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In Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), close to the geographical “Heart of Africa“, lies a near-mythical place of astounding biodiversity. The Congo Basin is a place few people have ever had the chance to visit. The communities of the Congo Basin have a deep affinity for the land, as well as its inhabitants, and searched for a way to protect and conserve the delicate ecosystem of the region.

In Odzala-Kokoua National Park, researchers became a viable course for these communities to take their message to the key decision makers of the Republic of the Congo in Brazzaville. Over many years spent in Africa, scientists Magdalena Bermejo and Germán Illera had come to understand the connection between conservation and communities. They became the voice for these communities during a catalyst moment in the Republic of the Congo, the Ebola outbreak of 2002-2003.

During the first gorilla and chimpanzee studies funded by the European Union, Magda and Germán associated the Ebola outbreak in West and Central Africa communities with the 5000 Western Lowland Gorillas who died in 2002 and 2003. This amounted to a loss of 95% of the Western Lowland Gorilla population within the Lossi Community Reserve area at the time. This area was a symbol within the Republic of the Congo as a community driven conservation area and as such, the loss was devastating for not only the close-knit communities found here, but also the country as a whole.

During this trying time, the communities became very involved in helping the researchers to investigate the Ebola outbreak. They did this without consideration of personal risk or the heart-breaking circumstances, including the loss of their own family members.

An unbreakable bond was formed between Magda, Germán, their research team and the communities of Odzala-Kokoua National Park as people worked together to help those who couldn’t help themselves – the gorillas.

Tourism for Conservation

Magda, Germán and their team were the first people to study Western Lowland Gorillas. A prerequisite to developing their research programme, a mutual respect must be built between the researchers and the gorillas requiring daily visits to a specific group over about three years. By 2002, they had identified 10 social groups with a population of 143 in the northwest of Republic of the Congo.

The team continued their conservation research programme and initiated a pilot gorilla tourism programme in the Ngaga-Ndzehi area, with the blessing of the communities, in an effort to drive awareness and support for the region following the Ebola outbreak.

Here, Ngaga Camp was founded to the south-west of Odzala-Kokoua National Park with one of the focal research gorilla groups. The Congolese government soon wanted to look into opportunities to grow tourism and held a meeting of great minds to discuss the opportunities within the region. Sabine Plattner was one such mind and founded the Congo Conservation Company (CCC) as an actor for true conservation within the region through the development of tourism.

Research at Ngaga found a new approach with the support of Sabine Plattner African Charities (SPAC) and CCC, joining communities, science and tourism on the grounds of conservation. By opening up a second research gorilla family to tourism and establishing two more camps by 2015 (Lango and Mboko) within Odzala-Kokoua National Park, CCC is pioneering an incredibly unique and important destination.

Gorilla Researchers, Guides and Trackers

A team of permanent researchers and trackers from nearby communities work with the gorilla families on a daily basis. Guest researchers working on shorter term projects are frequently welcomed by our team.

Guests of Odzala are led on expeditions into the Marantaceae forest in search of the critically endangered species, the western lowland gorilla. Gorilla tracks entail 3-4 guests as well as a guide and a tracker from our treasured team of researchers in an untamed forest with the gorillas going about their usual activities (often seen in the trees).

Following the Ebola outbreak in the early 2000s, the team is fastidious about the health of the gorilla families and this is why we request pre-arrival medical checks and wear medical masks – to protect the gorillas against the airborne diseases to which they are very susceptible. In 2020, with the outbreak of COVID-19, Congo Conservation Company suspended all incoming arrivals to its camps for a time to ensure that the region’s remote human populations and vulnerable gorillas were isolated from any potential threats resulting from internationally travelling guests. With this in mind, Ngaga Camp has become one of Africa’s most important and respectful gorilla tracking destinations, offering an opportunity to engage with science and nature through thoughtful exploration.

I spent an incredible year at Odzala Discovery Camps. I feel privileged to have had this opportunity to spend quality time in the Congo Basin, sharing all its splendours with, not only guests, but also fellow guides.

A rainforest is a place that keeps you on your toes. Animal sightings do not come as easy due to the expansive size of the Park. With the remoteness, and the fact that most of the animals are so wild and not used to people (especially on foot). You must work hard to find the larger animal species, however, when you do, the reward feels so much greater. Even if the larger hairy and scary animals do not show themselves every day, the forest is buzzing with many other interesting creatures. Out there, the saying “every day is a school day” has been never been truer. From crazy ants whose brains get taken over by a mind-controlling fungus (Ophiocordyceps), to birds of every colour combination you could ever imagine, and the aromatic smells of the many different types of flowering plants and trees that often fill the forest air.

As the age-old saying goes, “to everything its season, to everything its time.”

Every month is unpredictable as the last. March 2018 was no exception. I arrived at a high river, large mud puddles on the road, and very regular rain showers. That year, the rain came later, and the river was low enough for us to stand most of the way. With low waters comes to the promise of the expansion of dry ground to discover.

When the opportunity presents itself in the forest systems, we did exactly that. Explore.

April was an exciting month. We noticed a herd of seven elephants who had been hanging around the banks of the Lekoli River for most of the year. They are getting amazingly comfortable with our presence. This shows the level of ethics that our guides have, knowing when we overstay our welcome and when the animals are relaxed seeing them. In the long run, it is situations like this that show our efforts are not in vain, because the herd, even then, was so comfortable with us, that we had sightings of up to an hour with them casually sleeping and feeding.

April/May appears to be the months where most of the Bongo sightings take place. They enjoy the transition periods between dry and rainy months. The increase in their sightings may be because we can explore more areas as well as the Bongo themselves are more able to move freely through the drier forest.

Many of the fig trees in the forest start fruiting around this time. This brings more chimpanzee sightings. We often went more than a month without seeing any chimps, but that April/May we were fortunate to have six sightings. This was similar to April/May in the year prior. Some guides, having never seen chimps, having then seen them that year on three occasions in a single month. Do you know what they say? “When it rains, it pours.”

Another highlight of my year at Odzala Discovery Camps was the tasting of different fruits in the forest. As guides, we look forward to the months of May – July, as this is when a lot of the trees in the forests and savannahs are fruiting. This potentially means more primate sightings and some interesting gorilla behaviour during tracks.

The Western Lowland Gorillas love feasting on the variety of fruits that the forests of the Congo Basin have to offer, which is causally related to their far more arboreal behaviour in comparison to Eastern Lowland and Mountain gorilla species. It is also an absolute treat to be able to taste a lot of these fruits for ourselves. During night drives, the presence of fruit-eating bats increases, as well as the various Galago species found, particularly around Ngaga Camp.

Heading into June and July, the guides look forward to seeing the Red River Hoglets. In 2017, most of the guides were fortunate enough to come across sounders of Red River Hogs with often more than six hoglets present. This seems to be the time of year that is best for the mother to raise their young.

No year is ever the same. The smallest change in climate can bring about massive changes. Each year, the team at Congo Conservation Company looks forward to what the months that follow hold – and what nature will reveal.

Although the civil war, which broke out in early June 1997, was limited primarily to the capital city Brazzaville and neighboring districts, most of the ECOFAC field staff was evacuated. At this writing, research at the Lossi Forest (North Congo) continues for the 3rd year focusing on the ecology and behaviour of western lowland gorillas. Moreover, the ECOFAC project (funded by the European Union) continues developing a pilot gorilla viewing tourism plan the aim of which is to create benefits for the local community in order to achieve long-term conservation of gorillas An area of about 320 km2 will be classed as a Gorilla Sanctuary. The ability of eco-tourism to provide a sustainable income for local communities played an important part in the up-grading of the legal status of part of the future Sanctuary. At present, hunting occurs only incidentally on peripheral areas of the Sanctuary, and is limited to subsistence levels.

Gorilla viewing can be guaranteed in the study area. There are many problems to be addressed in protecting large animals such as gorillas outside protected areas because people are frightened of gorillas, and gorillas sometimes raid crops. The myths referred to in the traditional legends can provide a guiding tool to manage resources in a manner that motivate local people. The people of Lengui-Lengui, the stakeholders of this forest, have a long way to go, but during the course of political instability they have shown a willpower in order to support the natural conditions of the Lossi Forest. The new conservation initiatives will combine established methods with innovative approaches to achieve truly sustainable development and better protection of biodiversity. Efforts to protect and conserve gorillas cannot be standardised as the effectiveness of each approach depends on physical, cultural and economic factors that vary from country to country.

The work at Lossi not only allows the important development of eco-tourism, but also greatly enhances our scientific knowledge of western lowland gorillas. Observation conditions in tropical rain forest habitats are rarely ideal. However, two habituated groups in Lossi Forest allow outstanding observations of gorillas and knowledge of unexplored behaviour (for description of the preliminary results see GCN no. 11). During the last 7 months of observations (June – December 1998) lowland gorillas have been observed for a total of 310 hours. Monitoring of the gorillas has continued seven days a week. The knowledge of feeding ecology and the location and fruiting patterns of important tree species can be used to maximise clear observation of gorillas. This is relevant both to research and to eco-tourism. From June 5 – November 10 we were able to track a third group of gorillas, collecting data on over 235 night nests. Our preliminary results show that there are 18 individuals in the group composed of 1 silverback male, 6 adult females, 2 subadults, 5 juveniles and 4 infants.

Lossi appears to be the site of a village abandoned 60 years ago where it is possible to verify the impacts that human settlements have on the floral richness of this forest. Marantaceae forest covers what is possibly one of the most extensive areas in central Africa. We listed 650 plant species, belonging to 116 families and 447 genera, that occur in the study area in Lossi forest. Another 351 plant species have yet to be identified. The food plants of gorillas (187 species belonging to 48 families) and chimpanzees (91 species belonging to 32 families) were collected intensively and compared with other study sites of great apes. (Bermejo et al., in press). Chimpanzees and gorillas are known to only infrequently ingest the wood of various plant species ( Huffman et al.,1998). Gorillas in Lossi, however, quite often ate the rotten wood of Pycnanthus marchalianus, Cleistopholis patens and Mitragina stipulosa.. These plant species were also present in Ndoki forest but not eaten by gorillas (MoutsambotÇ et al.,1994). Why western lowland gorillas ingest wood in Lossi forest is complex and simple answers remain elusive. However, from analysis of chemical composition and natural features of the wood consumed by the gorillas it would appear that carbohydrates are a reason to eat the wood.

Data gathered from tracking gorillas consistently during their day-range are contributing to a better understanding of interesting questions about the lowland gorillas behaviour. Following is an observation of interest which occurred during 1998. On October 10, 1998 one young adult male was observed using a stick as tool to reach food that was beyond its reach (Bermejo, submitted). The data describe the first reported case of tool-using behaviour to obtain food by a wild gorilla. Long-term observations are needed to confirm that this behaviour may be a habitual group wide behaviour at Lossi. Further studies on the gorillas at the Lossi Forest should contribute to a better understanding of unknown aspects of the cognitive ability of gorillas.

Core funding for conservation at Lossi came from ECOFAC (Project FED, EU DG VIII). We thank especially J.M. Froment, ECOFAC-Congo project leader, and C. Aveling, project coordinator, for its assistance and encouragement. The continued cooperation of Z. Okoko, P. Balo, D. Mbomo, and G. Ngouvou who have tracked gorillas with us at Lossi, is gratefully acknowledged.