In 2009 there were only 720 mountain gorillas alive on the earth. Over 200 of them were living in Virunga National Park in the far eastern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There were 500 more across the border in Uganda and Rwanda. In 2007 ten gorillas were killed in Virunga. Mark Jenkins went to the Congo to investigate, see what was needed to protect these endangered creatures and report live from the field to the National Geographic.
At the time Virunga was besieged in war. The director of the park was a man named Honore’ Mashagiro. He was accused of being a knowing and willing party to the crime. Emmanuel De Merode replaced Mashagiro in 2008. De Merode a Belgian anthropologist was then 38 years old. The park where he took over was filled with rebel warriors who are killing each other and butchering elephants for meat.
De Merode and conservationalist Richard Leakey created ‘Wildlife Direct’. Its mission was to protect the mountain gorillas. The war in Virunga traces back to 1994 and the Rwanda genocide where 800,000 Tutsis were brutally mutilated and killed by Hutu warriors. In 2004 Laurent Nkunda compiled a guerrilla army to go after the Hutus. From 1999 – 2009 this war has been responsible for the death of 120 Virunga park rangers. Rangers have been caught in the crossfire of not only rebels but poachers and the military. This represents the highest death rate for rangers in any park in the world.
Nkunda had captured the area in the park where the gorillas lived and for more than a year he had not let rangers in to check on the gorillas. De Merode negotiated with Nkunda and successfully regained access. The warriors were still engaged in war but were willing to allow rangers to come in and protect and research the gorillas. Forty-one rangers went in and took a gorilla census. The gorillas were located and appeared to be untouched by the guerrilla war fare going on around them.
Worse than the threat of war was the threat of deforestation. There were over two-million people living in this area then who used charcoal for cooking. Charcoal could be easily made from the illegal cutting of old-growth found inside Virunga. De Merode co-created a program offering hand-built briquette presses which makes briquettes from grass and leaves. A bag of briquettes weighing 150 pounds costs $30. This is much less than an equal weight of charcoal and the new venture proposed to provide jobs for 30,000 people.
De Merode is a champion of bravery, negotiations and industry. Faced with the most dangerous park management job in the world, he has conquered the situation. The mountain gorillas future looks hopeful and the economy of the area looks brighter under his direction.
Works Cited:
Jenkins, Mark, Gorillas VS Guerrillas, Natural Geographic Adventure, March 2009, pgs 12-15