Virunga long

Gorillas

At the epicenter of the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sits Virunga National Park, home to the renowned, extremely rare mountain gorillas.

Boots walking

Gorillas

Stills from the massacre

Over the years, armed groups have fought over Virunga's natural riches -- with the gorillas stuck in the firing line. The massacre in 2007 of five mountain gorillas from a single family caused an international outcry.

Rebels close.

Rangers leaving; empty patrol post

Gorillas ... fade out.

When rebels fighting the Congolese government soon after took over Virunga, the rangers working to protect the gorillas were forced to evacuate the park -- leaving the great apes to an uncertain fate. 

Fade in: Emmanuel de Merode

Driving

EDM:  For 15 months, we were unable to access the gorilla sector. It was a combat zone.

Emmanuel exits car at park headquarters, Rumangabo.

Shaking hands with rebel administrator.

Setting out on trek

Emmanuel de Merode is the new director of Virunga National Park. Only a few months into his job, he negotiated a deal with the rebels to allow his rangers   back into Virunga. This is the first time he's been able to walk around the whole gorilla sector as chief warden of the park.  

Looking at the map.

EDM: We can check all the schools and patrol posts along the way. Hopefully there won't be too much damage.

Emmanuel walking, inspecting Bukima patrol post.

Mikeno volcano long

Interview

A descendant of Belgian royalty, de Merode grew up in Kenya. As a young Ph.D. student he came to Congo, where he expected to stay for 6 months. 15 years later he's still here.

He never thought twice about accepting one of the toughest conservation jobs in the world.

EDM: Virunga is Africa's greatest national park. It's the biggest honor a conservationist can be given to have full responsibility over Virunga National Park.

Virunga various

Ranger among trees

Gorillas

Rangers walking to gorillas

Created in 1925, Virunga is Africa's oldest national park. And its two million acres have some of the highest biodiversity in the world.

But can a park that has been mired in war for decades continue to safeguard its most famous inhabitants?

More than half of the world's 700 remaining mountain gorillas live in the Virunga range, which stretches into Rwanda and Uganda. About 200 are found on the Congolese side, in the southern sector of the national park.

At least that's what the population was when the rangers were forced to leave the gorillas more than a year ago. Since their return to the park, they have been working on a new gorilla census -- worried what they might find.

Kadega taking notes; walking

Every day, rangers like Jean-Baptiste Kadega trek into the forest to keep track of the six gorilla families that are habituated, meaning they are used to humans. Today he's looking for the largest group, the Kabirizi family.

kadega finding bamboo shoots,

KADEGA: Bamboo shoots ... eaten by gorillas ... the family ... big tracks ... where they passed ... there are many.

Gorilla contact

Kabirizi

Gorillas various

The first gorilla is spotted alone -- high in a tree.      Through the dense foliage, other members of the group soon emerge, including the male silverback, Kabirizi himself.

Gorillas can be identified individually by their unique   nose prints. When the rangers left the Kabirizi family more than a year ago, the group had 31 individuals.

When they returned, the rangers made a stunning discovery. The group had grown. Five new baby gorillas had joined the family. 

Contact with Humba group

Humba silverback.

Fade out

On the way down the mountain, the rangers amazingly   run into another gorilla group. Its silverback, Humba, appears to be following Kabirizi deeper into the forest to try to steal his females.

 Fade in: Kadega showing snares

Since their return to the park, the rangers have removed more than 500 snares from the forest floor. Laid by poachers, the snares are meant to catch small antelopes, but they can also injure or even kill gorillas.

People on foot; cooking in refugee camp

charcoal truck

charcoal business in Virunga: deforestation

But the biggest threat to the park is an everyday  commodity used by millions of people in the region for cooking and heating ...... charcoal.

Much of the enormous volumes of charcoal used is made illegally ... from trees cut down inside Virunga.

In the park's southern sector, the deforestation threatens to wipe out prime gorilla habitat. 

Rangers making raid

The trade is run by powerful figures in business and government, as the rangers soon found out when they began cracking down on the charcoal makers. 

de merode interview

rangers charcoal raids

EDM: it all came to a head when the rangers put on a serious effort to stem the charcoal trade ... rangers were arrested and tortured ... those that were in opposition to the efforts to protect the park began attacking the park itself and that's when we had the rugendo massacre, which we believe is related to the charcoal trade.

Massacre stills

The man suspected of orchestrating the 2007 massacre was not only a kingpin in the charcoal mafia ... but also the former chief warden of Virunga. He was arrested last year for the killings.

Rangers tying people up, patrol.

Footage of slain ranger Safari Kakule monitoring gorillas.

The rangers appear to have turned a corner in their fight against the illegal charcoal trade.

But their work is still fraught with danger. At least 120 rangers have been killed in Virunga in the last decade.

Only a few days into the new year, Safari Kakule,    became the latest victim. The 33-year-old ranger, and father of three, was shot to death by a militia group that attacked his ranger outpost in the northern part of the park. 

ranger putting on hat.

The rangers rarely receive their official government salaries, and when they do it's generally under 10 dollars a month.

Kibati refugee camp.

Rebels guarding Nkunda

Nkunda with official

Some of the rangers are still stuck in refugee camps. Fighting between the rebels and the Congolese government forces late last year displaced more than 250,000 people in the region.

But since the rebel takeover of Virunga, there have been no reports of mountain gorillas killed. The rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said the gorillas are an important natural resource that must be protected.

Nkunda interview

Nkunda: You can not find this kind of gorillas in the world. So I always tell my brothers in this area that you don't have any fuel, you don't have any petrol. Your petrol is the national park. The gorillas are your fuel. You have to protect them, because I know many countries that developed from tourism

Goma, water, pan to Rwanda side

Gorilla tourism office, Bunagana, Congo

In neighboring Rwanda, gorilla tourism is flourishing, bringing in more than 30 million dollars in annual revenue.

Congo has far more gorillas than Rwanda, but as long as the conflict here continues, tourists will stay away.

Rebels guarding Nkunda; in Bunagana; Nkunda.

de Merode walking

And the volatile politics show few signs of abating.

Since this interview, the rebel movement has crumbled. Thousands of rebel fighters have switched allegiance to the Congolese army. Nkunda himself was arrested in Rwanda, and is awaiting extradition to Congo. Government forces are back in control of the area.  But     de Merode says he's only concerned with the protection of the park, not politics.

de merode walking

EDM: We've been absolutely clear about the fact that we are here because everybody has agreed to allow us to continue our work because it's a job that is apolitical. you can't move the park, the park is here.

Locals

There is one group whose support the rangers           cannot do without: the local people living around the park.

Walking around the park.

Children

de merode interview.

Farmers

National parks may help protect wildlife. But in many    poor areas, they also deprive rural communities of valuable land. The poor often end up bearing the cost       of conservation. Nowhere is this more true than in Virunga, which sits in the most densely populated rural area in Africa.

EDM: It's surrounded by very, very dense human populations. The reason for that is that it's incredibly fertile soil. These are some of the richest soil on the African continent. So obviously that puts a lot of pressure on  the park. People are short of land. It puts the park under pressure, and it puts us under pressure to find alternatives to make the park viable.

Water source inside Virunga

School rebuilt in Rumangabo

Organic cooking briquettes press, supply.

During his survey, de Merode and his team inspect a   water source deep inside the park. If the infrastructure could be rebuilt, up to 20,000 people living in the nearby town of Bunagana could get their water from here.

The park service is also helping to rebuild local schools, many of which have been abandoned or destroyed in the war.

A project to produce organic cooking briquettes made  from grass or leaves could replace the destructive charcoal practice and create up to 30,000 jobs, says de Merode.

Walking, arrive massacre screne

As the day draws to a close, the rangers arrive at the location where the bodies of the five executed gorillas were found 15 months ago.

de merode at scene

EDM: It's the first time I've been back since we found the bodies. All those people who helped us that day have fled. This place has changed so much. These were all fields back then, but we've had 15 months of war.

de merode at scene

The rangers feared that with the group's silverback   among those killed, the Rugendo family had disbanded.

rangers, virunga foliage.

Innocent with the Rugendo group.

But at the Bukima camp the following morning, word comes through from trackers searching a remote part of the park. They've located the Rugendo group.

When Innocent Mburanumwe, the head of the park's  gorilla monitoring, reaches the area, he finds that the Rugendo family is not only alive and well, it's been joined by two silverbacks, who are leading the group together.

Innocent interview

Rugendo group

INNOCENT: it was very, very exciting to see the family, which we left with 5 individuals. there was no silverback, because he (Senkwekwe) was killed. We were very, very surprised to see those 2 silverbacks.

Innocent taking notes

Gorillas various

After 8 weeks and close to 130 patrols, the census is  finally completed. And the news is remarkable. Despite the last 18 months of turmoil, the population of habituated mountain gorillas in Congo has increased from 72 to 81.

With 120 non-habituated gorillas, the total number of gorillas in Congo is an estimated 211, an increase of more than 10 percent.

gorillas various

Emmanuel interview

gorillas various

EDM: What we have here is a tremendous piece of   good news. Good news as a result of years of effort and sacrifice on the part of the Congolese, particularly the rangers. That a population has endangered, as vulnerable, as the mountain gorillas has increased is quite spectacular. The people don't want their mountain gorillas destroyed. they don't want those populations killed.