Danger, Guns, and Drugs
by Trip Jennings
Expedition Granted Competitor

The fact that the lack of elephant DNA data is due to the uncertain political situation has not been lost on Team Elephant. During the summer of 2008 members of our team were asked to complete a similar data collecting mission. Our task was to paddle the Lower Congo Rapids and bring back data for a group of scientists, a feat which had never been accomplished without devastating loss of life to the attempting expeditions. The USGS and NOAA were interested in obtaining data not accessible to science due to the giant and dangerous rapids.

Midway through our 4 day journey downstream we were surrounded at a campsite by men carrying AK-47 rifles and yelling in Lingala, a local language. Finally, thanks to official documentation from the highest ministry in the country and lots of pantomiming, we were able to paddle downstream unscathed and "with our dignity." A full recount of our terrifying hold up is available from Canoe and Kayak Magazine here.

This experience underscored the potential for disaster and the difficulty of working in a country like the DR Congo. While meeting with Sam Wasser he described the way ivory poaching has changed over the years. According to Sam, early elephant poachers would hammer a lead pipe onto a 4x4 and use cut sections of re-bar and gunpowder for ammunition. This would of course end up blowing poachers faces off as often as it would end up killing an elephant.

Times - and guns - have changed.

The price of ivory has ballooned from $200 per kilo just over two decades ago up to $1800 per kilo in June of this year. This makes ivory more expensive than drugs in some cases and has lead to highly organized international ivory trafficking syndicates controlling the poaching industry. According to Sam Wasser, "we're not talking about poor people trying to feed their family, we're talking about very wealthy poachers here." And as in the drug industry, with wealth comes guns.

Ivory poachers in the DR Congo these days are well armed. With as violent a conflict as has raged there for years, guns are very available and cheap. Stories of elephant poachers hunting with automatic weapons or the "AK credit card" as the Kolishnacof is called in the country are common.

This risks are, however, very avoidable if we are conservative, responsible and not over confident. We'll travel with local guides into all areas that could be dangerous. The locals live there day in and day out. They know the dangerous areas and they know how to avoid them. In many cases, we'll travel with armed park guards since elephants are easiest to find in national parks, although sadly they are often not protected.

What we won't do under any circumstances, though, is carry guns ourselves. If our experience on the banks of the Congo taught us anything it was that we can talk ourselves out of a conflict much easier that we can shoot ourselves out of it, even if we don't share a common language.