Twenty-two Congolese men and women stand lined-up in a clearing surrounded by dense rainforest. To their left, Unit Leader Frank Moutengue, marches forward and raises the Congolese flag beneath the blazing sun. The national anthem echoes through the trees that encircle the training facility. These brave individuals are the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park’s on-the-ground defence against a wave of poaching that threatens northern Congo’s wildlife.

On the 13^th of March 2018, the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park (NNNP) ranger-training course was officially opened in the presence of the Park’s closest government partners and collaborators.  This ceremony marked the next step in the Park’s mission to professionalise and expand its anti-poaching force to effectively protect the area’s outstanding wildlife. The twenty-two new recruits will receive full basic paramilitary training while the park’s existing ranger force will complete a refresher course over the next two months. In attendance of the opening ceremony were several distinguished guests including the Secretary General for the Sangha Department, and the Departmental Director for the Ministry of Forest Economy – who both addressed the participants – as well as the Sous Prefet of the Kabo District, the Commander of the Military Zone n°5, the Country Director for the WCS-Congo program, and the Park’s senior management.

Chaudin ONGUIEMBI, Secretary General for the Sangha Department, addresses the group while one of the Congolese trainers salutes the delegation.

Since as early as September 2017, the Park has been preparing the recruitment drive to bolster the existing ranger force. Leaders and officials from all villages in the periphery of the Park were asked to nominate candidates to complete the 200 plus applications received through the official post advertisement. In a transparent manner, the Park Management Unit selection committee whittled the applications down to the final 45 candidates, with the provinces of Sangha and Likouala equally represented.

In mid-March, the candidates arrived at the Park’s training facility to complete a pre-selection course in order to identify the most adept recruits to re-enforce the park’s anti-poaching force. Following 10 days of standard physical and psychological entrance tests, twenty-two new recruits were admitted as rangers. Of the four female candidates included in the pre-selection course, three were selected; one of whom was ranked in the top 15 recruits based on the results of the pre-selection tests. Two representatives of the indigenous Bangombé and Bambendzélé people, ethnic minorities in the region, also made it through and will become park rangers at the end of the training course.

In his address to the gathering Eric Arnhem, the Park Director under the Nouabale-Ndoki Foundation, a public-private partnership between WCS-Congo and the Congolese Government, highlighted the steps needed to be taken towards professionalising the ranger force and securing the Park;

The current training course will help achieve this goal. Expert trainers, both national and international, have been called upon to share their knowledge and experience. The recruits and existing rangers have been rallied to put their hearts into this work, to better themselves and strive to make the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park a model park in central Africa.

The Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, spanning 4,200 square kilometres of pristine lowland rainforest, is managed by the Nouabale-Ndoki Foundation, a public private partnership between the Congolese Government and WCS Congo Program. Operating under the Nouabale-Ndoki Foundation, Nouabale-Ndoki’s law enforcement team works to help bring wildlife criminals to justice, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wildcat Foundation, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US Department of State, Funding from UK Government through Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, and the Elephant Crisis Fund – an initiative launched by the Wildlife Conservation Network and Save The Elephants.