On Duty with EcoguardsFotogalerie: On Duty with Ecoguards - THE CONTENT HEREINAFTER IS NOT SUITABLE FOR VIEWING BY CHILDREN!Počet obrázků: 18It is dark outside and we are hiding with ecoguards in a hut some fifteen kilometres to the east of Djoum. Tomi is waiting - and we are waiting with him.
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Hunting of some species (apes, elephants, crocodiles etc.) is strictly prohibited, while others can be hunted for private needs. Violations of the law are punishable with hefty fines and prison sentences.
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Ecoguards are now state officers. That grants them a salary and pension but not sufficient equipment. They wear worn-out shoes and uniforms (with the exception of Tomi who bought a new uniform with his own money)
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Four motorcycles passed, approaching now is the first car today. And every other of them carries either an excessive amount of meat or species that are forbidden to hunt...
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  The owner of the bushmeat has been caught three times before. And he is again carrying meat either for sale or for a client. Clients are usually well-off people from the city who order bushmeat from village hunters
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Bushmeat is not just a subject of trade but most often part of the daily diet. When we asked pre-school children in a BaAka Pygmy village whether they had ever eaten gorilla meat, four fifths of them raised their hands.
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Monkeys and hornbills... People who live south of Dja are very poor and have little choice. They often get involved in the bushmeat trade to be able to buy basic necessities, such as soap.
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  A poacher hunted the game early in the morning but in the hot tropical climate, it is already attracting flies. Ecoguards will sell it later in the afternoon in a public auction. The proceeds will go to the state coffers.
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Bushmeat is cheap in Djoum but the price grows on its way to Yaoundé or another large city. Countering the illegal trade are ecoguards as well as patrols of the Ministere des Forets et de la Faune and gendarmerie
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Tomi (left) and Jean with game confiscated in a single car. And the situation is going to worsen because the dirt track, passable only for motorcycles and 4x4 trucks is going to be replaced with a tarmac road to Congo-Brazzaville
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  "Chicken is not meat," we have repeatedly heard in Djoum. Not even the most optimistic environmentalists believe that it is possible to make adults stop eating bushmeat. Instead, they see hope in educational efforts aimed at children
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Checking another motorcycle. Its owner carries a legal amount of legal game. Everyone between Djoum and Mintom have probably heard about the checks by ecoguards, so we may need to move elsewhere
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  The fourth car this morning travelling from the east to Djoum (or Sangmelim and Yaoundé). A family with a child, carrying an inconspicuous load at first sight
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Jean pulled six hornbills from the bag. "They are in the same category of protected species as gorillas and elephants," he noted
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  There were pieces of cooked meat in the boot of the car, apparently intended for sale. When the ecoguards started putting it in a bag, the child started crying. Why? "We are taking his meat," said Tomi...
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  "I didn't know this was forbidden," said the driver. He probably lied; yet there is a certain difference between him and the poacher whom the ecoguards caught two hours ago. They seized the game from both of them, checked papers and handed them subpoenas
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  Ecoguards load the game on our truck. They have an off-road vehicle but it is in Yaoundé at the moment. They otherwise use motorcycles. They also have a lack of tents and have to sleep under plastic sheets as a shelter during ten-day duties in the bush
Autor:
Miroslav Bobek  |
16.11.2009 Twiggs was born in the wild in Cameroon around the year 1997. She and another female gorilla, Brighter, was smuggled across the border to Nigeria as infants to be sold as pets on the locale pet marked.
09.11.2009 When Pitchou was very small, she was brought to Hotel Ilomba in Kribi to be sold, after her mother had been killed by hunters. She stayed there for three days, until the hotel owners could no longer bare to watch her suffer. The family donated her to the LWC.
02.11.2009 Chella came to Limbe Wildlife Centre when he was only two years old. He was found in the back of a bush-taxi sitting on his dead mother. Wildlife officials confiscated him and kept him three weeks before bringing him to the Wildlife Centre.
21.09.2009 Adjibolo came to Limbe Wildlife Centre when she was only about 6 months old. She was confiscated by senior civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Adjibolo, from a hunter who tried to sell her.
We have repeatedly supported the rescue station in Limbe, published a book of gorilla fairy tales for Cameroon's children, we finance an education campaign in schools on the borders of the biosphere reservation Dja etc.
You can support our efforts by purchasing an item with the logo The Revealed at our shop, or by making a contribution to the collection account for The Revealed, acc. no. 555 555 552/0800, IBAN: CZ35 0800 0000 0005 5555 5552
SWIFT (BIC): GIBACZPX
Thank you!
[
