Fighting to Save Gorillas in the DRC

In July 2007 the unthinkable happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Virunga National Park. Four mountain gorillas were found massacred, execution style. None of the body parts were missing so the rangers who patrol the area knew they weren't dealing with poachers. Later, conservationists and rangers who are all too familiar with the brutal politics and civil war in this region, figured out that the murders were directly linked to the illegal charcoal trade in the area. The message the slaying was meant to convey to the rangers was basically, "we'll kill the gorillas so you have nothing left to protect and no reason to patrol this area".

The rebels you see, control the illegal charcoal trade in this part of the Congo. With civil war displacing hundreds of thousands of people, charcoal is scarce. And charcoal plays a vital part in people's lives. People need it to cook food and boil water to stay healthy. To desperate villagers, Virunga National Park is an oasis of trees, just waiting to be turned into valuable charcoal. To rebel leaders and opportunists, charcoal is a means to get money and so fuel more war. Shockingly, the mastermind behind the gorilla massacre was none other than the Director of the Virunga National Park at the time, Honore Mashagiro. Mashagiro was arrested in March 2008 and is currently on trial.

Virunga National Park is a vitally important park. It's Africa's oldest park and Virunga is truly the crown jewel of Africa’s national parks - it contains over 50% of sub-Saharan Africa’s biodiversity and is home to 200 of the Earth’s last 700 critically-endangered mountain gorillas. In the past decade, 120 Rangers have lost their lives trying to save this little slice of eden. Just last week, a ranger was killed leaving behind a wife with seven young children to look after. For many years the rangers didn't even receive a salary until organizations like Wildlife Direct stepped in and tried to at least maintain regular salaries.

In the past month though there's been a small silver lining on this dark cloud hanging over Virunga. A good friend of mine from college, Emmanuel de Merode, has spent the past 15 years in this part of the DRC working on conservation issues. He has just been named Director of Virunga National Park by the Congolese Government. He has already successfully managed to relocate 6,000 soldiers with their families who were living inside the Park and obviously affecting the gorillas habitat. And although Emmanuel is of course passionate about conservation, he is also more than aware that 5 million innocent people have lost their lives in this region and many continue to do so. He understands that conservation has to include the community in order to be successful.

Two days ago Emmanuel was evacuating rangers and their wives from the park because fighting between rebels and the army is getting intense. If you're interested in keeping up to date, Emmanuel's team and the rangers blog almost every day. You can also donate directly on WildlifeDirect's web site (see top right hand corner) to help their efforts. For more information about the issues and the current situation in Virunga, see a recent interview with Charlie Rose.

_{Image of one of the gorillas massacred in July 2007 -- © WildlifeDirect.org}