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One of three elephants poached in February and March of this year in the Mabenga / Rutshuru Hunting Domain.

As you know, we’ve been trying to stop the rapid increase in elephant poaching among our Mabenga elephant group, and solving this problem will involve committed cooperation with the local community. Last week I participated in a meeting with the Union of Peasant Alliance (SAP). This was a joint meeting of several parties to try to solve an issue related to an area called the Rutshuru Hunting Domain established in 1946. It’s a little complicated, but if you stay with me, you’ll understand a bit of what the park must deal with when it comes to community relations and protecting the animals.

The large Rutshuru Hunting Domain circled in orange is mostly now cultivated land.

The Rutshuru Hunting Domain was a large section of land adjacent to the park and eventually came under the management of the park. As poaching increased, and the animal population began an alarming decline, hunting was banned, but the domain remained in the park’s jurisdiction. Between 1959 and 2004, aerial photos show the major increase in agricultural encroachment into the area. 95% of the Hunting Domain is now taken over by agriculture.

The orange area on these three maps shows the increasing level of encroachment into the Rutshuru Hunting Domain.

Only one small area remains with little cultivation, and because of our Mabenga elephants, it’s crucial for both the park and the community to keep this small area free from agriculture, and available as a corridor for elephant movement.  If land encroachment takes over, the elephants will still try to come through, will destroy crops, will make the people angry, and the elephants will be attacked and killed – a lose-lose situation for everyone.

The area circled in orange has not yet been taken for cultivation and needs to be partially surrounded by an electric fence to protect both the elephants and crops. The red X shows where 3 elephants have been killed in Feb and March.

The current strategy of the park is to build an electric fence around the remaining area of this Rutshuru Hunting Domain for the protection of elephants on the one hand and the protection of the farmers’ fields on the other. The elephants need a safe passage. But the success of the electric fence requires the full cooperation of the population to protect the fence from destruction (from either cutting or stealing of the wires), to maintain it, and to work with the park to stop the poaching. The process will be long and sometimes difficult, but it is underway and we have hope that this will bring us one step closer to stopping the terrible killing of these magnificent animals.

If you would like to join the fight to end this poaching, consider helping to fund a team of full-time rangers to patrol the Mabenga area and protect the elephants. On the barometer to the right of this post you can choose an amount to give. Click HERE to read more.

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.

It has been an interesting week with some continuing Mai Mai militia problems in the north, good news and bad news with our wildlife, and interesting developments on the tourism front.

Andre holds sick 4-year old orphan Ndakasi.

Gorillas and other animals

• Ndakasi, our four-year-old orphan mountain gorilla at the Senkwekwe Center became noticeably sick over the weekend. MGVP vets, Dr. Jan and Dr. Noel, came up quickly to check on her. After doing a thorough exam and collecting samples of blood and urine, they will run lab tests to see if they can find the problem. Caretaker Andre was able to do what he does best – act as mother and father, holding and cuddling the sick little girl. You can see more photos on our Facebook album HERE.
• It’s that time of year when the wildlife likes to come out of the forests and sample new food, namely cultivated crops, which is a serious issue for the local farmers. Approximately thirty buffalo came out of the forest near Rwanya in the southern sector causing serious damage to fields of crops. In another section of the park east of Tongo, about 20 elephant were reported to have damaged some cassava fields between 4-9 pm.
• As reported earlier in the week, we have a new baby mountain gorilla in the Humba family, bringing that family up to 16 members.

New baby mountain gorilla for the Humba family.

Security:

• The Mai Mai infiltration in the northern sector continues to be an issue with more attacks or threats of attack on villages surrounding the park. Ranger units were deployed in the Muramba area following some Mai Mai threats. We are closely monitoring the situation.

Rangers:

• The 50 new rangers who were trained for 7 months in Lulimbi, and on-the-job training the last month, have officially begun service for the park. They will be deployed mainly for the safety of tourists and for emergencies throughout the park. We are very pleased to have them join our excellent team of committed rangers.

Mount Mikeno as seen from the top of Nyiragongo Volcano.

Tourism:

• Cai Tjeenk Willink, our head of tourism, decided to try an ascent of our Mt Mikeno, something that has rarely been accomplished due to the lack of an established trail and difficult terrain. The idea is to open up another possible tourist attraction for trekkers on this mountain in the gorilla sector. Cai’s take on the three-day climb: “The trek was amazing! We made it to the summit. The place is absolutely magical and unlike anything I have ever seen.” He then added that it was ridiculously dangerous and probably only for experienced climbers. I’ll let him tell you the details in a blog post with photos.

What is a gorilla life worth?

In a recent murder trial in Uganda, the three accused killers were fined the equivalent of $19 each. The victim was a mountain gorilla named Mizano.

On 17th June 2011, poachers entered Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with hunting dogs and killed a blackback mountain gorilla with a spear that penetrated its lung. The blackback was the heir to the only silverback in his family. The poachers were looking for antelope caught in snares they had set earlier.

The following day, police dogs lead the investigation team to a neighboring community where they found the three suspects.

The presiding magistrate in the case said that prosecution had failed to produce enough evidence that the three actually killed the gorilla. The magistrate also noted that no DNA test was carried out to link the blood samples found on the panga and spear picked from one of the suspects’ house to the blood sample of the dead gorilla.  This however, is despite the fact that the doctors who carried out the post mortem were never invited to give their testimony in court.

One suspect was convicted on two counts including entering a protected area without authority and possession of illegal devices capable of killing wildlife species. He was fined the equivalent of $19. The other two suspects were each convicted on one count of trying to escape arrest after running away on seeing police. They were each given the same fine.

The Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) issued a statement yesterday expressing their dismay at the ruling:

“Uganda Wildlife Authority is greatly dismayed by the light sentence that was handed down by court to the three men that were arrested for the murder of a mountain gorilla. Although we will not appeal the sentence, we express our shock in the strongest terms and we will be bringing up this issue with the Office of the Chief Justice. Conservation in Uganda continues to face the challenge of having judiciary officials that do not fully appreciate the value of wildlife to the country, and are therefore ready to hand down light sentences to suspects.”

Virunga National Park shares the UWA goal of raising community awareness and appreciation for the value of all wildlife in our parks. We will soon be opening an Environmental Education Center where school children from villages surrounding the park can learn more about conservation and the true value of their mountain gorillas and other animals. If you would like to contribute toward this program, you can do so either one-time or monthly to the right of this blog. We need funds to hire educators to run the center.

It is interesting to note as well in this story that police dogs were able to find the suspects. This is exactly the kind of thing our bloodhound dogs are being trained to do for all areas of the park. If you would like to help support this program, look for the Bloodhound Dog items to the right.

This week we had some interesting and sad wildlife news, with the death of one of our mountain gorillas and the rescue of a leopard.

Wildlife

• A leopard wandered into the town of Kanyabayonga just outside the borders of the park’s central. A man was slightly wounded and the population and army were intent on killing the leopard. Warden Rodrigue and other rangers managed to intervene and rescue the leopard, but with an injury to the warden in the process. In the end, they managed to guide the leopard back into the park.
• We buried a young silverback in our Rumangabo graveyard this week. Begeni was part of the Kabirizi family and died after a fight with our solitary silverback Mukunda.

Begeni body is carried from the forest by villagers.

Rangers

• A section (10) of new rangers have been deployed in patrols in the gorilla sector to learn the very specific tasks of finding snares and monitoring gorilla movements and family health.
• Forty rangers have taken voluntary early retirement this week. This is a new and important program where older rangers are offered a retirement package upon leaving service with the park.

A section of new rangers are learning specific tasks related to patrols in the gorilla sector, including looking for rope snares and other traps.

Security

• In a relatively quiet week where security is concerned, we thankfully had no attacks on civilian vehicles in the park. More land invasions in the park resulted in 10 hectares of park land illegally sold.  We’re taking legal and law enforcement measures to counter the problem.
• Significant land invasions were prevented around Mabenga in the central sector, with over 30 arrests, many with traps for catching wildlife. Those arrested were released with a warning.
• I was in Kinshasa all week to hold talks on the oil issue, which remains a big concern for us. I’ll keep you informed.

Bukima Camp, where gorilla treks begin, in early morning light with Mt. Mikeno in the background.

Tourism

• We’ve had 357 visitors in 25 days of July, so for the entire month we should get a little over 400.  Cai, our head of tourism, says the numbers are slightly less than what he had hoped for, mainly due to even further tightening of visa regulations, leading to approximately 20% cancellation of bookings because of the difficulty of entry into the DRC via Rwanda. We are still waiting for the implementation of the tourism visa.

Jean Bosco speaks to farmers who killed a wild buffalo that came out of the forest to eat crops.

On Friday, a wild buffalo came out of the forest of the Mikeno Gorilla Sector looking for better food. He found it in a nearby cultivated field. The farmers found him. It turned out badly.

Several men tried to scare him out of the fields, but the buffalo attacked them, causing minor injury to four. Mahabari, an older man, was rammed in the chest and face and knocked to the ground, then hit several more times, knocking loose a tooth and causing a lot of pain. We have yet to learn if there are broken bones involved.

Mahabari shows his loose tooth that a wild buffalo nearly knocked out in several head ramming attacks.

In the end, a large group of farmers surrounded and killed the buffalo.

For the park, this is always distressing, and efforts are made continually to educate people about the value of keeping the wildlife alive and well. Ranger Jean Bosco, who works closely with the local communities, came to the scene and spoke to the villagers. The people see the buffalo as good food, but the policy of the park is to never, under any circumstances, eat wild animals from the park. Without this policy it would be easy to continually find gray areas of excuses. In this case, it might have felt like a reward for killing the buffalo.

Jean Bosco ordered the animal to be cut up, set on fire, and buried.

The buffalo is cut up, burned and buried to prevent anyone from eating it.

Human-wildlife conflict is a serious issue in the gorilla sector. Elephant, buffalo, and gorillas regularly come out of the forest to eat crops in the surrounding fields. A one-meter high/one-meter thick stone “buffalo wall” was built around parts of the gorilla sector in October 2010 with the help of 3 local associations organized by IGCP, but determined buffalo and elephant have knocked it down in many areas.

Local associations help build a “buffalo wall” in the Jomba area of the Mikeno Sector.

Following the success of an electric fence in the northern Mutsora sector, Virunga’s current solution is to build a similar fence around the Mikeno Sector, powered by solar. Funding for the fence is currently being arranged, but until the fence is completed, the problem will continue.

A 19 km electric fence in the northern Mutsora sector keeps wild buffalo and elephant out of the cultivated fields.

Snakes are highly feared in Africa for good reason. They kill. They do, however, have some use to the local “mganga” or traditional doctors, believing the venom has magical properties and can do such things as protect a tribe or individual from harm, or prevent one from receiving a snakebite. The use might include cutting the arm and mixing the blood with the snake venom.

And so last weekend, three men were commissioned by a mganga to find the venom of a viper and went into the park’s forest in search. When they found one, while examining it to see if it was the right kind, it took a bite. The injured man was rushed to the hospital while the rangers who found them confiscated the snake. It was injured but not dead, and eventually released into the wild. Unfortunately, the man died. 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 »

This is a short lesson about elephants.

Don’t carry fruit in your car around elephants. Elephants are fruit thieves, and the collateral damage can be severe.

A few days ago, the driver of a truck learned this important lesson. Driving south on the main road through the park, he stopped at the Mabenga gate for a routine check before leaving the park in an area where about 100 elephants reside. On the dashboard sat a luscious pineapple. Nearby stood an elephant. Elephant wanted pineapple. Elephant broke windshield to get pineapple. No one was hurt in this incident (except the vehicle).

End of lesson.

Five elephants were killed this week in the central and eastern section of the park.

This week involved many wins, but also a major poaching loss.

Security

• I am saddened to report that we are dealing with a major poaching issue this week with five elephants killed in our central and eastern sectors.
• Where the FDLR is concerned, it was a quiet week, although we are monitoring a growing number of militia in and around the park. We’ve increased our surveillance, and held meetings with MONUSCO and the army over security issues.
• In one key development, an FDLR Colonel was killed on Sunday, a major deserter from the Congolese army and major source of instability in the region. His troops are known to be present in the park. Read the full story »