Rodrigue Katembo - the Congo's park ranger who risks his life to protect wildlife

Rodrigue Katembo/Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

The best part of my job as a journalist is to spend time with amazing people whom I would never have a chance to meet otherwise.

One of them is Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo, a former child soldier who has become one of the most passionate defenders of Congo’s natural heritage, first as head ranger at Virunga National Park and now as the director of Upemba National Park, one of Congo’s most spectacular, but also most pillaged, neglected and dangerous parks. 

I’ve met Katembo on one of his rare forays away from Upemba. He spoke in French, in a measured way, sounding more like the civil servant he always wanted to be than the brave ranger who has risked his life many times to protect Congo’s iconic parks. He wants to fight corruption and illegality – a dangerous mission in a country like the Congo.

Katembo was in London last month on his was to San Francisco to receive the 2017 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa (a sort of Nobel for environmental activists), for exposing illegal oil exploration in Virunga - a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to one quarter of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas. 

He paid a heavy price: during his investigation, he has been kidnapped, tortured and faced mock executions. You might have seen “Virunga,” the 2014 Netflix documentary which recalls that story. 

A year later, he was transferred to Upemba for his own safety. There he is trying to slowly stabilise wildlife. The elephants, which were emblematic of the park, had been poached on a massive scale by the rangers themselves, the military, the police, the locals and the brutal Mai Mai militia- and those who escaped the slaughter had left the protected area.

He has already reintroduced one population of 68 elephants and another larger one is approaching the park’s borders.  Under his watch, no elephants have been poached in Upemba since 2016.  But it’s no easy job.

Since starting work at Upemba, Katembo has fought off armed militia, faced death threats and refused to accept multiple bribes to gain access to the park for illegal mining. He now lives apart from his wife and children for their safety.

“I am not special, ” Katembo simply said. “Yes, I was imprisoned and tortured, but many guards have died doing their jobs.”   Protecting Congo’s national parks is widely recognized as one of the most dangerous jobs in conservation. Over the past 20 years, more than 160 of Katembo’s park ranger colleagues have been killed - and they still continue to get killed today.

“We need to respect their work. We need to be willing to defend what they have died to protect. By protecting the park, we are protecting unique wildlife, local populations’ livelihood and Congo’s natural heritage – which is also the heritage of the whole world.”

Here is my full story on Katembo for Positive News. There are some great photos too! 

Iraq’s first national park approved

Here is a piece I wrote for Positive News yesterday on Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes, which became the country's very first national park. I had met Azzam Alwash in London before he was awarded the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in restoring the historic wetlands.

Iraq’s first national park approved

Garden of Eden’ returns to life as Mesopotamian marshlands are officially recognised as Iraq’s first national park 

 

Middle East / Environment

02 Aug 2013

Azzam Alwash (right) in the Mesopotamian marshlands     Photo © Goldman Environmental Prize

Despite the ongoing violence and instability in the country, Iraq’s cabinet has managed to approve the creation of the nation’s very first national park.

Approving the project last week, Iraq’s Council of Ministers took a momentous step towards protecting the historic Mesopotamian marshes in the south of the country for future generations.

“With this action, Iraq has acted to preserve the cradle of civilisation,” said Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi engineer and environmentalist, who gave up a comfortable life in California to help restore these unique wetlands and win government protection for them.

“We’ve worked for more than ten years to make this happen – and we still have a lot of work ahead – but we now celebrate an important milestone in the history of Iraq,” he told Positive News.

The Mesopotamian marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, once the third largest wetlands area in the world, are said by Biblical scholars to be the site of the Garden of Eden, the birthplace of civilisation.

It was once a thriving oasis of aquatic life filled with lush reed beds, water buffalo and birds – twice the size of the Florida Everglades and in the middle of a desert. And it was the home of the indigenous Ma’dan Marsh Arabs, direct descendants of the ancient Sumerians.

But in the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein wiped out the ancient marshlands in retaliation against Shia Muslim rebels who had staged an uprising after the first Gulf war and fled there for refuge. He built massive canals that drained all the marshes’ water, then set fire to the reeds and villages, turning the whole area into a vast salt-crusted desert. The United Nations Environment Programme called this action the worst environmental disaster of the last century.

“I expect every self-respecting birder to come to Iraq to complete their life list”

When Saddam’s regime fell, Alwash returned to Iraq and founded the environmental NGO, Nature Iraq, to try to restore the marshes. Over the past decade, he has worked with local people and the government, surveying the region and developing a master plan to resurrect the area.

Now, although greatly changed, the marshes have been re-flooded in many areas and are starting to flourish again. Reed beds, birds, fish, water buffalo and the Ma’dan have returned.

Alwash, who won the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize for his efforts to restore the wetlands, said he got the idea of turning them into a national park while visiting Yosemite and other national parks in the west of the United States.

“The first task was of course the re-flooding of the marshes and making sure they thrive again, but just as importantly was that the Marsh Arabs wanted to come back, and that, when they came back, they would have a decent way of life.”

Nature Iraq envisions the national park providing both a refuge for Iraq’s marshland biodiversity and a sustainable boost to the local economy through eco-tourism and development projects that bring social benefit.

“As for visitors, the first ones, I am hoping, will be the 20,000 oil field workers in the south of Iraq. Even at $10 per person, that should be a huge boost to the local economy. As stability in Iraq increases and facilities start being built to accommodate visitors, I expect every self-respecting birder to come to Iraq to complete their life list,” said Alwash.

The bigger barrier to successful restoration, however, is the hydro-politics of the region. Syria, Turkey and Iran, Iraq’s upstream neighbours, are increasingly restricting the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates. A chain of 30 dams (most already completed) along the Turkey-Syria border are reducing the flow of water in Iraq and threatening the marshes’ survival.

“By setting the national park, Iraq commits to dedicate a portion of its increasingly limited water resources to keeping the marshes alive and thriving. Furthermore, it is a good argument in negotiations with Turkey to dedicate special spring releases for environmental preservation,” said Alwash.

But ultimately, the marshes can only be protected if there is an international agreement on water-sharing, he added. “The preservation of the marshes is not only Iraq’s duty: it is the world’s duty. This is the cradle of civilisation. This is where agriculture started. This is where writing was invented. This is where Abraham was born.”

More Information:

www.natureiraq.org
www.goldmanprize.org

Category: Environment
Tags: conservation, national park
Location: Middle East
Author: Veronique Mistiaen