Sad News Just Days Before Departure

Just as my friend Cory and I were wrapping up our last video interviews, I got a bit of sad news about another ranger attack in the DRC.  From what I was told, they were hit on the road between Rumangabo (Virunga NP's park headquarters) and Goma.  Apparently some armed robbers had stopped a matatu (minibus) in front of the rangers and when they saw the rangers coming, they opened fire (knowing that rangers are armed paramilitary forces).  2 dead, others injured....brutal.

This is the tragedy of growing up in a post-conflict environment.  Some people call these people rebel groups....and some number of years ago, maybe they were rebels plotting to overthrow some authoritarian government with different views so that they could install their own authoritarian government with their own systems of corruption.  But not all of the armed groups in the Kivus are former rebels, nor do they have some alterior political agenda.  They're people who've passed years of their lives surviving conflicts of different scales, with little to no livelihood security, few options for economic improvement and relatively little education, because we all know schools and social systems break down when conflicts start.  

 

What they do have is really easy access to super cheap guns and all kinds of "free" natural resources and vulnerable people to victimize along the roads.  So they resort to armed robberies and poaching (ivory and other conflict resources are fetching high prices abroad these days....so for a one-time low fee of $30 you can buy a kalashnikov and be in the global ivory trade). Anyone got a better idea for a quick buck?

 

This is an email from Jobogo, one of the former Virunga NP wardens, now routed to another NP further south in the DRC, about the killing of the rangers.

 

Dear All,

We are deeply sorry to inform you again the death of 2 rangers : IMANIRAFASHA SEMINANE and   NZABONIMPA BAHAMWITE. 

 

The ambush happened on Friday 29 July 2011 around 2 pm in the southern sector of Virunga Park, they were appointed to escort the poachers to the court in Goma for prosecution.  Another ranger and the driver were injured with two among the poachers that were part of the convoy were also injured. I visited all of them at “Heal Africa Hospital” in Goma, the driver ADOLPHE KAKULE received a bullet in the pelvis and the ranger MANIRAHO MUNYABIHOGO was seriously injured with a shot in the chest, the lungs must be touched but the bullet was out around the shoulder.  I managed to speak to them in the hospital and express my sympathy.

The question around the public is why the rangers are targeted this period, the Congolese government should find a long term solution, on the other side in the field the ranger’s moral has gone low.

Please share this sorrow moment with us and other rangers.

JP Jobogo Mirindi
IRF/DRC

 

As soon as I read this email, all I could think is please tell me it's not someone I know....luckily not, but really, it's sad no matter who has passed away.

 

I've been thinking about something since I first started this whole Fulbright thing and it's stuff like this that makes me think I should really do something about it.  Basically, what I want to do is start a Ranger Scholarship Fund.  I want it to go to two purposes -  (1) higher education for junior staff, rangers in the field and (2) school fees for rangers' children (particularly families who've lost their parents in the line of work).  

 

What I've discovered is that rangers need educational support.  They know so much about the wild and wildlife, but they're not usually the most wealthy.  They need the job...a lot of rangers really only become rangers because it's the best, most stable income you can get growing up next to a protected area.  Their families rely heavily on that income, usually their wife and their multiple children, but in cultures of social capital, this very likely extends to other family members, friends and neighbors.  So they can't take time off work to get full degrees or continue on to graduate studies (this is true even for park wardens sometimes).  

 

It's hard for them to work part-time and study part-time because the parks are in such remote places that there really aren't any universities nearby., let alone the really good institutes are almost always in big towns or far away capitals.  The transport they'd have to pay to move back and forth between work and school is really burdensome, not to mention they'd have to pay for lodging in two different places and try to sort out where their family stays, etc. etc.  

 

If they had scholarship opportunities, however, with tuition and a living stipend, it would be easier for them to take the time off of work for formal education in a degree that will make them better wildlife managers in the future.  If the funding were conditional on a certain number of years of conservation service afterwards, wouldn't it be worthwhile?  I know so many rangers who would jump on this opportunity in a heartbeat....I've seen how they struggle for education and for conservation.  No one should have to make that choice; it shouldn't be one or the other.

Then there are the children.  No person is without his or her progeny, fortunately or unfortunately.  How is a ranger to pay for his/her own education if he/she isn't supporting his/her child(ren)'s education?  What if a ranger dies in the line of duty?  Killed, like the two rangers in Virunga NP?  Maybe trampled by an elephant who felt it or its young were being threatened?  Maybe attacked by an ornery lone water buffalo or worse, by the most malicious animal of all, a human, an armed poacher?  Every year rangers are lost...and with them, the sole salary for their entire immediate family.  What happens to those children?  Children of professional conservationists?  Maybe even future conservationists themselves?

 

Plus, we all know the challenges of girl child education.  Many don't even make it into secondary level schooling, let alone university levels.  It's not always a question of funding alone, a lot of it is cultural.  Girls are afraid that they'll lose marriageability points if they're too old, too educated.  In their world, I'd probably have to pay to get someone to marry me at this point, no one will be coming to my dad with a herd of longhorn cattle anytime soon.  Some rangers have told me stories about how they pleaded for their daughters to continue their educations - they would do whatever it takes to find the money to pay their school fees.  But their daughters chose other paths. 

What if the daughters of rangers were being offered scholarships to stay in school, maybe even go on to university and pursue environmental (or related) studies?  What if those daughters were so much like their fathers, one of the two who were gunned down transporting poachers to justice?  Money won't bring their dads back and I would hope that something other than money is what drives them to learn, but if that support were there, imagine how different it could be.  I know for certain that my life is forever changed because I've been given scholarships to get me through school and to send me out to Uganda for the learning experience of a lifetime.

I don't have a whole lot of money and I don't know anything about setting up scholarship funds, but somehow....I think it's worth figuring out.