Conservation - WCS Congo Blog

Largest study ever in Western Equatorial Africa shows gorillas in deep trouble

Posted on September 24, 2019

In 2018, scientists from ten different organizations assembled the largest survey dataset ever on western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees. We collated the information on great apes nests from 59 sites in five countries surveyed over 11 years between 2003 and 2013. The study indicated that although there were more gorillas than previously published, they were in deep trouble- declining by a shocking 2.7% every year....

Scientific research, an essential tool for the conservation of forest elephants

Posted on August 12, 2019

by Flore Monteau

For more than 25 years, scientists have been monitoring, studying and observing Mbeli bai’s wildlife in the Nouabalé-Ndoki national park. The Mbeli study is named after the bai , or clearing, where the research is conducted. Forest elephants, a still little known and often overlooked sub-species, are frequently observed in this unique landscape. The Mbeli study has contributed essential knowledge to the development of improved...

Donatien, the Indigenous person who wants to become a research assistant

Posted on August 9, 2019

by Zanne Labuschagne

Donatien Mengonga, Bayaka indigenous tracker, has a dream: to become a research assistant at the Mondika site in the northern Republic of Congo. WCS's scientific skills development programme has enabled him to resume his studies....

Nouabale-Ndoki National Park celebrates 25th Anniversary

Posted on July 17, 2019

by Zanne Labuschagne

BRAZZAVILLE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO (June 18th, 2019) – Her Excellency Rosalie Matondo, the Republic of Congo’s Minister of Forestry Economy, the U.S. Ambassador, Todd Haskell, and the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS’s) Africa program, Tim Tear celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park – a stunning protected area, and World Heritage Site, that spans 1,621 square miles (4,200 square kilometers) of...

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 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...

Kabo airstrip back in action

Posted on July 12, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

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...

Re-enforcing Ndoki’s Rangers

Posted on April 19, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

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. ...

Introducing Tembo

Posted on April 16, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

Last month we shared with you amazing footage captured by the Mondika Gorilla Project team of a day-old baby western lowland gorilla. We are very excited to share this video update on the little fellow, who has now been named Tembo. He is strong and healthy and growing up fast!...

Meet Christelle Nguizi, a ranger on a mission to protect Congo’s wildlife

Posted on March 8, 2018

by Ben Evans

Soaked to the shoulders, Christelle Nguizi, ranger, pulls herself through another reed-filled marsh. Ten days into a patrol in the south of Lac Tele Community Reserve, she’s lead a team of five men through flooded forest and across vast wetlands by boat, canoe and, when these can’t pass through, by foot. Their mission is to survey key elephant poaching hotspots in the south of the...

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