Elie Mundima

Category: Out on Patrol | Date: Apr 26 2007 | By: admin

A breakfast of porridge before heading off into the bush.

If you remember, the other week Aloma Major was on patrol in the same area around Djuma and found traces of okapi, we were excited about this news as okapi were not known to be in this area. They are extremely rare and before now only known to be around Epulu, and so we were once more thrilled when we again came across some okapi traces.

Here I am with Matembele discussing with him whether it really was okapi dung. We were both quite certain that it was, but for a true answer we needed to get someone who knows well about the okapi, a scientific Conservationist who can have the last word.

At the end of the patrol, back at the Djuma Patrol Post, I had a conversation with the chief of the nearby Bantu pygmy tribe.

We talked for a long time and I asked him what he thought about working alongside with the Advance Force. They are the first occupants of the region and know the area very well, and so would help us enormously with the information they could provide.

I told him that there were already pygmies who work alongside conservationists at Epulu and so why not here in Djuma. He was very happy to hear this because his people are marginalised by society and he could not quite believe that I thought that they would be useful to our work.

I also told him about the pygmy people who were trained as guards at Park National Kahuzi-Biega and that it is very possible for us to work together in the future. It was just a discussion, but hopefully the first steps towards helping integrate the pygmies with the work done to preserve the forest in this part of the park.

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