Posted on
November 29, 2018
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...
Over the past decade central Africa’s forest elephants have been hit by an unprecedented wave of ivory poaching. Elephant populations have declined drastically in the region. The Republic of Congo, harbouring a quarter of Africa’s remaining forest elephants, has not escaped this poaching crisis. Poaching gangs have become more organised, often traveling from neighbouring countries to exploit Congo’s wildlife.
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The Nouabale-Ndoki National Park is a unique place – not a single road enters into the Park, and the tract of forest within its boundaries is some of the most intact in the Congo Basin. Despite good roads in the Park periphery, surveying remote zones of the Park, and moving between the Park’s two headquarters – one in the north-eastern periphery and the other on...
Posted on
February 23, 2018
OUESSO, Republic of Congo (February 23, 2018) – Three poachers responsible for slaughtering eleven elephants in and around Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in January were convicted to five years’ imprisonment by the local district court last week, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). The poachers, who had ventured deep into the remote Ndoki forest and spent three weeks killing elephants for their ivory, walked into an...
Posted on
December 18, 2017
OUESSO, Republic of Congo (December 15, 2017) – A local court sentenced a notorious elephant poacher and ivory trafficker to five years in prison and a fine of 1,200,000 XAF (~2100 US$). The sentencing, which took place yesterday, is an indication that Congolese government is becoming increasingly serious about dealing with criminals that threaten the country’s natural heritage. Over the last 12 years, Benjamin Mbondo,...
Posted on
December 7, 2017
The harvest and sale of honey produced by wild bees generates income, and reduces pressures on families living near the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in northern Congo to turn to killing wildlife as a source of cash income. Finding ways to increase incomes and improve the living standards of families living in isolated areas is a challenge throughout the world. However, it is especially important in...
The parrots arrive in a tiny bamboo cage. As the ranger lifts them out of the poacher’s dugout canoe their angry shrieks are deafening, a far cry from the ‘music of the forest’ that African grey parrots are known for. Many individual’s wing feathers are a mangled mess from the trapping glue, and they are so closely packed that a layer of parrots are being...
Northern Congo’s notorious elephant poacher and ivory trafficker Daring Dissaka, 39, has been convicted with a five-year sentence. Connected to international ivory networks, Dissaka’s imprisonment represents another significant step forwards for the Republic of Congo’s justice system and forest elephant conservation in Central Africa.
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Frank Moutengue is one of 50 rangers working to protect the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park from a relentless onslaught of poaching. Frank started out working for the Park as a young and enthusiastic construction worker. Bright and motivated, he was quickly noticed and was recruited as a research assistant at the Mondika Gorilla Project. Despite enjoying the work, particularly being part of the habituation process of...
On the 31st of April 2017, Jean Pierre Sagette, took WCS Congo to the air on its first surveillance flight. Jean Pierre, an experienced pilot with more than ten years of flying experience in Africa, is the newest member of the WCS Congo family. From his last position piloting charter planes in Mozambique, Jean Pierre is applying skills to the conservation realm for the first...
