Caught in the crossfire: the forest elephant and law enforcement in a region of political instability, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

This paper reviews the law enforcement training and programme implementation efforts undertaken in Kahuzi Biega NP in western Democratic Republic of the Congo under the auspices of the MIKE programme. In 2002 an initial one week law enforcement monitoring (LEM) course and a followup fieldcourse to equipe the guards to handle the acutal work in the field were undertaken. Trained scouts have since identified elephant home ranges in the headquarter area, planned and implemented surveys, recorded illegal activity within the park and undertaken patrols. This activity appears to be effective in reducing illegal activity. Historically elephant were common in much of the park area and played an important role the ecology of the area. In the early 1990s population estimates varied from 1350-3600. In 1995, their more-or-less straight travel routes could be seen on steep slopes, but shortly thereafter a wave of poaching probably brought the population down to 3720 in 1997 and to about 771 by 2000. (Hall,1996: Hall ,et al. 1997; Inogwanbini, et al. 2000) . Initial observation in the training programme noted elephant signs around Musisi Swamp, but as the patrols increased, observations rose, and illegal activity curtailed, as one would expect the elephant signs are increasing. Reviews the law enforcement efforts, the effectiveness of the programme, and the operational budget of such a programme. The authors note the need for trained, and properly equipped and paid wildlife law enforcement personnel.