Congo Rangers

Category: General | Date: Oct 13 2006 | By: admin

I am Robert Muir, and I manage the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s programme in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

After arriving in early 2004, just a few months after the end of the civil war, I felt overwhelmed with the scale of the crisis in the country. I felt there was a need for an exceptionally capable team of rangers to secure the parks, as well as local populations, from the brutality of armed militias who are Congo’s greatest scourge.

After obtaining some funding from the European Union, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and UNESCO, and establishing the necessary collaborative agreements with the Congolese government, we went about selecting and training a group of rangers now known as the Advance Force.

We have now teamed up with the Africa Conservation Fund, and have committed ourselves to supporting this group of rangers, through the ICCN (the Congolese Wildlife Authority), for at least three years, hopefully longer. I have developed an enormous admiration for these rangers, and for their incredible efforts to protect their wildlife against all odds.