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Virunga’s Volcanoes

Seven of the eight volcanoes in the Virunga range stand within the park’s boundaries. Indeed the word Virunga corresponds to the word volcano in Kinyarawanda, the first language of the people who live nearest to the park.

Most of the Virunga Volcanoes are dormant, but two of them - Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira - are very active: they are responsible for two-fifths of the total of Africa’s volcanic eruptions

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THE THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE GORILLA MASSACRE: CONGOLESE RANGERS COMMEMORATE THE TRAGEDY

On the morning of 22 July 2007, Rangers in Virunga National Park found the bodies of four mountain gorillas. They had been murdered by gunmen; shot at point blank range in the manner of an execution. The remains of another gorilla from the same family were found three weeks later. Her infant was missing, presumed dead. Images of the tragedy were broadcast across the globe, bringing attention to the threats facing this critically endangered species.

The events of that day were described in detail on our blog at the time (click here to read)

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Mukunda – the solitary Silverback that was relocated to the park just a few weeks ago – is now in Rwanda. These are the latest reports from the field, from my Rangers and also the Rangers with ORTPN, the Rwandan Wildlife Authority with whom we work closely to protect Mountain Gorillas.

Mukunda refuses to remain in the forest

It seems that despite our best efforts, and those of the HUGOs, this Silverback refuses to stay in the park. He remains intent on feasting in the fields of the local communities and ravaging their crops – maiz, bananas etc. He is also becoming aggressive toward humans. And of course gorillas do not know international borders like we do – so it makes no difference to them whether they are in Rwanda or Congo.

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Now the Humba family of Mountain Gorillas has started to leave the forests of Virunga to eat the crops of the villagers who live next to the park. As you can see this is an ongoing problem – and we desperately need to find a solution.

Humba and his clan are leaving the park to eat the corn planted by the local communities

The HUGOs are hard at work – encouraging and coaxing the animals back to their habitat. But it is not an easy task, and there is only so much noise the HUGOs can make. After a while the gorillas quite simply just ignore them.

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On 30 June the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrated 50 years as an independent sovereign state. In Kinshasa President Kabila took the salute at a military parade and afterwards hosted heads of state and other dignitaries - including King Albert II of Belgium and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon - at a gala dinner. And people in communities across the DRC got together to express their pride in this beautiful country, their sadness for all that they have suffered, and their hope for the future.

The Democratic Republic of Congo gained independence 50 years ago

The borders of this vast country were drawn onto the continent by King Leopold II of Belgium. The Victorian prospector Henry Morton Stanley published journals detailing his exploration of the Congo as a kind of prospectus for the establishment of a gigantic colony in the heart of Africa. Stanley had hoped that the British would adopt his plan, but when they did not he turned to Leopold, whose desire to establish a Belgian Colony in Africa was well known.

DR Congo’s flag today

Leopold set about establishing the Congo Free State, a personal fiefdom the purpose of which was to extract from the Congo Basin as much wealth – mostly in the form of rubber – as possible. The Free State quickly became a by-word for brutal imperialism, and, when the British Consul Roger Casement published the findings of his investigation into working conditions in the colony the world extrapolated from his report the scale and intensity of the abuses taking place there. The calls for reform of the Congo became deafening.

In 1908 under great international and domestic pressure Leopold agreed that Belgium could annexe and administer the Free State. The territory became known as the Belgian Congo and was governed much like any other European colony until being granted independence in June 1960. When the Belgians left in 1960 the country they left behind made little political sense. It was a huge mosaic of tribal polities. It was almost ungovernable.

It is no surprise then that the last 50 years have been difficult for the people of Congo. After the violent storms of the early years passed, the country drifted in the stagnant calm of the Mobutu era. But his thirty-three years in power left the country in a much worse state than that in which he had found it. When he was deposed in 1998 the world hoped that life for the people of Congo would improve, but instead the country became the centre of a decade long regional war that would prove to be Africa’s bloodiest conflict ever.

DR Congo lies in the heart of Africa

In the last 50 years there have been occasional episodes of success. The story of Conservation in Congo is surely one of them. In 1925 King Albert I, who was a passionate conservationist, decreed that, for the scientific advancement and moral benefit of everyone, the area that we now know as Virunga would be protected by law. It was Africa’s first national park and was the first of several that the Belgians would establish in the Congo.

Virunga National Park

If the colonial rulers showed foresight in creating the parks, then the Congolese people showed tenacity in keeping them. The DRC has a biological heritage like none other and, in the years since the Congolese people won their independence, many of them have died defending that heritage. Still more have devoted their working lives to its protection. Like the DRC’s other national parks, Virunga survived the transition from colonial to independent rule and everything that has happened since because of the courage and commitment of her Park Rangers.

Celebrating independence

Now, when the country is run by a democratically elected government and is at peace with her neighbours, is a time to be optimistic about the future of Virunga, of this country and of her people.