Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo
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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the world’s second largest area of contiguous tropical forests, but its forestry research cadre boasted just six persons with Masters Degrees. The University of Kisangani (UNIKIS) has recognised this shortcoming, and started a process of curricula reforms, in collaboration with CIFOR. A joint capacity building programme financed by the European Commission has since successfully trained more than 150 Masters students and 15 PhDs in ‘Biodiversity and Forestry Management’. During this workshop a photo quiz will illustrate the innovative curriculum development of an interdisciplinary Masters course on ‘History, Law and Land Governance in sub-Saharan Africa’, co-designed by UNIKIS and CIFOR.
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Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- 1. Dr. D. Andrew Wardell, Senior Research Associate, CIFOR and Prof. Ursil Lelo Di Makungu, University of Kisangani, DRC GLF Learning Pavilion, Bonn – 1-2 December 2018 Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- 2. The next generation of Congolese foresters In 2005 the entire forestry research cadre in DRC boasted just six persons with Masters Degrees CIFOR and the Faculty of Sciences, University of Kisangani (UNIKIS) - supported by the European Commission (EC) - have since successfully trained more than 150 Masters students in ‘Biodiversity and Forestry Management’ and 15 PhDs (see https://forestsnews.cifor.org/58188/meet-the-next- generation-of-congolese-forest-experts?fnl=en) From research to action – CIFOR DG blog https://forestsnews.cifor.org/58444/from-research-to- action-to-protect-congo-basin- forests?fnl=en&utm_source=CIFOR+Website&utm_medi um=widget&utm_campaign=Forests+News
- 3. Inter-disciplinary curriculum development Innovative joint curriculum development of an interdisciplinary 2 year Masters course by UNIKIS, CIFOR and CISDL, aligned to national capacity building research priorities, and with an effective exit strategy. ‘Law and Governing Access to Natural Resources in DRC’ (Year 1 – all students) and ‘History, Law and Land Governance in sub- Saharan Africa’ (Year 2 – students who specialize ‘Hommes-Forets’)
- 4. Land Governance Why History? – Temporal dynamics of land use and land cover changes and adoption of a diachronic approach to capture institutional and jurisprudential precedents during pre-colonial and colonial periods. Why Law? – Understanding the legal and institutional frameworks governing access to land and natural resources in DRC, and of the different sources of law (customary, statutory, project, regional and international law) (Year 1). Comparative ‘crucial’ case studies of land governance in several sub-Saharan Africa countries (Year 2) Why Land Governance? – Insecure tenure, land grabbing and growing numbers of land conflicts make this an extremely relevant and contemporary subject matter
- 6. A pre-colonial personal territory
- 7. Who are they? How were they linked?
- 9. The « Builder King » – Where?
- 10. What happened in 1900? Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900 Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in Africa, London 1900 - Multilateral treaty signed by colonial powers (France, Germany, UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Congo Free State)
- 11. Who?, When? and Where?
- 12. PNA ? When established?
- 13. Who? Where? And When?
- 14. Location of Virunga National Park
- 15. A militarized landscape? Which groups?
- 16. How many hippos are left in Virunga NP?
- 17. Why are great apes poached?
- 18. EU member states imported 6 million live birds, 1.6 million live reptiles, 10 million reptile skins, 21 million orchids and 579 tonnes of sturgeon caviar between 1996-2002 (Bowman et al, 201: 483 citing TRAFFIC Bulletin 2004: 4) Value of legally-traded wildlife products ca. US$ 160 billion per annum in the 1990s. Value of illegal trade harder to estimate ca. US$10-20 billion (White, 2011: 55) Illegal trade in wildlife and wood-based products in/from East Asia and the Pacific ca. US$20 billion annually (Sand, 2013: 252) The importance of wildlife trade
- 19. Who is engaged in the charcoal trade?
- 20. Who?
- 22. and some good news….
- 23. A new threat? Oil and gas
- 24. Conservation for whom? Who? When? and Where?
Editor's Notes
- Additional partners include CIRAD, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, Musee Royal de l’Afrique Centrale and several Belgian universities.
- Final cohort to be taught Year 2 modules using binomal model in January 2019. Theerafter, all modules, bibliographic material, exercises and exam questions will be handed over to Prof. Ursil Lelo Di Makungu and his associates at UNIKIS.
- Painting shows a landscape in the Nordic countries in late 1800’s. The painter is Erro Järnefelt, painted in 1893, southern Finland Clearly, the practises - did not provide well for livelihoods - did not produce very high levels of food and other products - did not well maintain ecosystem services and caused considerable GHG emissions The second picture, faded in, is from today and illustrates that the situation is common to this day (picture from South America, 2008)
- Leopold II was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State and all its people, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. Congo Free State founded in 1885 became Congo Belge in 1908.
- Leopold II used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. Leopold II extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by using forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. Under his regime an estimated 10 million Congolese people died. Reports of deaths and abuse led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, leading the Belgian government to force Leopold II to relinquish control of the colony to Belgian civil administration in 1908.
- A 1906 Punch cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber snake entangling a Congolese rubber collector.
- Cinqentainaire Park, Brussels Leopold II commissioned a great number of buildings, urban projects and public works, largely with the profits generated from exploitation of natural resources and the population of the Congo. These projects earned him the epithet of "Builder King" (Koning-Bouwheer in Dutch, le Roi-Bâtisseur in French). The public buildings were mainly in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp, and include the Hippodrome Wellington racetrack, the Royal Galleries and Maria Hendrikapark in Ostend; the Royal Museum for Central Africa and its surrounding park in Tervuren; the Cinquantenaire park, triumphal arch and complex, and the Duden Park in Brussels, and the 1895-1905 Antwerpen-Centraal railway station. In addition to his public works, he acquired and built numerous private properties for himself inside and outside Belgium. He expanded the grounds of the Royal Castle of Laeken, and built the Royal Greenhouses, the Japanese Tower and the Chinese Pavilion near the palace. In the Ardennes, his domains consisted of 6,700 hectares (17,000 acres) of forests and agricultural lands and the châteaux of Ardenne, Ciergnon, Fenffe, Villers-sur-Lesse and Ferage. He also built important country estates on the French Riviera, including the Villa des Cèdres and its botanical garden, and the Villa Leopolda.
- The London Convention 1900 encouraged creation of wildlife reserves BUT did not enter into force The British and Germans apparently ratified ‘enthusiastically’ and attempted to apply the treaty in their colonies (Mackenzie, 1988: 208) ‘First regional conservation treaty of general scope’ (Bowman et al, 2010: 5) Political pressure to protect (a) particular, narrowly conceived human interest – the preservation of a sufficient supply of wildlife to satisfy the hunting community’ whose ‘naked utilitarian perspective’ was ‘made explicit in the preamble’ (Bowman et al, op cit) Mandated the creation of reserves and initiated calls for strict regulation of trade The origins of CITES (1973)
- 1909 - 1 year hunting trip by (former President Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermin (assisted by 250 ‘native’ porters and guides) in British East Africa and Belgian Congo ostensibly to ‘collect’ specimens for the Smithsonian Institute 1,100 specimens shot and killed, of which 512 by Roosevelt and son including 17 lions, 11 elephants and 20 rhinocerous
- Albert National Park was established in April 1925 as Africa’s first national park. It was conceived as a science-oriented nature reserve with the aim of studying and preserving wildlife and so-called ‘primitive’ hunter-gatherer African Pygmies. In 1926, Derscheid headed the first Belgian mission to map Albert National Park, which was enlarged to 2,920.98 km2 in 1929. Indigenous people, foremost Hutus and Tutsis lost their traditional land rights in this process, and were evicted from the park. In 1934, the Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge was founded as the governing body for national parks in the Belgian Congo. Between the early 1930s and 1961, several expeditions to Albert National Park were carried out by Belgian scientists, the second headed by Gaston-François de Witte. They studied and collected zoological specimens of wildlife for the Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique; explored the ethnic groups in this area; and studied volcanic activity.
- President Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire 1965 – 1997 and H.R.H. Prince Bernhard of Lippe Biesterfeld, a a former member of the Nazi party, Kinshasa 1973. In January 1972 Mobutu changed his own name from Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (“The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”). Bernhard was Founding President of the World Wildlife Fund (later renamed World Wide Fund for Nature), and served between 1962-1976. In 1970 he established WWF's financial endowment "The 1001: A Nature Trust". In 1988, Prince Bernhard and Princess Juliana sold two paintings from their personal collection to raise money for WWF. The paintings sold for GBP 700,000, which was deposited in a Swiss WWF bank account. In 1989, however, Charles de Haes, Director-General of the WWF, transferred GBP 500,000 back to Bernhard, for what De Haes called a private project. In 1991, newspapers reported what this private project was: Prince Bernhard had hired KAS International, owned by Special Air Services founder Sir David Stirling to use mercenaries – mostly British – to fight poachers in nature reserves. The paramilitary group infiltrated organisations profiting from illegal trade in ivory in order to arrest them. Project Lock backfired as Bernhard's private army had not only infiltrated in the illegal trade, they were also participating in it. To make things worse, Irish reporter Kevin Dowling discovered that the South African Army was also involved in the trade, hinting at connections between the Bernhard's troops, WWF and the struggle for maintaining Apartheid. John H. Loudon (Shell) took over as President of WWF during the period 1976-1981 before the role was assumed by H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh who served from 1981-1996.
- Which (para-)military groups? M 23, Congolese Army, ICCN rangers and FDLR.
- Since 1994, armed rebel groups occupying most parts of Virunga NP have massacred the hippopotamus population. In 20 years their numbers had declined from 29,500 to 400. The risk of extinction will also affect fish stocks as the hippos fertilize the lake waters. Estimate value of trafficked natural ressources (notably bushmeat and charcoal) in 2017 was US$ 170 million of of which militia groups drained US$ 47 million.
- Current levels of bushmeat hunting in west and central Africa are largely unsustainable, and will lead to the loss of an important natural resource and cause the extinction of threatened species. Worryingly, great apes are hunted for their meat despite being protected across their range. In this paper, we highlight the main actors involved in the trafficking of great ape meat around the Dja Biosphere Reserve (DBR) in Cameroon, and describe the commodity chain associated with the trade. In total, 78 hunters, porters, traders and consumers were interviewed. Hunters, all men, were primarily driven by profit, encouraged by middlemen, though some hunt for their own consumption. However, we identify that great ape hunting is undertaken by specialized hunters along a relatively short supply chain. Gorilla and chimpanzee meat is sold to restaurants and wealthy buyers via few intermediaries. The price of great ape meat varied at different stages of the chain. Middlemen obtained the greatest financial gain, whereas wholesale traders profited least. Movement of ape meat to markets was predominantly by public transport and facilitated by the use of vehicles that can pass through checkpoints without being examined. Based on our study we recommend potential interventions, including support of law enforcement, investments in conservation and development initiatives, and monitoring and research.
- The value of the informal charcoal trade in and around Virunga NP is estimated at US$ 35 million per year. Armed militia groups such as the FDLR are actively engaged in the charcoal trade. Virunga NP lost 24.287 hectares of forest during the period 2001-2014 (GLobal Forest Watch). Dranginis, H., 2016. Virunga’s charcoal cartel. A letter from Goma. Foreign Affairs 12 May 2016 Yee, A., 2017. In Africa’s oldest park. Seeking solutions to a drestructive charcoal trade. YaleEnvironment360
- On 1 August 2008, Prince Emmanuel Werner Marie Ghislain de Merode was appointed Director of Virunga National Park by the Congolese government. He has striven to control the bushmeat trade and protect endangered wildlife in Centra and Eastern Africa. His main focus has been on supporting the work of African wildlife rangers in conflict affected areas by driving economic development in partnership with local communities. He sustained the national parks in the north-east through DRC's 20-year civil war. Merode is the author of fourteen scientific papers and co-editor of the book Virunga: The Survival of Africa's First National Park. The park's 680 rangers are under his direction and much of his work is focused on protecting the park's exceptional wildlife, including critically important populations of mountain gorillas, elephants, okapis and chimpanzees.
- Virunga NP has lost more than 50% of its elephant population in 30 years. Estimated to number 60,000 in 1960, there are fewer than 30,000 today (Radio Okapi, 15 August 2017). http://www.radiookapi.net/2017/08/15/actualite/environnement/nord-kivu-le-parc-des-virunga-perdu-plus-de-50-de-sa-population
- A recent survey documented 604 mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), the largest number of mountain gorillas ever recorded in the transboundary Virunga Massif, one of the two remaining areas where this Critically Endangered great ape is still found. When combined with the published figure of 400 mountain gorillas from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, as of 2011, an estimated 1,004 mountain gorillas existed in the wild as of June 2016. In the area encompassing the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, referred to as the Virunga Massif, 604 individual gorillas were found in 41 groups and as 14 solitary males. This is compared with an estimated 480 individual gorillas in 36 groups and as 14 solitary males from a survey of the same area in 2010.
- The documentary Virunga documents the work of Virunga National Park rangers and the activities of British oil company Soco International within the park. It was shown at international film festivals and released via the streaming service Netflix in November 2014.[34][35]
- Donald Trump Jr on a hunting trip in Zimbabwe, 2017. What, if anything, has changed in more than a century? Is conservation still a priviledge of the wealthy few?
- Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the so-called heart of Africa. Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between what Conrad calls "the greatest town on earth", London, and Africa as places of darkness. Central to Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between so-called civilized people and those described as savages. Heart of Darkness raises key questions about imperialism and racism.