Comments on: Treking across Central Congo to Arrive Unannounced

By: michael

michael — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:28:17 +0000

sorry for my late answer

probably it is strange.
but your home is my home in my mind.

By: botshudi b'ehomwa be

botshudi b'ehomwa be — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:38:55 +0000

i am from there,is very important your interst at this part of word . i need to know about pre’-colonial and colonial history of djonga popular consigned so far in many colonial repport at belgium in french or in flammend.help!congratulation for your work.i can to critique after to finish to read.for now i am busy,sory.

By: Terese Hart

Terese Hart — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:27:40 +0000

Michael, Yes the Sankuru Reserve stretches to the west from Djonga and has many many challenges. My own feeling is that if they can maintain forest cover over most of the reserve … ie keep out logging operations and effectively make large zones into “NO settlement or farming” zones, THEN Sankuru has done a large service for the World, for the Congo and for TL2. I think however that it is very unlikely that it will maintain viable populations of animals over the longterm….too many people with a bushmeat based diet and economy.

By: Terese Hart

Terese Hart — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:18:15 +0000

Greg,
We really want to get botanists into TL2 and there are some excellent (exceptional)Congolese botanists. Maybe in a year, maybe two? Fingers crossed. That would be an entirely different sort of expedition with important base camp where we would build a local plant dryer. And then all the collecting paraphenalia. THERE has been no collecting here to my knowledge.

By: michael

michael — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:05:19 +0000

very beuatiful pictures and very interesting story. it shows that this landscape has a lot of different faces.

Pictures of the first visitors of the
djonga forest
http://www.bonobo.org/NL-Lomela.htm
(with okapi skin).
In comparison to TL2 the sankuru reserve is densely populated(the yellow or lightgreen shapes in the map
are secondary forest)
i wonder how it is possible to establish a functioning nature reserve in dense populated areas.

By: TheTeach, Seattle

TheTeach, Seattle — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:08:12 +0000

True Adventure. You’d think an area of undisturbed rain forest that large would be teeming with life, including mammals. That seems quite odd. Perhaps the villagers have already trapped out the larger animals. The various militias that have passed through may have hit it hard for bushmeat even if they didn’t stay long. I hope you can find some answers. Great post. Best Wishes.

By: sheryl, washington dc

sheryl, washington dc — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:51:27 +0000

Fascinating post, y’all. I’m very interested to learn what happened in the villages and what the previous “conservationists” had done to anger these people. Definitely worried about the lack of large mammals, too. Great stuff.

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:17:13 +0000

Another wonderful post, thank you. We’re keen to hear more about this fantastic expedition – keep the posts coming!

By: Greg Davies

Greg Davies — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:56:20 +0000

Epic trek.

Out of interest, what is the altitude of the watershed between Tshuapa/Lomami at that point?

Of course, some moderately elevated hills and inselbergs in the Congo Basin often have montane biogeographic relicts due to the cooler microclimate (e.g. birds, trees; White (1981), Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett (1998) etc)

By: teresehart

teresehart — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:20:59 +0000

Yeah there is an interesting height of land between the Lomami and Tshuapa. On a map you’ll note that the Lomami flows straight north but the Tshuapa curves to the west…almost right angle and the hills “curl” just north and east