charcoal. The Group considers this initiative as a way to significantly weaken FDLR financial support through the illegal exploitation of the National Park, while at the same time creating a development option for the population living in the Park. The Group encourages the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and international donors to ensure full support to this initiative.

(You can find the full report here).

It feels like we’ve come a long way since early last year, when Robert Williams came up with the slightly strange idea of converting grass and leaves into a charcoal substitute.  We hoped it would help us protect the gorillas and their habitat, we thought it might create employment and alleviate poverty, we also hoped it might help avert a major energy crisis in North Kivu.  Now, the briquettes are being proposed as a means to weaken one of the bloodiest armed groups on the continent.

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The Protect the Park project is progressing well thanks to those of you who have sponsored areas of forest in the Gorilla Sector. Already 41 areas have been taken, representing 1241 acres of mountain gorilla habitat.

Your contributions have already had an impact: with this new funding we have been able to bring 4 extra Rangers to the Bukima patrol post, which will allow us to undertake 3 anti-poaching patrols a week from now on. We have started the enormous task of de-snaring the sponsored areas and will continue to do so as long as you help us.

Sometimes there are specific needs depending on the area. For example, there is a trail called Chabahata which was used by the CNDP rebels during the war. As I described in a post back in February, the rebels left behind a lot of trash, especially around a camp they had set up as a field hospital for wounded fighters.

The Chabahata trail goes through areas 32, 33, and 41, all three of which were taken up by sponsors over the past week. This meant that we finally had the resources to clean up the trail in these areas. Yesterday we sent a team of Rangers there, as you can see from the track log recorded by the GPS equipment the Rangers carried with them:

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And that would be a human baby! Not a gorilla, nor a chimp, nor any other kind of primate that may be found in the Congo wilderness.

Yes - William and I are due to be parents on June 2nd. So in 2 weeks. (Sorry - no photo of protuding belly!) This means I will be visibly absent from the blog for June, July and August. I will still follow what is going on - the ups and downs, the hiccups and the successes - but just from a slightly further distance than usual. I am now in London and will be back in Congo and back in the saddle by mid to late September.

I shall post a photo undoubtedly of the new arrival - we don’t yet know if it is a boy or a girl. A dear friend has already sent me baby grows with the Virunga logo emblazened on the front - so for better or worse it will be very hard for me to forget what is going on in the park! It has been a pretty interesting pregnancy I think, being in Congo - as most people logically assume that us muzungus came out of 4×4s and planes. Mostly it doesn’t even cross their mind that we procreate in the same way! So lots of comments, questions, surprise, curiosity…

I hope to see the Protect the Park project improve in leaps and bounds with more and more plots sponsored, and of course the briquette program, a park-changing project that is so important to all of us. We have nearly reached our fundraising target which is exciting. The gorillas and other wildlife of Virunga will never be far from my mind - Diddy and Innocent and others are on the Google Talk regularly to tell me what is going on!

Thanks again for all your comments, donations, awareness raising and overwhelming support for what these brave and talented Rangers are trying to achieve. Catch you all later… Samantha

Last week we re-opened tourism at an official ceremony in Goma. As head of tourism for the southern sector of Virunga National Park, it is my job to manage visits to the mountain gorillas and up the Nyiragongo volcano.

On Saturday we welcomed our very first tourist at Bukima since the CNDP rebels attacked the Gorilla Sector in September 2007, some 22 months ago. Although the Nyiragongo had been open last year, currently it is closed following the machete attack on Ranger Janvier last week.

Australian Marc Blackstone arrived on Saturday morning and went into the forest with Ranger John (left) and Tracker Rwajekare (right). He spent one hour with the Kabirizi group in what he described a “fantastic wildlife experience.”

The Rangers and locals are all very pleased to see tourists return after all this time. As we say in Swahili, Karibu!

Marc came as an independent traveller, but there are tourist agencies that are starting to organise group visits and tours. For more information, please email: tourism@gorillacd.org