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Friday, 25 January 2008
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Tracking the extremely elusive and endangered Cross River gorilla is an activity best done in silence.
Daniel Taylor and his wife, Ginette, barely spoke as they took careful steps over treacherous ground in the jungle of southwestern Cameroon's Lebialem Highlands.
Led by a former poacher and accompanied by three or four other people, the Coquitlam couple was hoping to get an up-close look at the Cross River gorilla.
Single file, they quietly negotiated the dense, humid forest, their footsteps masked by mossy ground.
"It almost comes down to the point where you can't even sweat -- they can smell you a mile away," Daniel says.
Suddenly, at the base of a tree, a gathering of branches, grass and shrubs catches their attention: the nest of a male gorilla. Dung left nearby signalled his recent exit. Looking up, they see large nests high in the jungle canopy. These are where the females sleep with their offspring.
However, all of the nests they saw were empty.
As Daniel puts it, the gorillas are "forever on the move, two steps ahead of us, due to the encroachment of farmlands and logging."
Private farming and logging on government land are endangering the gorillas' habitat, which is how, via a circuitous route, Daniel and Ginette ended up in Cameroon last November.
He's always had an interest in wildlife, but three or four years ago Daniel wanted to paint a gorilla. He got in touch with the African Conservation Foundation (ACF) and during that contact a partnership was created. The goal was to help save the gorilla Daniel was painting: the mountain gorilla, of which there are only 700 left in the wild.
Then, the plight of another, more endangered gorilla was brought to his attention. There are fewer than 300 Cross River gorillas living in the wild, making it the most endangered of all the gorillas.
Daniel was asked to do a painting, but decided that he should see the animal first.
"It lends us more credibility," says Ginette.
The month-long trip was partly sponsored and organized through a partnership of Artists for Conservation and the ACF. The Taylors were joined by a team of field workers, conservationists and biologists.
When they weren't traipsing through the jungle, Daniel and Ginette visited three primary schools to teach art workshops for schoolchildren. Most of the children have never seen a gorilla.
"It was an amazing experience," Daniel said.
They also learned about the efforts of the ACF in the Lebialem Highlands by a man named Louis Nkembi for the past six years.
Eleven village leaders, or fons, have signed an agreement that asks them to complete a number of actions to help save the gorillas.
Field workers are gridding the area to find where the gorillas are nesting -- recent studies show most of them live in 11 separate locations, each at least 10 kilometres apart -- and help come up with a management plan for their survival.
In a country where it's illegal to hunt gorillas, poachers kill the animals to feed their families and make money. Instead of poaching, the ACF is paying many of these men to become conservationists who lead groups into gorilla habitats. A plan is in the works to have them breed cane rats and porcupines for food.
There is also a plan to buy back farms so the rainforest can be replanted, install a central water system in each village and cultivate plants for medicine, nutrition and fuel.
The socioeconomic aspect will be addressed through a concept much like micro banking, where money is lent interest free to people in the villages and paid back after a business is up and running.
"It's a circle of life. If you're going to help the gorillas ... everybody has to be looked after, not just one or the other," says Ginette. "It's an impressive project that's never been done before."
"It has nothing to do with being noble," says Daniel. "It's about doing something with your heart that means so much to so many people.
Jennifer Saltman, The NOW
Photo by Paul vanPeenen/NOW
