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This is Jean Bosco. As part of the community conservation program, I work with local community groups who are involved in building and repairing the wall on the border between the Mikeno Sector and the surrounding farmland. This project was started back in 2003 and the wall now stretches for miles from the Ugandan border to the Rwandan border.

Portion of wall in need of repair

This wall is important not only to show the boundary of Virunga Park, but also to stop wildlife from going into the villagers’ fields and eating their crops. This is key to avoiding human/wildlife conflict.

In Kibumba, there are community groups who volunteer three times a week to work on the wall. Last week I went to see them- here are some photos and a video of them at work:

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This is Jean Bosco. As you know, I am the Community Conservation Officer for the southern sector of Virunga National Park.

After the massacre of the Rugendo family in July, we carried out a project in communities to raise awareness about protecting Mountain Gorillas, through the use of films and talks. We did this in schools, churches and the military camps of the 9th brigade. Our team consisted of Director Norbert Mushenzi (my boss), and 3 people from WWF, including Grand-pere (which means Grandfather in English), Gerard and Modogo.

Director Norbert Mushenzi opened the talks. The first session took place near the military camp at Rumangabo.

I also participated in each session. This one is in a church.

People listened.

By watching the film and listening to our talks, the communities were able to better understand the importance of gorillas as part of our national heritage. We talked about the way of life of gorillas, and how they behave in the family unit. Mountain gorillas are different to other animals for us.

These are children at a school who live near the Gorilla Sector.

Grand-pere from WWF spoke. He also spoke in Lingala at this military camp because many of the military here are from the west of the country.

Here again are members of the military and their wives. They enjoyed the films and asked us to come back.

And this one is at a church in Buvunga, 2km north of Rumangabo park station.

Justin, a trainee, talks to the congregation.

The people who took part and watched the films all condemned the July killings.

Jean Bosco

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

I am Jean Bosco Bichamakara and I head up community relations in Rumangabo. This means that I work with the communities that live around the Gorilla Sector and in the southern sector of Virunga National Park.

I work very closely with Innocent and Diddy and so I will also start contributing to this blog. I have been in this job since 2003 and with ICCN for 9 years.

My name Bichamakara actually means “Forbid Charcoal” in the KinyaBwisha language.

So my job is to protect the park and to work with the local communities to do this. For example, if animals leave the park to steal the crops of the local populations, we need to intervene to help solve this problem. Buffaloes, elephants and gorillas are the main animals that do this. Remember the Rugendo family in particular does this because they are so habituated to humans.

So we often help coerce the animals into re-entering the park, and we try and educate the local communities into the importance of preserving our park. When we finally get stability, tourism will be one of the major sources of revenue for the local populations. So we need to protect Virunga and the wildlife so that this can become a reality.

Here I am with my colleague Pierre Ndeze. His grandfather was a tribal chief who died in February. Ndeze, the Mountain Gorilla daughter of Safari who is now orphaned in Goma after the Rugendo massacre, is named after him.

I have 12 Rangers in my team, so we are 13 including myself. There are 12 patrol posts in the southern sector of Virunga National Park, so this is how we come to this figure - 1 community relations officer at each post.

I look forward to posting more about my work on this blog and receiving your comments.

Jean Bosco

Technorati : community conservation, congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect