The mass slaughter of six members of a peaceful, playful family of mountain gorillas in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo in July shocked millions of people around the world.
Emmanuel de Merode, chief executive of WildlifeDirect — the conservation organization founded by Richard Leakey that pays park rangers who protect the gorillas — will be in the Denver area Wednesday and Thursday to speak about the slaughter.
De Merode was with park rangers in July when they found the dead gorillas — part of the Rugendo family — in Virunga National Park.
The deaths of the six followed the slaughter of two male gorillas in January 2007 and one female gorilla in June.
In a widely viewed TV program aired in December, De Merode told CNN’s Anderson Cooper what it was like to come upon the dead gorillas, which were like family to him as well as WildlifeDirect and the rangers.
“It was a terrible, terrible scene to witness,” De Merode told Cooper. “It was our whole lives, everything we were working for that was shattered in front of us.”
De Merode will speak from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Canyon Theater in the Boulder Public Library, an event sponsored by the Highlands City Club.
On Thursday, De Merode will speak at the Colorado History Museum from 7 to 9 p.m.
Admission each night is $5, with proceeds benefiting WildlifeDirect.
De Merode is being brought to Boulder and Denver by Boulder homebuilder Robert Williams, who describes himself as a “green builder” constructing “environmentally sensitive homes” in Boulder County.
Williams was so incensed by the gorilla killings and the fact that it was a potential harbinger of things to come in the park — and a direct threat to existence of the 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild — that he decided to act.
“I had known the problem was bad,” said Williams. “But I was under the assumption things were under control. You can’t help but feel crushed by the slaughter.”
The problem is profound, Williams said today in a phone interview.
Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which the United Nations said is notable for its chain of active volcanoes and the greatest diversity of habitat of any park in Africa.
The problem is that in the worn-torn area, the park’s forests provide the only remaining fuel supply for local residents. Rebels and even government troops make money by cutting down trees, turning them into charcoal and selling it to the Congolese for fuel.
By ravaging the forests in the national park, the charcoal sellers are destroying gorilla habitat and threatening their very existence, according to Williams.
WildlifeDirect reports that in recent months, rangers at the park were able to seize more than 100 tons of charcoal and have cut the charcoal trade to less than a third of what it was a few months ago.
But Williams would like to see the charcoal trade completely dismantled.
Williams is the final stages of putting together an agreement with German company Bosch-Siemans, a manufacturer of plant-oil stoves, that will result in Bosch-Siemens donating 100 stoves to Congolese living near Virunga National Park to see whether they are willing to adjust to using plant oil, instead of charcoal, as a fuel.
If the pilot project is successful, Williams said, the German manufacturer said it will partner with Williams to help reach a goal of placing 100,000 plant stoves with residents in the region.
“That might mean selling us the stoves at cost or providing technical assistance,” said Williams.
Williams hopes the result would be to save the gorillas’ habitat and allow the Congolese to grow their own plants for the stoves, rather than cutting the trees.
He said that he and WildlifeDirect will probably approach the World Bank for funding.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
