The HUGOs – which comes from Human & Gorilla Protection – are hard at work. These men – 40 of them in total – are the Community Scouts that Emmanuel blogged about in February, and form part of a new intiative to remove snares in the Gorilla Sector of Virunga. This decision was taken if you recall following the death in February of little Nsekanabo.

Here I am talking to the HUGOs on the first day.

The 40 HUGOs are based out of 4 patrol posts in the area – Bukima, Bikenge, Jomba and Gatovu. These are the men from the local communities, and we pay them $30/month with your donations made via this website (mainly Protect the Park donations). We have also provided them with uniforms, paid for with donations.

This is at our base in Bukima, with the Mikeno volcano rising up behind.

We are already seeing results. Just this week a patrol arrested a poacher near Bukima who had 1 metal snare, and 2 rope snares, intended to catch buffalo. These are larger snares than those for antelope, for example, which is the kind that caught Nsekanabo.

The HUGOs are always on patrol with Rangers and Trackers. In general we have 2 Rangers, 2 Trackers and 2-3 HUGOs per group. It is most definitely helping us to boost our effectiveness in the Gorilla Sector in terms of removing snares, and really patrolling every inch. It is absolutely essential to do this if we want to protect our Mountain Gorillas.