Wild places | WCS Congo Blog

Nestor Massembo, 20 years after the Megatransect

Posted on December 23, 2020

Twenty years ago, the legendary expedition across Central Africa known as the “Megatransect” was coming to an end. This large-scale study of the Congo Basin’s forest brought unprecedented international attention to this biodiverse and endangered ecosystem. Among those who took part in this unique adventure, Nestor Massembo, a Ba’Aka tracker, has since then dedicated his life to wildlife conservation. ...

Securing a brighter future for bongo

Posted on May 17, 2019

by Zanne Labuschagne

With their rich red flanks dissected by perfect, white stripes, bongo are one of the most striking antelope in Africa. During recent surveillance flights over the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, a large herd of bongos was observed in one of the area’s forest clearings – a very rare sighting. This charismatic species, suffered a severe die-off in 1997. The die-off, which spread across the forests of...

The ladies leading the way to a cleaner Bomassa

Posted on December 3, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

Hands covered by red rubber gloves clap in time with the women’s song, “Salongo… alinga mosala!” (Work together, we like to work hard!). Members of the community join the singing as they move through Bomassa collecting rubbish and cleaning up the town’s main street. Across the planet attention has recently been drawn to the plastic pollution crisis. We are emptying millions of tons of rubbish...

PROFESSIONALIZED ANTI-POACHING OPERATIONS LEAD TO ARREST AND CONVICTION OF FOUR ELEPHANT POACHERS

Posted on November 29, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

Four poachers responsible for killing elephants in the periphery of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by the local district court on Thursday the 22nd of November. Leonard Beckou, the gang leader, is a repeat wildlife crime offender, having been arrested twice before in 2015 and 2016. His latest poaching raids were conducted close to local villages, sparking fear within...

Congo’s fifth national park: Ogooue-Leketi

Posted on November 9, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

On the 9th of November 2018 Her Excellency Rosalie Matondo, the Republic of Congo’s Minister of Forestry Economy; the US Ambassador, Todd Haskell; Paul Sabatine, Mission Director to USAID/DRC; the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Congo program; and local authorities gathered in Sibiti in the Lekoumou Department to create, by official decree, Congo’s fifth national park - the Ogooué-Leketi National Park. ...

World Gorilla Day 2018

Posted on September 24, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

The Republic of Congo is home to 60% of the world’s remaining gorillas. A recent study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society pulled together survey data collected between 2003 and 2013 across central Africa and found that there are many more western lowland gorillas than previously estimated, but many of these gorillas are found beyond the boundaries of protected areas. In northern Congo, in and...

Parrots fly free from Bomassa Rehabilitation Centre

Posted on September 13, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

On Saturday the 8th of September 36 African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) were released from the Bomassa Rehabilitation Centre in the periphery of the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. These parrots were part of a group of over fifty that had been recovering at the facility since late December last year. ...

World Elephant Day 2018

Posted on August 12, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

They carve paths through the forest and disperse the seeds of gigantic trees. Their disappearance would not only mean the loss of our planet’s largest land mammal, but would also drastically change the habitat of hundreds of other species. Today is World Elephant Day, a day to reflect on the plight of the giants of our forests and savannahs, raise awareness and take a stand...

World Ranger Day 2018

Posted on July 31, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

Each morning at dawn the whistle blasts out through the fog, initiating a flurry of activity as the Ndoki rangers emerge from their tents and start their warm-up laps of the training camp. The forest towers above them, the training facility and its inhabitants dwarfed by the expansive Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. These brave men and women are the Park’s on-the-ground defence against a wave of...

Nouabale-Ndoki’s elephant listeners

Posted on April 28, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

Phael Malonga and Frelcia Bambi spend up to a five-weeks at a time out in the wilderness of the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo. They are working on an exciting new project - at the end of 2016 Cornell University’s Elephant Listening Project and WCS-Congo launched a study using hidden microphones to better monitor forest elephant populations and movements, pinpoint the gunshots...