Searching for Bonobo in Congo

I stepped out of my comfort zone in September 2021 and stayed there until the end of December 2022.  It was not, thank goodness, 100% dismal:

I was never more immersed in the Lomami National Park – that I love;

I was never closer to my husband – whom I love;

I worked closely with all the people dedicated to the Lomami wilderness with whom I have worked for years – that was wonderful;

And I felt welcomed in my new position by the villages surrounding the park.

But the position of Head Warden of Lomami National Park, “Directeur, Chef de Site” has heavy, almost impossible responsibilities.  In Sept 2021, I was made commander in chief of ICCN’s 70+ armed park guards and 50+ local administrative and project staff.  As Leader of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) Project in Lomami, I was the person to make co-management between Congo’s Nature Conservation Institute (ICCN) and FZS effective on the ground.

In that, I was not successful.

To have effective co-management, two workforces with different backgrounds, different pay scales and redundant job descriptions need to be merged.  The park guards were not a problem. FZS did not have their equivalent and has been working with them in the field for years.  But all administrative jobs, community conservation jobs, outreach and training jobs – were duplicated. 

The merger could not be easy. 

The TL2 project (that became FZS) grew its workforce slowly, ever since 2007, as we covered more geographic ground, or met a new need.  ICCN grew quickly after 2014 with a single grant and a neophyte head warden.   His job was apparently accomplished by surrounding himself with staff holding the right titles: researcher, community organizer, public relations expert.  ICCN headquarters, 100 km from the nearest park border, was filled with sedentary experts.

Most new park guards were sent to the field, their job was known, park protection.  But, ICCN had no funds for the operations of their non-guard staff.  In Sept 2021, I found over 50 employees still sitting at ICCN headquarters in Kindu.  Many of them sitting there for more than 6 years.   

I moved in with them.

It was not fair; everyone employed by ICCN needs a chance to show what they can do.  It does not sweeten the situation for ICCN to see their FZS counterparts working in the park and getting paid much higher salaries.   A critical complication is that ICCN workers are state employees; FZS, even as the co-management partner, does not have the final say in their employment fate.  The Direction of ICCN in Kinshasa is the employer.

That was my frustration during the “Head Warden Year”: I could not slim down, integrate and stimulate a single Lomami work force.

But there were definite glimmers of light:

The top guards are truly dedicated; We moved through the park together to review guards at all the posts. It was strange, as the daughter of a pacifist, who was a conscientious objector during WWII, to be accompanied by bodyguards and saluted by armed park guards, but the leaders of the guard force understood well the importance of discipline and well-defined objectives.

The problems of headquarters did not reach the park.   Park protection is a joint effort – Park guards and FZS staff watch each other’s backs -literally — and they sweat, trek, and arrest working as unified teams.

During the year 2022 we grew from 8 patrol posts to 10, making the park more secure and integrating more of the bufferzone villages into our efforts.  We marked the park border through an important area, and created a community reserve outside the park.  More about these incremental successes in the next posts.

With a mixture of satisfaction,frustration and –I admit it — relief, I ceded the twin posts of FZS project leader and head warden of the Lomami National Park to a another, very experienced chief.  Radar Nishuli comes in with a background in ICCN and even in Lomami; He was welcomed back by ICCN and FZS, both.  He brings a Congolese orientation and an ICCN understanding.  We wish him success and remain ready to help in any way possible.