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Many of you have expressed your support and sent us gifts to help Paris’s widow and children after the terrible events this week.  We are incredibly grateful.  I have often written in the past of the difficulties that the families experience after the death of ranger, and it is only because of the support that we receive that we can alleviate some of that suffering.

I wanted to write a few words on how we use your gift.  It’s a very stressful and difficult period for the family, so immediately after the death, we take charge of all the funeral arrangements, which costs about 400 dollars.  This includes food for the families and friends of the deceased ranger, who often come from far away.  After the funeral we give the widow 300 dollars to help her cope with the immediate challenges.  We then work out what is known as a “decompte final” which is a lumpsum payment that is typically about 1,500 to 2,000 dollars and is intended to help a widow tackle the difficulties of rebuilding her new life.  To make sure that everything works, we re-establish her husband’s bank account in her name, which is why it takes a few weeks to sort all of this out.  It’s very important, because it’s the only way for us to be sure that she gets the money.  Thereafter, we transfer 30 dollars a month to the widows so that they can cover some of the basic needs, such as food health and their children’s education.  The monthly payment is not a lot, but it makes a huge difference.

We laid Paris to rest in a quiet place by the park station at Rwindi.  Hundreds of people came, including a priest and a preacher.  We were able to say a few words in memory of an incredibly courageous life.

You may have noticed that our website was down for about two days. There wasn’t much we could do about it. Our webmaster reported that the problem was not our website but with the domain provider who had some issues affecting many IP addresses worldwide. Thankfully, we’re back. Thanks for your patience!

I would also like to tell you, especially our Australian readers, that the TV show “Sunday Night” on Channel 7 will air an episode on Virunga National Park and the Gorilla Doctors this Sunday, 18 March. Because we can’t watch it here in Congo, I would love to hear about it from those who can. Click HERE to watch a sneak peak on the episode. It looks quite dramatic, but they did have an unusual time trying to track the Rugendo family who had traveled deep into the forests, about a day and a half trek away.

On Thursday 17 February 2011 the DRC National Parks Authority, ICCN, filed a complaint with the civil courts in Goma against oil exploration company SOCO following an incident at the National Park gate at Ishasha. ICCN rangers at the gate reported a forced entry into the park by SOCO vehicles after they were refused entry to the national park by ICCN.

Access to the park was refused on the basis of SOCO’s published intentions of undertaking oil exploration work within the national park, which is illegal under Congolese Law 069-041. Forced entry into a national park is also an offense under the same law.

Today we buried our dead.  The ceremony was simple, overwhelmed by the sorrow of eight grieving families.  Many hundreds of people came to Mai ya Moto, a beautiful site where the springs flow into the Rutshuru River overhanging the Rwindi Plains.  This is a sacred site where most of our rangers who have died protecting the park’s wildlife have been laid to rest.

The people came from Kiwanja, Rutshuru and as far as Goma to pay their last respects to our three rangers, and to the five soldiers who fought and died beside them.  The coffins were laid down side by side at our park cemetery at Mai ya Moto. The park’s chaplain read a few verses from the Bible and comforted the families, after which full military honors were given by the 131st Brigade for both the rangers and the soldiers, as is customary for those who have died for their country.  After that, we traveled in silence back to Rwindi.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the death of eight of our colleagues in a violent attack on one of our vehicles at 6am this morning.  3 were rangers and 5 were soldiers with whom we were working.  The vehicle was deploying the men along a road that goes through the centre of the park, so that the public can travel safely through this area that has been very insecure as a result of the presence of illegal armed groups.  The attack took place just next to the site where a UN peace keeper was killed last year.

All the signs indicate that the assailants were from an FDLR unit that is camped in the park.   We’ve had reports of over 700 FDLR combatants coming into the park in recent days.  They are extremely hostile towards ICCN ever since we started to stop the forest destruction for charcoal, an illegal industry from which they were making significant revenue.

I am in Rwindi with Rodrigue.  The eight rangers will be buried at Mai ya Moto, our burial site where we honor those who have died in our efforts to protect the park.  Our thoughts are with the families of the deceased and with the wounded in hospital.

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.

We’ve just received a very strong endorsement from the UN Security Council in our struggle to overcome the charcoal trafficking in the park.

Charcoal is still considered to be the single greatest threat to the park and to the mountain gorillas.    It was the charcoal trafficking that provoked the gorilla massacre in July 2007 (a detailed account of this was given in last year’s July edition of National Geographic Magazine).  Just to give you an idea of the scale of the problem, this photo was taken by Pierre earlier today, on the way back from Bukima.  It shows the forest in flames: the work of the charcoal traffickers.

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But there is an even darker side to the illegal charcoal trade.  Many of the profits from the illegal trafficking of charcoal go straight to the FDLR. These are the Rwandan Rebels, formerly known as the Interahamwe, who are held responsible for the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.  They were forced out of Rwanda and most of them took refuge in Congo.  Many of them are now hiding in the forests of Virunga National Park.  They represent one of our greatest problems as they are heavily armed and well trained.  They are also deeply involved in the destruction of the forest for charcoal.  Because of that, they attack and kill our rangers who have been trying to protect the gorillas’ habitat.  You will remember that Janvier was badly wounded by an FDLR militiaman two weeks ago.

The UN Panel of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo produce a very influential report for the Security Council.  They recently completed their enquiries into the funding of armed groups, and yesterday published the report.  7 sections refer to the support that goes to the FDLR.  Two of those sections concern our work in Virunga:

65. The Group has gathered information on intense charcoal production controlled by FDLR in the Virunga National Park, along with other forms of exploitation of the Park’s resources. The Group is concerned about the continued presence of FDLR elements in the Park who obstruct the activities of the Institut congolais pour la conservation de la nature by perpetrating frequent attacks on its rangers during patrols to stop illegal charcoal-making activities. The Group has also received verified information that FDLR elements are collecting a charcoal tax imposed on civilians.

66. The Group of Experts is encouraged by the Institute’s initiative to promote production of combustible briquettes as an alternative to charcoal. The Group considers this initiative as a way to significantly weaken FDLR financial support through the illegal exploitation of the National Park, while at the same time creating a development option for the population living in the Park. The Group encourages the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and international donors to ensure full support to this initiative.

(You can find the full report here).

It feels like we’ve come a long way since early last year, when Robert Williams came up with the slightly strange idea of converting grass and leaves into a charcoal substitute.  We hoped it would help us protect the gorillas and their habitat, we thought it might create employment and alleviate poverty, we also hoped it might help avert a major energy crisis in North Kivu.  Now, the briquettes are being proposed as a means to weaken one of the bloodiest armed groups on the continent.

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It is calm at the moment, so it is easy to forget that only a few months ago Bukima was the scene of intense fighting between the CNDP and the Congolese Army troops. I remember being woken up one morning in Rumangabo to the sound of shelling- I walked to a hill and looked out towards the Mikeno and saw that it was coming from tanks parked on the main road near Rugari. They were lobbing mortars onto these very hills around Bukima. (watch video)

But sometimes I see little reminders in the forest:

Helmet left behind at the old camp in Bukima Read the full story »

Some of you may have heard the latest news that Laurent Nkunda was arrested in the early hours of last night. To be honest, I can’t quite believe how quickly things have moved in the past week and many of us here on the ground are just as confused as you might be. Read the full story »

This is a book that I co-edited with Marc Languy, and which is a compilation of chapters on the history, the natural history and the conservation efforts in Virunga. There are contributions from authors who have all played a part in Virunga’s survival over it’s 80 year history. In fact, one of the authors first started in Virunga in the 1940s. Read the full story »