Posted on April, 10 2001

Lobeke, Cameroon: Sitting behind a wire mesh at one of the four viewing posts built by the conservation organization WWF, known as a mirador, Desire Louis Kafack Dontegeo is as excited at seeing a group of gorillas as if it was the first time he'd seen them in their natural surroundings. The gorillas are on the other side of a small river in an open expanse of the forest known locally as a bai. It's a perfect natural setting to observe the animals. And Desire never gets tired of watching them.

"The more you watch, the more you want to see them. My days are never long as long as there are animals to observe. If I had night-vision equipment, I would just carry on," he says.

It's hard to imagine him as a poacher, this bright individual who speaks four languages fluently, including the Baka and local Bantu language, the Bangando. But like many others, it was unemployment that pushed him into poaching.

Arriving from western Cameroon and looking for work, he saw an abundance of wildlife and acquaintances showed him how to get a gun. It was easy money - and a lot of it. Now, earning less than a quarter of what he used to, you wonder what made him turn to conservation.

"It was the education campaigns," he explains. "We poachers were constantly being told why we mustn't do what we were doing. And one day, it suddenly hit me. It was like a bolt of lightening," he says.

But giving up poaching left him without any means of living. He needed to be in the forest. It was the only thing, he says, that gave him a sense of well being. Worried that by not finding alternative work, he would be driven back to poaching, he turned to WWF and offered his skills and knowledge. It was he who showed WWF where the natural forest clearings special to this region could be found in Lobeke.

At first the work was adhoc and all the while, the staff at WWF continued to explain to him how the forest and the animals depended on each other.

It's been six years since Desire began working for WWF. There are no regrets only a wish for sufficient and better equipment. "We're willing to work more than expected of us but it's the lack of equipment that stops us." The night vision binoculars he says is an example. Elephants are very active during the night at the bai and although they can very clearly be heard, they can't be seen. "We'd be able to contribute so much more to the ecological monitoring programme if we could observe their overnight activities," he enthuses.

It's obvious he is totally at home in the forest. He moves around with a silent grace, missing nothing and able to recount the medicinal qualities of various trees and plants. "I love working in the forest and knowing that now I am doing something to conserve Lobeke. Sometimes I could let myself be discouraged, like when for an entire mission we were soaked because the tent is full of holes and it's raining and all our food is ruined. I could give up and return to base, but I don't. I love my work. I won't pack up and go."

(614 Words)

*Jemini Pandya is a freelance journalist/photographer working for WWF's Forests for Life Campaign.