Category Archives: Elephant

What Happened in August? part 2.

These Mituku children are the real losers. Boys are forced into Maimai gangs, schools close and villages empty. This last July, the attack at Mayunga, in the eastern buffer zone, should have been the beginning of the end for the criminal Thoms Mesandu and all the worst of his gang: Mopao, Portugais, Machine, Reddi…  But then […]

Lomami’s Wild West

From the earliest colonial era through the present, Balanga West has always been too far away to matter. A classroom as it now is in Balanga West. Balanga West is the one hole in the map of our own inventories of 2007-2009. Not because we thought the Balanga West forest was unimportant, it was just […]

Diving For Ivory

“Ranger is in Litoko.” The message came from Louison, our camp leader at Bangaliwa. It was the second week of September, 2016. Ranger with shotgun in the gardens of Obenge – 2008. Had Ranger Lavino come back? Ranger is the head of an elephant poaching gang. Unlike Thoms who is flamboyantly evil , Ranger is […]

Lomami National Park: a New Protected Area in D.R. Congo

On July 19th 2016, the Lomami National Park took its place as Congo’s 8th national park, the first in more than forty years. The Parc National de la Lomami (PNL) markers are set along the southern limit with local chiefs. This gold nugget surfaced from the travail of many, long collaborations. The real debate started […]