11 June 2022 | New Scientist | 45many militias in the park,” says ranger Jacques
Katutu, the head of monitoring park wildlife.
“It’s not easy working here and the danger is
real, but how else can we save it?”
Many of the rangers I spoke to said that in a
perfect world, their focus would be just wildlife
conservation. But things are far from ideal.
Nevertheless, their approach is controversial.
“Is it the role of conservationists to be the ones
to provide security to the entire area and
people as well,” asks political ecologist Esther
Marijnen at Wageningen University in the
Netherlands, who has worked in the DRC since- She has written extensively on what she
dubs Virunga’s green militancy, which pits
rangers against locals harvesting clandestine
crops or wood for charcoal. De Merode
accepts the criticisms and says the park’s
social projects aim to minimise such conflict.
“You do the best you can, but it’s never
enough,” he says. “A lot of the work that’s
thrust upon us isn’t work you’re trained for.”
So, what is the answer? Primatologist Jane
Goodall has some suggestions: “More
involvement by the local community, more
involvement by the international community,
more funds towards improving the lives of
locals, the building of more clinics and schools.”
One thing that can help achieve this is
tourism. It gives incentives to locals to protect
wildlife in exchange for employment and it
raises funds. In this sense, each gorilla can
generate $4 million over its life, meaning the
park’s 300-plus animals are worth more than
$1.2 billion – big money in such a poor nation.
However, worries over violence and covid-19
spreading to gorillas have put tourism on hold
(see “Gorilla killer”, page 46).
Green energy
That is why the park is turning to economic
projects that will make locals into stakeholders.
Militias can be more financially than politically
motivated, notes Jason Stearns, director of
New York University’s Congo research group.
Tackling radicalisation isn’t usually in the
remit of protected parks, de Merode admits,
but not dealing with it means there can be
no monitoring of species, no conservation,
no future. This is where the scheme to
produce green energy comes in.keep them out and protect crops. “It’s a really
challenging setting in which to try to conserve
wildlife and manage the dynamics of human-
wildlife interactions,” says John Reid, co-author
of Ever Green: Saving big forests to save the
planet. Large wildlife need large spaces and
dense forests to survive, he says. And so do we.
De Merode believes that when people
lack options or incentives, exploitation is
guaranteed. “When you’ve got incredible
wealthy resources with incredibly vulnerable
communities living with extreme poverty,
it’s easy for unscrupulous people to take
advantage of that and develop trafficking
networks,” he says. Indeed, more than
5.6 million people were displaced in the
DRC last year, according to the United
Nations, and they are increasingly targeted
by militias. Billions of dollars in foreign aid
have flooded this region, and things have
arguably got worse.
All this explains why Virunga’s 781 rangers
are well armed. The job is extremely dangerous.
They face attacks almost daily with a ranger
killed on average every month. De Merode
himself has survived an assassination attempt
(see “Dangerous work”, opposite) and has seen
his family only three times in three years out
of safety concerns. “We have many challenges, >The hydroelectricity
plant at Matebe and
(below) one of the
mountain gorillas it
is helping to protect“ The park donates its hydroelectric
power to local schools and hospitals”
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