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For $25/month you can protect a 30-acre plot of Virunga National Park - home to the critically endangered Mountain Gorilla.

With your monthly contribution the Rangers will be funded to keep the area free from snares, and prevent another gorilla death. Click on the picture link below to find out more.

At the moment 79 plots are protected, representing a total of 2,391 acres.

BUT WE NEED TO PROTECT ALL OF THE GORILLA SECTOR - this is 250km2 or 61,750 acres.

So right now we are protecting, through this scheme, less than 5 percent of the Gorilla Sector. Please help us.

Check out for example Karel’s area. You can see it below, or click on the top right hand square. Karel can see photos and video of the forest area that he is protecting.

As you know the Rangers go out into the forest daily with cameras and devices that log the GPS coordinates of their movements. This is how we manage to synchronize photos and video with the exact location.

If you have any questions please leave a comment here. Thank you.

In the early hours of this morning a villager near the Gorilla Sector (near Bukima) was killed by a forest elephant. The elephant was trying to steal potatoes from the fields, and the villager was trying to scare him away. Innocent tells me that the man was hit with the trunk of the elephant and fell to the ground and died.

The villager was with 2 other men who were sitting in their field next to the Gorilla Sector at about 4am in case elephants came to steal the crops. We know - and we have talked about this many times - that elephants, buffaloes and gorillas all leave the confines of Virunga National Park to crop raid.

We have trained community members in crop protection and that it is important have a fire. Unfortunately these men did not have a fire - and so the elephant was not scared off at all, but startled by the presence of the men.

We do not have any photos of the forest elephants. You never see them during the day when you walk in the forest. What you do see very very clearly is their tracks.

The community is understandably upset and angry. ICCN will cover all funeral costs and will make a cash payment to the family. This is the least we can do for the time being, and at a later date we will have to see how we can alleviate the family’s suffering. I have sent this money to Innocent this morning from donations that you have made on our website. This money is usually for the Ranger’s widows, and other emergencies. This is an emergency.

Michel, the head of Bukima patrol post, is still in the community trying to help.

In each area of Virunga poachers operate in different ways.  This means that they use different kinds of traps to catch wild animals – whether it be antelope, buffaloes, elephants or rodents.

As you know the rope and wire snares laid in the Gorilla Sector for antelope can ensnare gorillas. That’s why Rangers remove them and why we burned a mountain of them earlier this year. All of those who are Protecting the Park are helping the Rangers carry out the important task of keeping the Gorilla Sector free from snares.

This photo reached me from a Ranger in Kabaraza – a patrol post north of Rumangabo, where the scenery turns from lush forest to Savannah. The large circular rusty object in the photo is the so-called Jaw Trap. And this is the poachers’ weapon of choice up in Kabaraza. Poachers will actually lay this trap near crops planted by villagers, knowing that animals sometimes leave the park for an easy feed. The Jaw Trap is made of metal, and this one is designed for warthogs. It has a very powerful spring, making the jaw deadly and vicious. The trap itself is actually tied to a tree (with the red rope you see), so that the prey is not only in agony, but also immobile.

These traps weigh about 4 kilos (nearly 10 pounds), but are cheap to manufacture. As you can see the design is fairly crude. Rangers on patrol also have to be careful of these traps – during routine patrols Rangers have been known to become caught in them. This type of trap is not used everywhere in the park, but unfortunately there are many other kinds.

Also in the photo you can see what we call in French a “grelot”. This is the object that is a metal semi-circle with a ball. This ball actually makes a noise, like sharp sounding bells, and this object is tied round a dog’s neck. When a wild animal, such as an antelope, hears the bell sound, it startles them into movement, and then the chase begins. The poachers and dogs run after the wild animal until they manage to kill their prey.

And far to the right are a couple of wire snares – we see those all the time and we have blogged about those before.

This is just a snapshot of what poachers use to wreak havoc on Virunga’s wildlife. Unfortunately there is much, much more.

As we all know, mountain gorilla tourism brings much needed revenue to Virunga for the conservation effort - but it also brings the threat of disease. Humans and gorillas share so much DNA, that we can easily pass on our viruses and diseases to these animals that we are struggling to protect.

When a tourist, a ranger or anyone is visiting a family of gorillas, they should stay at least 7 meters away from the animals. But sometimes the gorillas themselves, out of sheer mischief or curiosity, come closer.

Rangers have spent all day destroying illegal charcoal kilns in the southern sector of Virunga, the area the worst hit by the illegal charcoal industry as you know.

Innocent and his men swept a large area in the park

We need to maintain the momentum of this very important operation and do all that we can to prevent the destruction of the forest.

Thank you for all your donations – please keep Protecting the Park !

Two months later, was a big operation in which Rangers destroyed several hundred Kilns.

In his inspect Innocent Mburanumwe led a patrol out and back to evaluate the impact of the last anti-charcoals operation. In patrol he destroyed four Kilns and arrested two charcoal’s poachers.

It’s a pity because, the charcoal boss use women and kids to transport the charcoals from the forest to their stores.
For reminding the last operation against the deforestation and the illegal charcoal in active volcano sector had success to dismantle many charcoals poachers ring.

The operation has made an appreciable difference in reducing the illegal charcoal trade at the south-eastern side of Virunga National Park.

Sadly, it is the people in Goma City. In June 2009, the price was $15 (US) per sac. That same sac now costs $25-30 (US). This isn’t entirely the result of the charcoal interdiction efforts.
But fortunately Goma’s people have an alternative; briquettes project.

Bad news have just arrived from the Rwindi Station in the central sector of the park (see map). Rangers at the station heard gunshots nearby and went to investigate. Only 3 kilometers away along the road they found a dead lion.

It was an adult female with a gunshot to the chest.

Read the full story »

Over the past couple days the Rugendo group has moved south towards the Bukima patrol post. They have stayed on the edge of the park and are continuing to make forays into neighbouring crops to eat maize and sorghum wheat. Thankfully members of the HuGo association are present keep an eye on them.

Sorghum destroyed by the gorillas yesterday

The group moved through Area 1 of our Protect the Park map, given safe passage thanks to our friend Faye’s sponsorship. Thank you Faye! However, when we saw them yesterday they were in Area 2, which is currently not sponsored, as are nearby Areas 3, 9, and 10.

I urge you to please adopt these areas to help us check that this part of the forest is free of snares and thus ensure the Rugendo group’s safety.

Baseka strikes a pose

Who me? Cheeky Noel looking innocent as ever

After a follow-up of the IDPE report on the killing of elephants in Virunga, this news report came out this morning on Agence France Press:

KINSHASA (AFP) — Dozens of animals have been killed by armed groups at Africa’s oldest national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of the year, park officials and environmental groups said Tuesday.

Chimpanzees, elephants, antelopes, birds and hippos have been slaughtered after Virunga National Park became the scene of intense fighting.

Read the full story »

There is a tricky situation at the moment caused by the gorillas of the Rugendo Group who are continuing their bad habit of entering fields on the outskirts of the park to eat crops. As Emmanuel wrote on this blog in March, we are looking into solutions to this problem.

Read the full story »