Gabon – The primordial Africa

 

A documentary by Marion Mayer-Hohdahl

 

 

T E X T:

 

0:39

Nowhere in Africa are there more animals than in the Congo Basin’s rainforest, and nowhere else is there a bigger hunger for game meat. All that is left behind are the monkey orphans.

 

1:39 TITLE

 

1:45 A documentary…

 

1:55

At a lodge near the Evaro Lake in Gabon, Europeans are backing a project meant to facilitate the rehabilitation of monkey babies into their natural habitat.

 

2:10

Even company executives pitch in to help not only the four-legged creatures, but also the local population. What drew an Austrian to this project?

 

2:29

Interview

Wolfgang Friess

Chief executive, Nestle Gabon

It is the whole holistic approach of the project. It is not only meant to protect the gorillas, but also to incorporate the gorillas into the project, so that tourists come here and create buying power and jobs. We want to expand the project. We want to develop a trade avenue for the population, which means supplying them with a boat, with staple foods to help them come by some money. The fish that they can catch here would be exchanged for flour, baguette, rice, salt and then brought to Lambarene and sold there. This is how we want to create a cycle, so that this rural area can develop.

 

3:15

The people living at the Evaro Lake subsist on fishing and farming. They are poor. They have recently benefited from a nearby eco-lodge run by a Frenchman. Jean-Marc Casanova helps the population by buying the food it produces, such as the manioc here.

 

3:30

Countless fish and reptiles can be found in the water areas. Tour guides have been trained to boost ecotourism. They are supposed to show the tourists what the rainforest has to offer.

 

 

3:53

The resin from this tree is for instance used for candles. The lianas offer insight into the biodiversity of the rainforest. The environmentalism is not supposed to cost Gabon anything, but instead bring money in – namely tourists and with them, hard currency.

 

4:19

And these monkeys are supposed to lure in the tourists. On two 15-hectar islands in front of the Evaro Lodge live two gorilla babies and three chimpanzees. Their mothers were killed by poachers. Two young doctors attend to the monkeys’ medical needs. The 5-month-old gorilla has nibbled on his forefinger after an infection. Only antibiotics will help.

 

4:50

Interview

Ben Greutelaers

Doctor

It is better for these monkeys to be on this island and not on the hotel’s island, where there is more noise and hubbub. The way it looks on the ground, with the little cabin for the monkeys, is good. They don’t look sick and are actually very fit and very mobile. We are very pleased with this.

 

5:15

In the evening, the babies’ bedding is put together with twigs and leaves. It will take a long time before the monkeys can live on their own. Even in the wild, gorillas typically live with their mother until the age of 10.

 

5:30

The caretakers are foster parents. But the monkeys are supposed to detach themselves from humans in a few years.

 

5:43

Jean-Marc Casanova wants the monkeys to be protected and not eaten, as is dictated by law.

 

5:55

Interview

Jean-Marc Casanova

Animal-rights activist and hotel manager

Either the monkeys spend their whole lives on the island or in a zoo, or they will end up in a cooking pot. Those are the options. It is better for us to move them after four or five years to a bigger area where they won’t immediately be shot. But they can’t be a risk for humans. For them, we are a part of the same family. When they make their way into banana plantations, they don’t understand why the owners have something against it. That is where the conflict lies.

 

6:31

The German doctors are not veterinarians, but work in the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene.

 

6:46

The village is one hour away from the Evaro Lodge along the Ogowe River. This region north of the equator offers the perfect climate for the malaria mosquitoes.

 

6:55

The hospital is named after the renowned Albert Schweitzer, who founded his jungle hospital in 1924 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his work.

 

7:07

Laboratories have spent years searching for an effective malaria remedy. The Albert Schweitzer Hospital is one of seven malaria research centers in Africa. Two years ago, a study published in Mozambique showed that a vaccine could reduce the number of malaria deaths by 50 percent.

 

7:33

Katja Szywon (pronounced Shiwon) is spending a year in Lambarene. She shows us samples of the malaria parasites.

 

7:45

Interview

Katja Szywon

Doctor

We create a thick drop from patients who have symptoms that could point to malaria. That is the Lambarene diagnosis method – to not use a thin drop, but a thick one. You then dye the drops, leave them to dry and look at them under the microscope to search for the malaria parasites.

 

8:10

European doctors have worked in the malaria-research field for more than a decade. The life cycle of the parasites is complex and many remedies don’t help anymore. The parasites quickly become drug-resistant. But scientists now are on the verge of a breakthrough with the so-called RTSS vaccine.

 

8:36

Interview

Maxime Agnandji

Doctor

Nobody knows the exact number of malaria deaths. We estimate that there are 1 million to 3 million per year in sub-Saharan Africa. That is a catastrophe. It strains the healthcare system, the economy and it slows down the general development of the African continent.

 

9:02

Over 300 children in Gabon were vaccinated during a testing phase. The doctors and nurses examine the children over 13 months for possible side effects. The malaria research team is working as quickly as it can to have the vaccine registered over the next few years. It has to be affordable for the poor population.

 

9:32

The old section of the hospital now is a museum honoring Albert Schweitzer. The jungle doctor died in 1965, right here in Lambarene. Seven thousand visitors came to the museum last year.

 

9:59

The hospital has been modernized several times and is a far cry from the chicken coop that Albert Schweitzer first had converted into an operating room. The hospital has about 100 beds. Half of the costs are covered by the International Albert Schweitzer Foundation, another part comes from patients and the remaining 30 percent should be handled by the Gabonese government. Gabon is not a poor country, but the payments are lagging behind.

 

10:31

Interview

Patrick Rothkegel

Chief executive, Albert Schweitzer Hospital

In the last trimester of 2006, the salaries of the Gabonese employees were increased. That has heavily affected our budget. It is extremely urgent that the Gabonese government pays its debts. Otherwise, we are in trouble.

 

10:55

Libreville is the capital of Gabon. Modern skyscrapers and opulent government buildings dominate the cityscape. Gabon is among Africa’s richest countries, but as often is the case, the ones who profit most are the elite under long-time President Omar Bongo, who can count on France’s political support.

 

11:33

Interview

Horst Wimmer

Chief executive, VAMED Gabon

One of the fundamental problems in Africa is that the distribution key is not as it should be. It’s true, but we as foreigners are certainly not going to change that. Even the French didn’t achieve that as a colonial power and subsequent protector. And I have the impression that the population doesn’t see things the way we do. They often see the country’s extreme contrasts: the villa of the minister or the ex-minister – which could also be somewhere at the Cote d’Azur – and next door, the iron-sheet shacks. Occasionally, he will give the people in the shacks something and then they are satisfied.

 

12:20

Horst Wimmer, an Austrian, builds military hospitals in Gabon for the company VAMED. The capital’s hospital is the most modern and it has the only treatment center for burn victims in Central Africa.

 

12:41

The 140-bed hospital is not only accessible to the military, but also the general public.

 

12:52

Three other hospitals are being built in Gabon. It is not always easy to get contracts. The Chinese are aggressively moving in on Africa and are underbidding the Europeans.

 

13:04

Interview

Horst Wimmer

Chief executive, VAMED Gabon

Until now, we didn’t have a problem as a hospital builder. But the Chinese are offering prices that we can’t match. But you should see what they deliver for that price. For instance, the buildings housing the Parliament and the Senate were built by the Chinese. They are beautiful from the outside. But once it rains, the senators have to leave their seats.

 

13:35

Since its independence in 1960, the country has grown rich on oil. Alongside the multinational Shell, other oil companies have also made lucrative deals. But the oil is running low in Gabon. The production of crude oil is said to have decreased by a third since the late 1990s.

 

13:59

The small town of Gamba emerged from Shell’s presence. Their approximately 7,000 employees are cared for here. They don’t need to leave Gamba. Everything is provided, from recreation opportunities to schools. But critics have accused the oil giant of being behind the oil pollution plaguing the coast.

14:23

Interview

Hans Bakker

Chief executive, Shell Gabon

Oil is only oil for the laymen, but crude oil has a special characteristic. We can analyze it and we have always been able to prove that the oil found at the beach does not come from Shell. The reason why the Smithsonian Institution is interested in working with us is because they can do research here.

 

14:48

Since 2001, international scientists have been working on the Shell site for the renowned Smithsonian Institution in the United States. The biodiversity of Gabon is an El Dorado for the researchers. In 2001, the government signed a conservation treaty for the Congo Basin’s rainforests. Eleven percent of the country’s landmass is protected under environmental legislation and 13 new national parks have been established. The Smithsonian Institution collects and registers the flora and fauna that the rainforest has to offer.

 

15:28

They search for snakes, but also for rare plants. Fallen trees provide a clearing for wild orchids and ferns to grow. The sanctuaries are designed to guarantee the existence of the rich biodiversity.

 

15:56

Thousands of different vertebrates and non-vertebrates are registered at the Smithsonian Institution. Olivier Pauwels has worked on nature conservation for 7 years, starting at the World Wildlife Fund. The Belgian then became the director of the Smithsonian Institution in Gamba.

 

16:17

Interview

Olivier Pauwels

Director, Smithsonian Institution Gabon

The first goal of our partnership is to determine how many animals live in this area. That helps the eco-tourism, because we know what is here and where the visitor can find it. The second part of the partnership consists of fighting against potential pollution. We make suggestions to the oil industry on how they can work better and minimize their impact on nature.

 

16:53

From the air, the proportions of the oil operations are clearly visible. Shell pumps oil in between the Loango Park – a nature conservancy – and Moukalaba-Doudou. The oil pipes run for 120 kilometers from the Rabi oil fields to the Setecama Park lagoon. The rainforest covers over two-thirds off the country’s landmass. The Congo Basin and its animal diversity encompass the Congo and seven other African countries, including Gabon. It is one of the largest tropical jungles in the world.

 

17:41

Gabon is three times as large as Austria and only has 1.5 million inhabitants.

 

17:48

And they are not particularly thrilled by the nature parks. The leader of the park rangers tries to help the population through a non-governmental organization. But the elephants from the Setecama Park make their way into nearby fields again and again. A wire fence was installed around the plantations. Tin cans are also supposed to chase away the pachyderms with their racket.

 

18:18

That only helps in the rarest of cases. The head of the park brigade, who is paid by the World Wildlife Fund but is controlled by the Gabonese government, understand the farmers’ concerns.

 

18:37

Interview

Biyogho Deux

Forestry engineer

We, as employees of the Ministry of Water and Forests, inform our supervisors of the damage to the fields, but often do not get an answer. I try to help the field owner, who cries because of her loss. We installed this simple fence just so she knows that we want to help and stop the elephants from invading her fields. We report everything, but the government does nothing.

 

19:11

This kind of inaction by the people in charge is exactly what angers the population. They don’t see the need for a park and also don’t understand why the jungle, which has provided them with a livelihood, should be respected.

 

19:28

Interview

Juliette Ognongo

Farmer

If the elephants destroy my field, we are going to shoot them. If the fields were well protected, we wouldn’t do that. But when they come in and eat everything, then we slaughter them.

19:41 We were here before the park. What should we live on now? We need the money. It is terrible.

 

20:03

Beyond the capital, the jungle starts. The people along the few paved roads sell everything that the tropical forest has to offer.

 

20:44

Environmentalism and animal welfare is not widespread in Gabon. That is why a non-governmental organization is using newspapers and nature walks to teach children how important preservation is. Africa’s animal kingdom is heavily jeopardized by the trade of so-called bush meat or game. Many of the animals are protected species, but only through awareness campaigns can children learn about the need to protect them.

 

21:22

Interview

Leonard Bekoure

Environmental promoter, Cri du Pangolin

We don’t have a culture of environmental protection. Generally we don’t know anything about trees, plants and animals. The only thing we know about animals is how to eat them; about trees, how to chop them down and use them as firewood to cook. But we don’t know that the trees – the biodiversity – keep us alive.

 

21:56

But the population also hunts to survive. The monkey babies are given to children as toys, until they become too big.

 

22:15

Interview

(no caption)

We went to hunt for monkeys. The mandrills spend time in groups. We caught the mother and couldn’t just leave the little one in the forest. We took it along for our daughter.

 

22:29

This hunter does not want to give his name. Mandrills are protected – at least on paper.

 

22:36

The mother of these chimpanzees also landed in the cooking pot a couple of days ago. Many monkey babies do not survive for long.

 

22:56

The trade of bush meat and rare animals is almost impossible to contain. The tracts of land are simply too large and the sale of animals often is about survival.

23:11

When the full-grown animals become inconvenient for the families, they often end up in a zoo.

 

23:43

The World Wildlife Fund and the park rangers try to prevent the trade of wildlife as much as possible. The people living near the nature parks are monitored.

 

23:55

This man has only fished. His catch is immediately bought off.

 

24:05

Only through inspections can the protection of the wildlife be guaranteed.

 

24:16

Interview

Pauwel de Wachter

Project manager for North Gabon, WWF

Even in Germany or Austria, people go hunting in the countryside, for instance for deer. The hunt has traditions here too and they are not easy to change. Our approach is more pragmatic because we could dream, but that is not realistic. We have to block the trails, so that the forest roads and rivers are not accessible.

 

24:40

According to the World Wildlife Fund, large parts of the African tropical forest are already destroyed and 50 percent of the Congo Basin’s rainforest, which covers seven countries, has been cleared through felling.

 

24:57

Wood and wood products are the most important source of income in Gabon alongside oil. To stop the clearance of the tropical forests, responsible wood companies are cooperating with non-governmental organizations. In the Congo Basin, certificates are being used to promote environmentally sound felling and preserve the biodiversity, as well as to avoid criticism.

 

25:37

Interview

Stefan Beck

Acting chief executive, CIB-GIB wood company

I’m assuming that people are ill-informed. Companies like ours make sure that we work in a sustainable way. We make sure that we don’t fell more in the forest than what grows back. A country like Gabon today exports 10 times less than Germany and Austria taken together. Unfortunately, only 5 percent of the tropical forests are now certified. That means that the WWF has to continue pointing fingers. But the certification approach – and the WWF backs us on this one for instance in Congo – is the only way to go to protect the forest.

 

26:17

The forestry seal of approval – the FSC certificate – translates into expensive wood for the consumer. The certificate is given out to forest management programs that achieve social and environmental protection.

 

26:35

Gerd Herud does not work in the forestry business. The Austrian undertakes excursions into the rainforest, partly to test his Steyr Puch vehicles. Before Gabon, the 62-year-old could be found in Nigeria. Since 2001, he supplies the Gabonese military with all-terrain vehicles.

 

27:03

The Styrian is traveling with scientists to explore the possibilities for environmentally sound farming. He wants to help the local population to enhance their crops with better cultivation methods. Stephan Pietsch, from Vienna’s University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, has been periodically working in Gabon’s rainforest for years. Soil samples are used not only to determine the density of the humus layer, but also to predict what the Earth could look like in the future.

 

27:46

Interview

Stephan Pietsch

Scientist, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences

In this region, farming has already started and it will continue to spread as the population grows. If the traditional methods are used –fire and short-term cultivation – then the whole area will be deforested. If the system that we are proposing in this project is implemented – namely agroforestry, meaning a combination of trees and agricultural crops – then we will spare a lot of acreage, while also having a higher output in the long run.

 

28:19

This project is still in the development phase. First, the biodiversity has to be recorded. Because of its low population density and the still intact rainforest, Gabon could earn millions by using the Kyoto Protocol to have the greenhouse gases it does not emit into the atmosphere credited through emission certificates.

 

28:52 in the OFF

Interview

28:57

Gerd Herud

Chief executive, Steyr Daimler Puch

We want to use this as an experiment, looking at the different possibilities that are used here in Gabon for agriculture or agroforestry or other projects. A big part of it would be the trade of CO2 and through that the products generated through farming could be used directly in the country. Right now, a lot is imported here in Gabon.

 

29:20

Instead of being produced through intensive farming like that used in this cooperative, tomatoes are imported from neighboring Cameron. Indeed, the cultivation of staple foods does not cover the needs of the population. Almost everything is imported. For a head of lettuce from France, stores charge a whopping 3 Euros – only foreigners living in Gabon can afford that.

 

29:54

In Gabon, most of the foreigners are French, but the company Magna Steyr is also well represented in the capital Libreville.

 

30:06

Fifty-five Austrians offer technical support to the Gabonese soldiers. Six hundred vehicles have already been sold to the military.

 

30:27

Interview

Maly Hodjoua

Colonel

We have a few difficulties with the workflow. Our employees are not well trained. But we are on the right track. Our cooperation with the Austrians should have us Gabonese fully benefiting from the Austrians’ knowledge.

 

30:56

Interview

Gerd Herud

Chief executive, Steyr Daimler Puch

Foreigners continue to be needed. An independence from technical support probably will not be a given in the near future, so that foreigners will continue to be here. There are people who are learning technical jobs, who are totally interested and good in their trade – not only technical jobs, but also medical and others. But the support is still necessary.

 

 

 

 

31:27

The church also helps the population as much as it can. In the Don Bosco school, at the outskirts of Libreville, there are 580 children in kindergarten through grade 12.

 

31:42

Most of the parents come from the middle class. The school charges a tuition. Donations support the poorest of the poor, so that they too can get an education.

 

31:58

The school is well equipped. The children are to have a chance in the future.

 

32:06

So they do not become like these mothers, who only spent a few years going to school.

 

32:14

Sister Christine Lengauer, from Austria, is spending her eleventh year in Gabon and lends a hand during the sewing hour. At the very least, it gives the women an opportunity to earn some money.

 

32:32

Christine Lengauer

Don Bosco nun

Many youngsters find a way into drugs, end up with the street kids, among whom girls have an obligation to prostitute themselves, even if it is not always associated with desire or love. An obligation because the parents or the family are sick, or because the girl has to care for her younger siblings or for her own children, whom she brought into the world when she was only 13, 14, 15 years old. She can not watch as a woman and a mother, how they squalidly go under. So she hurls herself into the next calamity.

 

33:08

The Gabonese state neglects its population. This orphanage in the capital does not get any financial backing. The clergymen support the home with donations. Often, they take on jobs. Then there only is enough money for food.

 

33:34

Forty kids live in hardly any space, but they have a roof over their heads.

 

34:05

Many are orphans, stem from socially broken families or were street kids. All of them are now going to school.

 

34:25

Jean-Pierre Kape

Chief executive, SOS Mwana orphanage

We help, because everyone counts on the state. But who is the state? It is you, me – all of us together. We have to participate in the building of a country, of a house. Wherever I can help, I contribute with God’s help.

 

34:52

It is incomprehensible why the riches of the country do not suffice for everybody. Infrastructure is missing in the villages. There is no running water, no electricity, no transportation, no medical wards. Those living in the countryside only have the fields that they work on. The Gabonese upper class and their politicians only make an appearance here every few years before the elections. They exploit the country.

 

35:28

A harvest festival is taking place in northern Gabon, near the small town of Oyem. A French non-governmental organization has founded a women’s cooperative here.

 

35:47

Six hundred women from five villages share the fieldwork and sell their products together on the markets.

 

36:05

Interview

Rose Allogo Mengara

Chief executive, Agir organization

The people who work in Gabon are usually women. We have to help them, so that they have a future. The situation in the villages has to change, so that the women can feed themselves, earn money and be independent.

In the OFF at 36:31

You would think that the Gabonese live well, but here you can see the reality in the countryside. Here, you have poverty and misery.

 

36:47

The villagers have dressed festively for the harvest festival.The women prepare the food. All of the ingredients come from the fields.

 

37:12

The traditional dancers can not be missing from the festivities.

 

 

 

37:44

Interview

Pierre-Claver Maganga Moussavou

Transportation and tourism minister

Tourism can contribute to the country’s development in the long run. The population living in the villages near the nature parks is already helping with the fight against poverty. They profit from the tourism, which gives them work.

 

38:15

In Gabon, the plane is the only means of transportation to access the remote areas. The Loango National Park in the country’s southwestern part can only be reached through a four-hour boat ride from Port Gentil or by small airplane.

 

38:32

The Jeep ride through the savannah to the lodge lasts one hour. The animals stand ready to be greeted, as if on command.

 

39:04

A private investor from the Netherlands, who has earned his money in Gabon through oil, invests millions in the country’s various lodges. Tourists have to reach deep into their pockets to spend time in these luxurious surroundings.

 

39:27

Thirty-six ecotourist guides have been trained not only to show visitors the Loango National Park, but also to for instance be familiar with snakes.

 

39:51

The population living near the park has seen few improvements. About 100 people live in the village. A few are jealous of the success of those who have found work in the lode – such as Ladji Sylla. He has been the Loango Lodge’s manager for two-and-a-half years.

 

40:12

Tourists rarely hear traditional instruments. They are kept at bay from the village and the population.

 

40:49

With the carving of rattles, the village inhabitants try to earn a little bit of money. They are offered to tourists at the lodge.

 

41:11

Interview

Justin Essongue

Fisherman

We need help with health care in the village. The people here are suffering. We need help with transportation. If we are supposed to continue living like this, it’s not normal.

 

41:30

The village has nevertheless profited from the tourists. This water supply area was built. The water used to come from the lagoon. It has become easier for 100 people to pump fresh water.

 

41:55

Since the village’s founding, children have had to attend a school that is forty to sixty kilometers away. They mostly live with relatives. That will soon change.

 

42:16

Interview

Ladji Sylla

Manager, Loango Lodge

The village has been in existence for 100 years. It didn’t have any school. We know how rich Gabon is through the wood and oil, but maybe we now also profit from the tourism here at the Iguela lagoon. The school is a symbol. The children and their parents will understand that we will only have a future through tourism.

 

43:03

For most residents, that is still hard to understand. They don’t see that tourists can help them directly. For generations, they have lived from what the forest and the lagoon have given them, and now that should primarily be there for the tourists. But it is the only way for one of the African continent’s most prolific nature areas to keep its original character.

 

43:32 End of the text