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Rodrigue, the central sector warden, reported a violent confrontation with elephant poachers early this morning near Mabenga.  We have lost three elephants in this area since the beginning of the year, and because of that launched a major operation in the area 16 days ago.  A large number of our men have been patrolling the area, carrying out surveillance, and laying ambushes.

Volunteers…prevent the slaughter of elephants — and you don’t have to be in Virunga to help!
 
 
CLICK HERE to go to the Elephant Crisis Page and see how you can help.

I’m writing to ask for your help.  Last week we suffered the loss of one or our elephants in the Mabenga area.  This is extremely worrying because it could indicate the beginning of a major poaching crisis in that area.  We have to act fast and vigorously to stop this crisis before it even begins and we really need your support for this.

This was a short film we took of one of our Mabenga elephants last year.  The event reminds us how friendly and trusting they are, but also how incredibly vulnerable they are to poachers, and nothing short of 24 hour armed protection will keep them alive.

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There are about 80 elephants in the Mabenga area; it’s one of the park’s most important populations to have survived the war.  We have received information that the people involved in the killing of the elephant are still in the area and we must deal with this problem. We will be putting together a team of ten rangers to specifically protect this area.  We also need to build proper surveillance, elephant monitoring, intelligence gathering etc.  For that reason, we want to set up an elephant protection unit as a long term solution to the poaching problem.  Their job will be to provide 24 / 7 protection to the Mabenga elephants to avoid their possible extinction.

We need your help to set up this protection unit. The park has very limited resources, but we have to respond to killing incidences like the loss of our elephants last week.  I would be very grateful for your thoughts on this and in particular if there is anyone who would be willing to volunteer their time to make this elephant anti-poaching unit a reality.  I passionately believe that anybody anywhere in the world can make a profound difference to the future of the park.  The kind of support that we need is for people to campaign on the behalf of the park, getting feedback from the rangers on the ground and raising support by communicating this to a community of supporters around the world.  It would involve a few hours of voluntary work a week, and you will be working from your home but in close collaboration with my field team that will support your efforts with web support, information and ideas on mobilizing communities.

I hate to show this picture, but it’s important to realise just how awful elephant poaching is.

If there is anybody who feels they could help us with this campaign please do send us a message on elephantcrisis@gorilla.cd, with some information about yourself.  Please don’t hesitate if you have ideas on helping the elephants of Virunga.

I received a very disturbing call this morning from Rodrigue, the Sector warden for the Rwindi area.  An elephant was killed during the night by poachers on the main road to Goma. He immediately went in with a section of rangers and launched an investigation. The elephant was shot eight time, and its head removed.  The poachers left with the Ivory.  It’s too early to give any information on the scene of the crime but unfortunately, for various reasons, we can’t even use the hounds to pursue the poachers.  It’s deeply disturbing and very worrying for the future of our small elephant populations.  We’ve taken measures to secure the area and will be stepping up a number of measures in that area and elsewhere.

A simple electric fence acts as a conflict-resolution tool between the park and surrounding population.

by Norbert Mushenzi
Norbert is the warden of the northern sector of the park that includes part of Lake Edward, the Semliki River, and the Ruwenzori Mountains. This is his report on one of the issues he deals with in the north and how it can be solved.

Crop depredation by wild animals is a major problem that most protected areas in Africa must deal with. Virunga, as with most parks, is contiguous with the cultivated fields of people living around the park, and without any real buffer zone, there isn’t much to stop elephants, buffalo, and gorillas from destroying the hard labor and food supply of the local people.

The line between the park and the farms can be clearly seen.

In the northern sector, elephants have caused considerable damage to crops. During the late summer, for several weeks they crossed from the park land into private land to feast on the vegetables planted there.

In the past, the main options when elephants came out of the park were:
1.    Repression by using the sound of bells and banging of pans
2.    Repression by shooting in the air
3.    The practice of planting peppers in areas frequented by the wild animals.

These solutions are all short-term, and don’t really solve the problem. The best long-term solution has been the electric fence, which we built in 2010 along a 19 km section of the park beginning near Mutsora, the park headquarters, heading south. It has worked well in that section.

How the Electric Fence Project Worked

Step 1: We first brought together farmers and their traditional leaders to create an atmosphere of community interest, explaining the project and how it would significantly reduce the conflicts between the park and the population, and that it should include volunteerism.

Step 2: We inventoried the damage caused by elephants that year, and used this to select the workforce among the residents to build the fence.

Electric fence and the cabin for the solar powered electricity.

Step 3: Building the fence was an easy task in many ways. It involved 3 parts:
•    Building of a cabin for solar electrical power using two solar panels, two batteries, two transformers, and two charge controllers.
•    Building the fence, which was made with poles and electrical wire in a 10 meter wide by 19 kilometer long section of cleared space.
•    Forming an association made up of local residents for maintenance of the fence. The association of 150 farmers not only makes sure the electric fence is working properly, but also reports all suspected poaching incidents within their area.

These two small solar panels power 19 km of electric fence.

Future:
The electric fence has been hugely successful but there’s still need for it to be extended into other areas where the elephants have come out regularly. In the big picture, it’s not an expensive project. We are currently looking for donors interested in funding several more fences in the park, and the construction of an electric fence in the gorilla sector in the south will hopefully begin soon.

The solar panels power two batteries. Everything for the electricity is in this small cabin.

Javier Kakule holds onto baby Shamavu who loves his milk and drank the entire bottle without pausing once.

Gorillas:

• We received a great deal of press this past week on the rescue of the baby gorilla and the problem that poaching seems to be on the rise. MSNBC, National Geographic, The Times London, and many more wrote stories and linked to or site. We are always grateful for the publicity and it’s our hope that more and more people around the world will become aware of the hard work and commitment of the rangers and staff here.
• The baby gorilla, Shamavu is doing well, and has already bonded with his caretakers, Foster and Javier Kakule, who seem to truly care for him as well. I’ve watched this baby wrap his arms around Foster’s neck and kiss him, just like a human child. It brings home the fact of how special these animals are, how like humans, and why we connect with them. If you would like to help support the care of this baby, you can do so to the right of this blog post using the barometer donate button. We do need your support.

Dirk-Jan Vermeij (far right), envoy for the Dutch Embassy Kinshasa, watches the Tongo chimps in the trees.

Tourism

• Dirk-Jan Vermeij, envoy for the Dutch Embassy in Kinshasa, visited Rumangabo to see some of the work they support which includes Tongo and the chimpanzee habituation project run by Frankfurt Zoological Society. Several of our staff joined Dirk-Jan Vermeij to see the chimps for the first time. I went on a chimp trek recently in Tongo and thoroughly enjoyed it. The village of Tongo itself sits on a hillside overlooking a valley of lava flow, the hills where the chimps live, and the Virunga Massif in the background (when it’s clear). It’s beautiful.

View of the Tongo hills sitting on top of an old lava flow where the chimpanzees live. The L-shaped building in the foreground is a school built by the park for the community.

Security

• As we reported last week in a blog post, elephant and hippo continue to come out of the forest and river to raid the cultivated fields in the northern sector near Masambo and the Ugandan border. Significant cassava, maize and banana crops were destroyed, and the owners have filed complaints with the park. Park rangers are working hard to stop the raids.
• The operation in Muramba to clear the area of Mai Mai militia was very successful.  There were armed contacts with militias, but several camps were destroyed, and quite a lot of ammunition was seized from their camps.

Rangers

• The officer training is completed in Mutsora. In all, 26 of our officers were trained to command a platoon, that’s up to about 40 men.  This completes a very important phase in our training.  There is one training session left this year which is for high level officers (a company command, that’s up to about 120 men).

Jean Bosco works with the community to set up dialogue committees.

Community

• Our community liaison, Jean Bosco, held an important meeting in Kiwanja on Friday (a community north of Rumangabo park headquarters) to create some dialogue committees in villages surrounding the park. The goal is to give people a place to discuss problems related to the park, and give the park an opportunity to address issues as well as identify the community’s greatest need. We are committed to establishing better relationships with the local community and believe this is a good place to start.

Misc.

• I was invited to give a presentation at a TEDx gathering in Geneva organised by WWF.  I’m incredibly glad I went, as it was an opportunity to meet some very good people, and an amazingly talented bunch of speakers, all deeply committed to the environment. There was a venture capitalist / physicist committed to resolving the energy crisis, a key member of the London Symphony Orchestra using music to inspire people about the value of nature, and a Sherpa who had twice climbed Everest and a good dozen other Himalayan peaks and was campaigning on global warming.  Puts things in proportion, in our little world.

And…one last photo of baby gorilla Shamavu…

It’s an unfortunate thing to be a farmer and have elephant and hippo for neighbors.  At some point, they will most likely invite themselves over to your place for a meal. That one meal could cost you a month’s supply of food for your family…or far more.

Virunga elephants periodically come out of the forests and raid farms nearby. The latest incident this week involved about 30 elephant invading the cultivated fields at the village of Kyatenga in the northern sector, about 20 km from the Ugandan border. These elephant came at night and destroyed a cassava field, and came the next night, and the next…for five nights. In the end, over 500 sq. meters were consumed or destroyed.

In the same area, hippos twice came out of the Semlikiki river at night and raided a beans and cabbage field.

Our rangers have been patrolling the area to try to stop these animals from their nightly raids. One method is to use fire to scare them off, or if necessary, shoot into the air if they get too close. It can be dangerous at night for the rangers, but it can also be dangerous for the animals if the locals get angry enough to take action on their own. In the past, this has involved poisoning the animals or setting elephant snares and traps.

Southern Sector warden, Innocent, shows an elephant trap – a piece of wood with spikes meant for an elephant’s foot.

Virunga officers believe these raids are a result of Ugandan ADF NALU militia who have occupied the forested area that is home to the elephants, and when an elephant feels threatened, it moves.

The possible short-term solution is to launch an operation to rid the forest of the militia group. The best long-term solution is to build a solar powered electric fence like the one currently in use further north along a 19 km stretch of forest.

A 19 km electric fence lines the forest in the Mutwanga area to keep the elephant from raiding the cultivated crops on the opposite side of the road.

Here is a video taken on a mobile phone of an elephant from the park as it walked through Mabenga on the southern border of the central sector. This is a wild elephant, and a rather friendly one. I wouldn’t try this at home (if you happen to live near wild elephants)…they will likely kill you. (There’s no sound, so no, nothing is wrong with your computer.)

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MGVP vets Dr. Jan Ramer and Jean-Felix, plus Kinigi Orphan Caretaker Fabien, check the condition of the baby gorilla confiscated from poachers.

Gorillas and other animals

• At the top of events this week is the discovery of a baby gorilla, just 8 months old, taken from poachers near the border of DRC and Rwanda.  It appears that it may be a mountain gorilla and Innocent, our warden of the southern sector, in cooperation with Rwandan authorities and parks personnel, will be conducting a full investigation. We are taking this unfortunate event very seriously, and will be looking for other poachers involved and checking all the gorilla families. It is likely that after the baby gorilla goes through a 30-day quarantine, he will be transferred to Rumangabo’s Senkwekwe Center. So far, he appears to be strong, although suffering from a cold.
• We lost a hippo this week in a fight with another hippo, a completely natural occurrence for hippos. However, park staff were called in to prevent the hippo from being eaten, a policy of the park, and protected the second surviving hippo involved from the same fate.
• A herd of elephants wandered through Mabenga, a small village on the edge of the park in the central sector. One large elephant seemed completely comfortable around humans, even allowing people to touch him.

A large elephant wanders casually through Mabenga in the central sector, allowing people to touch him as he passes. (Photo taken from a mobile phone)

Security:

• Investigation has been ongoing regarding the attack that killed our rangers a week ago Friday. New information indicates that our ICCN truck may have been targeted in the attack as it was transporting illegal charcoal-trade prisoners.
• Mai Mai militia has been causing problems in both the central and northern sectors, but particularly the north. They have attacked villages near the park, including the village of Miringathi and others, causing people to flee.
• Rangers from the central sector arrested 22 illegal fishermen and seized 7 canoes and other illegal fishing instruments.

Rangers:

• Ranger Semivumbi’s leg operation appears to be successful according to the doctors. Many thanks to all who contributed toward this much-needed operation. He is now looking at a long recovery period on crutches, around 80 days, before the legs are completely healed. This week he goes back to Kigali for a checkup. We will keep you posted on his progress.
• All Virunga park officers began a two-month training course in June, which they completed at the end of last week. This is part of the on-going commitment of the park to bring all our rangers and officers to the highest standard of training.

Semivumbi with casts on both legs following the surgery. Bone was grafted from his good leg to the damaged leg.

Tourism

• We are at the height of the summer tourist season, and the numbers are good. This coming week we have about 200 scheduled visitors to see the gorillas and the volcano.
• If everything goes as planned, we should have several completed bungalows for the lodge by the end of the week. The bungalow chimneys were tested last week and passed to the great excitement of the engineers and project manager. If there had been champagne.
• Check out the tourism website:  www.visitvirunga.org

A Dutch visitor gets a close up view of the largest lava lake in the world.

Ishango is one of our ranger stations on the north side of Lake Edward at the mouth of the Semliki river, a beautiful location on a small cliff overlooking the lake. This area has hippos, elephants, and antelope…and illegal fishing and poaching. Godefroid Wambale is the warden in charge of Ishango sub-sector and sent some photos and information from his station:

Baby Hippo

This particular baby hippo was rescued the day it was born when rangers found it alone and separated from its mother. The baby was obviously newborn and still had some of the afterbirth on it and couldn’t see. I put the baby in the boat and started up the river looking for the mother. We finally saw a hippo that seemed to be looking for something, so we placed the baby nearby in some swampy reeds, and waited to see if the mother would find the baby, which she did. Read the full story »

You might not think of an electric fence as a conflict-resolution tool, but it is. It’s a beautiful thing - not in the literal sense with its wires and posts - but for how it works and what it can do.

Last year, Virunga National Park built an electric fence in the northern sector along a stretch of forest that ran parallel to farmland. Although the population of elephant and buffalo in the forest isn’t huge - perhaps only 100 elephants - these animals had discovered the new flavors of agricultural crops, liked them, came out of the forest for their meals far too often, and even killed some villagers. The relationship between farmers and animals tends to go downhill fast when one starts eating the others’ food and killing. Read the full story »