Emmanuel de Merode

Prince Emmanuel de Merode (born 5 May 1970) is Belgian nobleman and prominent nature conservationist. Since 2008 he's director of the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Background

Merode was born at Carthage, the second son of Charles Guillaume, Prince de Merode, and of his wife Princess Hedwige de Ligne (sister of Charles-Antoine, Prince de Ligne de La Trémoïlle). His parents belong to two of Belgium's historically most ancient and influential families. Emmanuel de Merode does not use his hereditary title in professional contexts, however he is legally a prince in Belgium's nobility, the title having been conferred upon the family in 1929.^[1]

Career

Anthropologist, conservationist, pilot, he worked to control the bushmeat trade and protect endangered wildlife in Central and Eastern Africa. His main focus has been support for African wildlife rangers in remote and difficult national parks and reserves. His work was primarily in the parks of eastern DRC, working to sustain the national parks through the DRC's 10-year civil war. Author of fourteen scientific papers and co-editor of the book Virunga: The Survival of Africa's First National Park.

On 1 August 2008, he was appointed by Congolese Government as Director for Virunga National Park. After swearing allegiance to the Congolese flag, he became the only foreign national to exercise judicial powers in the war torn central African nation. He now lives at the park headquarters in Rumangabo, bordering the park's mountain gorilla sector. The park's 680 rangers fall under his command and much of his work is focused on protecting the park's exceptional wildlife, that include a critically important population of Mountain Gorillas, elephants, okapis and chimpanzees. His first breakthrough was to broker an agreement between the Congolese Government and Rebel Leader Laurent Nkunda to spare the Mountain Gorilla Sector of the Park from the rages of the ongoing civil war and to enable government rangers to redeploy in rebel territory.

Given the chronic absence of adequate funding for the park, he has worked on building support through the Internet, specifically through an innovative social networking website www.gorilla.cd. This has helped augment the vital funding the park receives from the European Commission. His work also includes the promotion of sustainable energy for poor households, as an alternative to forest destruction for charcoal, through the development of combustible biomass briquettes, a new industry that is projected to create 30,000 jobs in post-conflict areas of eastern DRC.

At his swearing in ceremony, Merode remarked, "The intensity of the conflict in and around the park makes this a daunting challenge, but it is a great privilege to be working alongside such a dedicated and courageous team of rangers. I have real confidence in our ability to secure a future for the park to ensure that it makes a positive contribution to the lives of the people of North Kivu."

He has spoken about his work and the work of the rangers of Virunga in a TEDxWWF talk, "A story of conflict, renewal and hope". Under his leadership, the Virunga park opened for business again in 2014.^[2]

He has been seriously injured by bullets during an ambush on the road between Goma and Rumangabo on the 15th of April 2014.^[3]

Personal life

Prince Emmanuel de Merode married Louise Leakey in 2003, a paleontologist from Kenya. They have two daughters:

Princess Seiya de Merode(born 2004)
Princess Alexia de Merode (born 2006) [1].

James Leakey
(1775–1865)^[i]

Eliza Hubbard Woolmer
(1793–1855)^[ii]

James Shirley Leakey
(1824–1871) ^{[citation needed]}

Caroline Woolmer Leakey
(1827–1881)^[ii]

9 others^[ii]

Rev. Arundell Leakey
(1853–1924)

Rev. Harry Leakey
(1868–1940)

Elizabeth Laing
(1873–1925)^[iii]^[iv]

Arundell Gray Arundell Leakey
(1885–1954)^[iii]^[iv]

5 others

Henrietta Wilfrida Avern
(1902–1993)

Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey^[iv]
(1903–1972)

Mary Douglas Nicol
(1913–1996)

3 others

Nigel Gray Leakey
(1913–1941)^[iii]^[iv]

Robert Dove Leakey
(1914–2013)

Maj. Gen. Arundell Rea Leakey
(1915–1999)

Agnes Florence Leakey
(1917–2006)^[iv]

Colin Louis Avern Leakey
(1933–2018)

Meave Epps
(b. 1942)

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey
(1944–2022)

Margaret Cropper

Jonathan Harry Erskine Leakey
(1940–2021)

Philip Leakey
(b. 1949)

Lt. Gen. Arundell David Leakey
(b. 1952)

Louise Leakey
(b. 1972)

Emmanuel,
Prince de Mérode
(b. 1970)

Notes:

^ O'Donoghue, F. M.; Remington, V. (revised) (2004). "Leakey, James (1775–1865), miniature painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16244. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, wife of James Leakey". Artsandculture.google.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022. Elizabeth Hubbard Woolmer was born on 20 December 1793. ... On 28 August 1815 she married the artist James Leakey (1775-1865) at St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter (2). They had eleven children. ... Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827-1881)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Serjeant Nigel Gray Leakey | War Casualty Details". cwgc.org. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022. NIGEL GRAY LEAKEY ... Died 19 May 1941 Age 28 years old ... Son of Arundell Gray A. and Elizabeth Leakey, of Kiganjo, Kenya.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Lean, Mary (26 January 2007). "Agnes Hofmeyr, Worker for reconciliation in Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2022. Agnes Leakey, worker for reconciliation: born Limuru, Kenya 8 May 1917; married 1946 Bremer Hofmeyr (died 1993; one son, and one son deceased); died Johannesburg 1 December 2006. ... Agnes Leakey was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1917, the youngest child of Gray Leakey, cousin of the anthropologist Louis Leakey, and his first wife, Elizabeth. ... in 1926, when Elizabeth died ... She married a South African colleague, Bremer Hofmeyr, in 1946. ... in ... 1954 ... Mau Mau fighters ... attacked her father's farm, killed her stepmother and abducted her father. ... [he was] buried alive, in a shallow grave on Mount Kenya. ... she lost her eldest brother, Nigel Leakey, in 1941 at Colito, where he won the Victoria Cross. Three years after Bremer's death, in 1993, their elder son, Murray, was killed in a car accident in Johannesburg.

External links

Website Virunga National Park

Publications

Macmillan (2005) Protected areas and decentralisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a case for devolving responsibility to local institutions (in Rural Resources and Local Livelihoods in Africa, Edited by Katherine Homewood). Emanuel de Merode
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B (2004) Volume 271, pages 2631–2636 Do wildlife laws work? Species protection and the application of a prey choice model to poaching decisions. Marcus Rowcliffe, Emmanuel de Merode and Guy Cowlishaw.
Biological Conservation (2003) Volume 118, Issue 5, Pages 573-581 The value of bushmeat and other wild foods to rural households living in extreme poverty in Democratic Republic of Congo. Emmanuel de Merode, Katherine Homewood and Guy Cowlishaw
Overseas Development Institute Wildlife Policy Series (2003) Volume 1 Wild resources and livelihoods of poor households in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Emmanuel de Merode, Katherine Homewood & Guy Cowlishaw.
International Journal of Remote Sensing (2000) Volume 21, Numbers 13-14, pages 2665-2683 The spatial correlates of wildlife distribution around Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. De Merode E, K. Hillman-Smith, A. Nicholas, A. Ndey, M. Likango.
Earthscan Publications (1999) Promoting Partnerships: Managing Wildlife Resources in Central and West Africa. J. Abbot, F. Ananze, N. Barning, P. Burnham, E. De Merode, A. Dunn, E. Fuchi, E. Hakizumwami, C. Hesse, R. Mwinyihali, M.M. Sani, D. Thomas, P. Trench, R. Tshombe
WWF sustainable development series, (1999) Towards Financial Sustainability for Protected Areas: learning from business approaches. A. Inamdar, E. de Merode
PhD Thesis, University of London (1998) Protected Areas and Local Livelihoods: Contrasting Systems of Wildlife Management in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
PLA Notes (1998) Volume 33, Pages 27-33 Participatory GIS: opportunity or oxymoron. Jo Abbot, Robert Chambers, Christine Dunn, Trevor Harris, Emmanuel de Merode, Gina Porter, Janet Townsend and Daniel Weiner
Pachyderm (1995) Volume 19, pages 39–48 Factors affecting elephant distribution at Garamba National Park and surrounding reserves, Zaïre, with focus on human elephant conflict. Hillman Smith, A. K. K., E. de Merode, A. Nicholas, B. Buls, and A. Ndey.

References

^ Hueck, Walter von, ed. (1991). Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels Fürstliche Häuser Band XIV (in German). Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke.
^ http://america.aljazeera.com/features/2014/2/virunga-is-open-readyforbusiness.html
^ http://www.lesoir.be/521928/article/actualite/monde/2014-04-16/emmanuel-merode-directeur-du-parc-des-virunga-blesse-dans-une-attaque

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[4] O'Donoghue, F. M.; Remington, V. (revised) (2004). "Leakey, James (1775–1865), miniature painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16244. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[ramm-5] "Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, wife of James Leakey". Artsandculture.google.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022. Elizabeth Hubbard Woolmer was born on 20 December 1793. ... On 28 August 1815 she married the artist James Leakey (1775-1865) at St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter (2). They had eleven children. ... Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827-1881)

[nigel-gray-leaky-cwgc-6] "Serjeant Nigel Gray Leakey | War Casualty Details". cwgc.org. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022. NIGEL GRAY LEAKEY ... Died 19 May 1941 Age 28 years old ... Son of Arundell Gray A. and Elizabeth Leakey, of Kiganjo, Kenya.

[agnes-leakey-obit-7] Lean, Mary (26 January 2007). "Agnes Hofmeyr, Worker for reconciliation in Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2022. Agnes Leakey, worker for reconciliation: born Limuru, Kenya 8 May 1917; married 1946 Bremer Hofmeyr (died 1993; one son, and one son deceased); died Johannesburg 1 December 2006. ... Agnes Leakey was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1917, the youngest child of Gray Leakey, cousin of the anthropologist Louis Leakey, and his first wife, Elizabeth. ... in 1926, when Elizabeth died ... She married a South African colleague, Bremer Hofmeyr, in 1946. ... in ... 1954 ... Mau Mau fighters ... attacked her father's farm, killed her stepmother and abducted her father. ... [he was] buried alive, in a shallow grave on Mount Kenya. ... she lost her eldest brother, Nigel Leakey, in 1941 at Colito, where he won the Victoria Cross. Three years after Bremer's death, in 1993, their elder son, Murray, was killed in a car accident in Johannesburg.

[1] Hueck, Walter von, ed. (1991). Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels Fürstliche Häuser Band XIV (in German). Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke.

[2] ttp://america.aljazeera.com/features/2014/2/virunga-is-open-readyforbusiness.html

[3] ttp://www.lesoir.be/521928/article/actualite/monde/2014-04-16/emmanuel-merode-directeur-du-parc-des-virunga-blesse-dans-une-attaque

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