Perhaps this explains why frustrated staff at the ‘university” handed us a plastic bag which contained a stinking, greasy, decaying gorilla hand and a patch of fur from a poached Okapi.
There is no real protection of wildlife in the Tayna Gorilla “reserve.”
Unsurprisingly, CI also slammed IRM, one of the chief mapping agencies. “The contributions from the IRM/Remote sensing activities have been limited and any interpretation of these data without significant ground-truthing would be of limited value.”
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) lobbied for its share of the conservation kill. NASA complained about “the current precarious status of U.S. satellite assets for monitoring the Congo Basin Forests.” No matter that at least 23 satellites are continuously monitoring the region.
But it was Jefferson Hall of the Wildlife Conservation Society who laid it all on the line for the CARPE partners.
“Our experience of partnership amongst the four lead NGOs (AWF, CI, WCS, and WWF) during both CARPE and other programs has shown that none of these NGOs has the legal and administrative capacity to negotiate and execute USAID subcontracts rapidly. Thus, structuring CARPE according to this proposal would result in delays of a year or more in implementing activities in some of the Landscapes.”(29)
The paper trail alone verified the Mwami’s accusations of mismanagement of the Tayna landscape, but it was no substitute for a visual and audio record—the ultimate ground truth to compare against the public relations blitz.
Rather, considering the amount of dollars available for an evaluation of the CARPE landscape and the cost of the Tayna program alone, it is stunning to realize that no one but the BINGOs and DINGOs who receive American tax dollar generated funds has ever taken the time to go to Tayna to find out if anything that is advertised—like community development or university educations—actually happens.
“Our village, Bukonde, is in the Tanya landscape,” said one local source that cannot be identified. “There is no development in our village, no hospitals, no schools, no roads, no transport, and no food.”(30) The man explained the need to shoot and eat wildlife to survive.
His story is the story of Congo, since the very beginning, since Leopold.
Kakule first came to Bukonde in 1998, promising the usual: schools, clinics, roads—in exchange for cooperation to protect the gorillas. After years of neglect, unpaid labor, lies and more lies, the people said “enough.” Kakule paid the soldiers, and soldiers came. People were beaten and arrested and hauled off to jail, far-away, in Lubero. The poorest people in the world scraped up enough money to bribe the freedom of their friends and relatives. It didn’t take much; soldiers make $18 a month.
“The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund wants to have our land and land from the other seven villages in the Groupement Munzoa.” He explained. “Pierre Kakule is a very dangerous man. He’s exploiting our forests without bringing development. There are a lot of health problems here: malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, and other fevers. There are many problems to give birth.”
The many stories about the brutalization and thievery endured by the villagers and the heartbreaking tale of the Mwami compelled us to go to Tayna. It was a risky, expensive, emotional pilgrimage, but it sure cost a lot less than $20 million.
Next: Hitting the Road and Hitting the Wall of Deception in Tayna
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