gorilla.cd

I have mentioned in recent posts the repeated armed contacts that we have had over the last month with rogue elements in the army and militias.  Most of these fights relate to control over the fish breeding sites on Lake Edward.  These are shallow bays that are incredibly important for the production of fish, but also for our hippo populations.  Thousands of hippos used to live in these bays, and the fish that bred here created the most productive lake on the African continent.  Before the war, Lake Edward’s fishing industry used to be a pillar of the economy in eastern Congo.  Today, the fish stocks have collapsed, driving the fishing communities that live around the lake into a spiral of poverty.  According to the fishing cooperative, a fishing boat used to come back with over 700kgs after a day’s fishing.  Today, they struggle to come back with 10kgs of fish.  All of this is caused by the destructive habits of armed men living off the land and profiting from poaching and illegal fishing.

Hippos are still being slaughtered by rogue elements in the army as well as militias.

Some of the biggest hippo killings over the past few years happened in these bays.  I remember flying over them in 2006, and seeing the waters colored red with the blood of slaughtered hippos.  Ever since, we have tried to dislodge the camps of armed groups but we were always outnumbered and outgunned.  During this time, they established very lucrative protection rackets for illegal fishing.

Things are now changing.  We have entered into a partnership with the fishing communities, with the traditional chiefs, and have come to an agreement with the army, to push out the all armed men on the lake shores and re-establish the park’s authority in those areas.  A few weeks ago we began a blockade of the lake using the park’s three vessels, and we cut off all their supply lines on land by placing 120 Rangers across the area.

ICCN maintain a position on the shores of Lake Edward to catch illegal fishermen and poachers. The area is flooded and mosquito infested, but the hardship that the Rangers have had to put up with is beginning to pay off.

We released a joint communiqué last month with the Fishermen’s Union, the Cooperative and the traditional chiefs, enforcing a ban on all illegal fishing (no fishing in the breeding sites, no illegal nets and no unregistered fishing boats).   If we can enforce these laws, we would effectively cut off one of the major sources of financing for the armed groups and rogue elements in the military.  The Rangers on the ground have been enforcing this ban, and this has turned violent on several occasions.  In spite of the difficulties, it’s very important to keep our resolve, as we discovered recently, when 240 armed men left the peninsula at Chiondo and withdrew from the park.

Rangers destroy an illegal fishing boat.

Yesterday, we placed a series of buoys to mark off the protected sites.  Two of these sites, Mwigha and Kabale, have now been marked out, and we hope to do the others in the coming weeks.  If we can keep our alliance going with the local fisherman and the traditional chiefs we can achieve a lot, but they too are constantly threatened by the armed groups.  They don’t have weapons to defend themselves, so it’s a brave move on their part to hold out against the destruction of the park.

This is where the buoys are positioned to protect key areas of the lake from illegal fishing (in the spawning grounds).

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