Elie Mundima

Category: Outside of Virunga | Date: Apr 19 2007 | By: admin

Much of the training was in the form of lectures. Using maps for orientation, the map above shows the whole of Congo with all of the different National Parks inside. This was to show the recruits the vast richness of Congo, and with such a large rainforest we must protect it not only for us and our future generations. The forest of Congo is one of the largest to be found on the planet, which means that for conservation, Congo is one of the most important in the world.

The lecturer also addressed the vast richness to be found under the forest, such as all the minerals that we have here, and that we must move with extreme caution when trying to extract these minerals. A balance must be kept between keeping our nature, but also mining these minerals to help the development of Congo.

At the end of the training, the recruits did target practice at 100 metres. Songa, the guard pictured here, was the only guard to get 27/30. The number of recruits we had was 26, but unfortunately only 7 of them were able to reach the target.

As you can imagine, the selection was not good as many of the men were old and weak. Some of these men weren’t even able to understand Swahili as they only spoke their local language. It is a difficult position because so many of these men have put in so many years to help the park, without a salary, and so there is a responsibility for their future, but at the same time they are no longer strong enough to patrol effectively. We have written to the government to verify that they have put in the years and to see if we can get some kind of pension for the men and free up what little resources we have so that we can find younger and stronger recruits.

Technorati : Congo, Kahuzi-Biega, WildlifeDirect, rangers

Share This