En Bruse

 This post is going to be mainly photos, which I hope you guys enjoy because it takes me like 10 minutes to upload each one. All of the pictures where taken during random trips into the bush. August, my community host is the president of the community forest of Bikoka/Bibondi so he goes out into the bush a lot. Sometimes I go out with him to help scout for tree's, see the work that is being done clearing the roads and trails, and of course tramping around in the rainforest is a lot of fun anyways so even if I'm not helping much I enjoy it.

The idea of a community forest is a really good one. Basically a community is put in charge of managing a tract of forest so they can sell the wood and non-timber forest products and the proceeds go towards the community instead of the pockets of government officials. The forest in Bikoka/Bibondi is separated into 100 sectors, and they take wood from only one of the sectors at a time so the trees have time to grow back. They don't clear cut the wood either, they harvest only the mature tree's, and process them on site then carry out the wood on trails to one main road instead of putting roads throughout the whole forest. All in all the way the community forest is managed here is pretty environmentally sound, and a lot of the money seems to come back to the community. Unfortunately a lot of the community forests here aren't really managed that well, and all of the wood gets clear cut by the Chinese, and the community doesn’t see a dime of it. It's all really part and parcel of the corruption that is endemic here. If you put a community in charge of a forest, chances are some one who is a little less than honest is going to make sure they are in charge, and then steal and embezzle as much as possible.  

In any case, here are some pictures.

This is the root of a vine that is over a foot thick, and reaches about 250 feet into the air.

This group was cutting a border around the 2011 sector to make identifying and transporting tree's easier.

This is how palm wine is made.  This palm was cut about 15k from the road, and is pretty much just for the people working on the community forest.  A tree will give about 10 liters a day for 3 weeks. 

Bibondi river right after the trail crosses it

August, and a really big tree.  It is hard to get a picture that really gives a sense of how big these tree's are, but this one is probably over 200 feet tall

Some mist rolling over the mountains

Some guys taking a palm wine break from clearing the road.  These two cleared a kilometer straight through the Jungle with just machetes, also in case you didn't notice this is August's "en bruse" outfit

A really pissed of Chameleon.  According to August seeing one of these en bruse is good luck