Archive for the ‘Out on Patrol’ Category
This is a women’s job. And they need a permit to do so.
Woman showing her permit to collect wood During one patrol day in Ishango, we found a group of women collecting dead wood from the forest.
They were very deep inside, 10 km into the forest, and this can be dangerous, for there is a lot of wildlife and something can happen to them. They had no permit, we had to confiscate their load and machetes.
Another patrol day out with my troop while on training session with Mayor M’Poka, down the Semliki river.
This time we were lucky to get catch the poachers, very close to Lake Edward. We confiscated their nets (used for catfish and tilapia), we burnt their boats and spoke with the poachers to increase their awareness regarding the environment and the park after they paid the fine. This is a very important part of what we do - teaching people how to value their surroundings.
Following our training session with Mayor M’Poka in Ishango, we were out on patrol for a day down Semliki river, up to Museya - a 7 km distance approximately. My troop and Rebecca (the only woman to apply for the Advance Force) were on the pirogue ready for patrol.
On our way, we counted 56 hippos!
And found 3 metal nets in Museya river, used to catch tilapia and catfish. Unfortunately poachers were not there.
Big thanks to my supporters, as usual I am very grateful for your donations (2nd half of December): Lennart J. $8,65 Simon H. $30 Polly W. $20
Meet Congo, a chimp rescued a month ago, held in captivity by military men. We were responsible to transport Congo to a chimp sanctuary in Bukavu.
Congo displaying all his charm to curious people passing by.
The threat of increasing population moving inside the Park limits in Lubiriha has obliged us to deploy several patrols of the Advance Force during the last two months.
Poachers are setting up fires in big open spaces, so new grass can grow, attrackting antilopes and other animals to come and feed. They set up the traps thus making it an easy target for them to catch their victims.
Here with the poachers we caught, taking them into custody in Mutsora.
Lubiriha is our patrol post north of Ishango, very close to the border with Uganda. Patrols have been reinforced in the area during the last two months.
Villagers have been moving into the park at fast speed, building houses, breeding animals and cultivating all sorts of crops. During many of our patrols, several warnings have been given to the local villagers to move their belongings from inside the park.
These pictures are from last week when Troop I of the Advance Force returned to Mutsora after burning their houses.
We managed to catch the chief of the village who gave away fake certificates of land property to the villagers. He is now in captivity in Mutsora.
Hello, Will from WildlifeDirect here. Elie left very early this morning to patrol the Mikeno Sector, where the gorilla killings took place. I was not awake when he left but he did leave the following message outside my tent, to post up here on his blog (English version below) C’est avec tristesse que la Force Avancée a reçu la mauvaise nouvelle sur la écocide de gorilles de montagne dont le nombre jusque la se lévè à 7 gorilles habitués de famille Kabirizi et Rugendo tuées par des inciviques. Ainsi pour sauver les restes qui peut-être traumatisés par les coup des bals des inciviques. L’urgence nous oblige de préparer ce qui suit:
La Troupe I reste pour sécuriser la station de Mutsora. Nous serons à Rumangabo pour 3 mois sur-ce il n’y aura pas beaucoup sur mon blog. Pour plus d’information visiter le site Gorilla Protection. Kwaheri tuonane tena baadaye Elie In english: It with sadness that the Advance Force received the terrible news on the killings of mountain gorillas, the number of which has risen to 7 habituated gorillas from the Kabirizi and Rugendo families. In order to save those that remain, who may still be traumatised by the gun shots, it is with urgency that we must arrange the following:
Troop I will remain at the Mutsora Station, to keep it secure. We will be stationed at Rumangabo for three months, and because of this you will not see much activity on my blog. For more information please visit the Gorilla Protection site. Kwaheri tuonane tena baadaye Elie As most of you would have seen from Paulin’s blog, a strategy is being put into place to protect the remaining gorillas. This will involve constant patrolling of the park, both within and along the park boundaries, as well as a small group of rangers providing around the clock protection to each family of gorillas: “This approach is extremely intensive, and unfortunately depletes other parts of the park of their rangers, but given the crisis, we will have to maintain it for at least three months. The approach is also extremely expensive (maintaing 33 rangers on operations will cost close to $5000/month), and your donations have played a huge role in making it possible (we can fund this operation for about 3 months). We’re extremely grateful for that help.” If you are reading this and you want to help further we here at WildlifeDirect have put together some campaign material. Send an email to gorillacampaign@wildlifedirect.org, and simply put in the title of the email, “I want to help campaign for the Mikeno Gorillas” and we will send you further information. Thank you.
I was on patrol recently in Virunga National Park with my Rangers. We were near Ishango.
We patrol the park looking for illegal cultivators or people who bring their cattle illegally into the park. We also act as a deterrent to the Mai Mai rebels. Here I am examining cattle droppings. It is different conducting patrols in the savanna areas of the park. In the forest areas we find the rebel camps and poacher camps, but in the savanna people tend to come in and out of the park at night as it is harder to hide during the daytime.
The boundaries of the park are shown by what we call a “borne”. This is a concrete stone, and they were put in place all round the edge of the park by the Belgians in the 1950s. The park was established in 1925 but the “bornes” were not put down until later. This is a “borne” in Ishango. You can faintly see the markings. It is number 31127 and says PNA on it which stands for Parque National Albert. This is the colonial name of Virunga National Park.
Many people used to believe that the Belgians hid treasures under these concrete stones. When Independence came to Congo in 1960, people say that the Belgians did not know what to do with their treasures. They did not want to take them to Rwanda or Burundi so they hid them. And they hid them under the “bornes”. So people in Congo have dug up where they have found the concrete stones, to try and find treasure.
This is a view from afar of where people have dug a large hole in search of Belgian treasure.
And here is the hole closer up. This hole was actually dug in 1997. I think it was dug by the NALU - the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.
I am not sure if the NALU rebels found anything there, but I reckon it took them about 6 months to dig that hole. I hope it was worth it.
Honore Balikwisha and his troop have just come back from Tshiaberimu, where they have been patrolling the area together with the ICCN guards who are permanently stationed there. In their place, Joseph Aloma and Troop II went to Tshiaberimu on Saturday morning. We will continue to patrol the area every day to secure the area from another attack and to better protect the lowland gorillas living there.
At 3am this morning myself and Joseph Aloma, along with his troop, have left for Bukima to patrol the area following the recent killing of the female mountain gorilla. Bukima is in the South of Virunga National Park, and the journey will take us around 15 hours.
We have left together with Linda Nunn, from Gearing up 4 Gorillas.
The operation is being partly funded by the European Union as well as the continual financial support from our readers. |
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