Web charity helps save Congo's gorillas

In Congo, it is the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Rob Muir is their chief conservationist based in Goma, near the Rwanda border.

"It's a lightning operation," says Mr. Muir, a Briton. "We have a reserve of cash we can draw on here in Congo, which we use to pay for whatever the person in Britain, America, or wherever has donated.

"We buy the boots in the market and hand them over straight away. We buy the food, the uniforms, the tents, and they're in the rangers' hands in a day or two. Then Wildlife Direct pays us back later."

The boost to the rangers' morale is instant.

"It's really a great thing," says Aloma. "We really wanted people to know how hard we were working, and now we see that they do. Soon Congo will become known for things other than war."

Wildlife Direct does not take a percentage of donations. They are separately funded by donors who cover administrative and running costs.

In the first 72 hours after Wildlife Direct started working with gorillas in Congo in January, the group received $38,000.

They've since found sponsors for 15 rangers, who were getting nothing before.

"We are very happy with this initial burst of funding," says Richard Leakey, chairman of Wildlife Direct, who's known for largely stamping out poaching of elephants in Kenya in the 1980s. "It is obviously crucial that the interest people have shown continues, but from what we can tell it is going to continue."

On the edge of the Virunga National Park's southern Mikeno sector is a forest clearing which, two months ago, was a forward base for militiamen loyal to Nkunda.

This week, instead of a rebel command center, the clearing has been reclaimed by the conservationists as a high-tech gorilla monitoring station.

Led by Muir and Augustin Kambale, the head ranger of a nearby patrol post, ICCN has set up tents, erected a mess hall, and cleared space for a satellite dish that runs on solar power for Internet connections.

Donations via Wildlife Direct paid for the $1,000 operations tent, two of the laptops the rangers will use, and will fund the satellite link when it comes online.

Five of the rangers, including Mr. Kambale, will soon be blogging about their work, hoping that more donations will soon be flowing, and their work will be given the shot in the arm it needs.

Aloma, the ranger sponsored by the Colorado students, is already blogging. He sends photos and answers questions the students send in, including one from Kori: "Do you ever cry when you do your job?"

One of the children's teachers in Colorado Springs, Melissa Stull, says the students have raised more than $700 in two months, and that they will soon launch "Pickles for Primates" to sell dill pickles to raise more money. They're also planning to auction a bicycle donated to the school.

"If they weren't so excited about it, we wouldn't have raised this kind of money," says Ms. Stull. "The kids are learning tons. We'll keep going for as long as we can."

Back in Congo, the gorillas may be sensing the window of peace that has now opened. Close to the clearing, which is to be named Camp Karema after one of the dead silverbacks, one of the eight females in a 32-strong family is suckling a 3-month-old baby.

Another family nearby has a 2-week-old baby; to have two infants born so close together is rare in Virunga National Park.

"If this peace lasts a long time, we know we can do our work and the gorillas will be safe for the first time in so many years," Kambale said last weekend, when the Monitor became the first outsiders to visit since Nkunda's troops pulled out.

"Things were so hard before," says Kambale. "We had no uniforms, no equipment, and no patrol rations. Now things are completely different. We have all that we need."

• Matthew Clark contributed to this report.

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