My name is Boniface Ngizwenimana Sebisaga. I was born in Rugari in 1954. Apart from my father, who was a farmer, pretty much everyone I knew was a Park Ranger. Growing up I would watch them coming and going from work and I would listen to their stories about life in the park. I suppose they sparked my interest in conservation. It was this interest that led me to apply for a job at Rumangabo station in Virunga National Park.

Sadly, they didn’t get back to me. At the time, one of my cousins worked in President Mobutu’s personal guard. I told him about my situation and asked him to use what influence he had to help me. In 1985 Dr Conrad Aveling came from Rwanda to work on a project concerning the habituation of gorillas. To help him track the gorillas he needed young men who could conduct long patrols. I got the job.

We started work near Kabara in Mikeno. We chose this sector because it had an abundance of gorilla families that were not habituated. At first we went out for periods of seven days, but after a while we spent longer; sometimes staying for up to fifteen days. The terrain was tough and the treks were long. We worked like that for a whole year.

My wife, Francoise, died in 2000. She left me with nine children and I haven’t been able to remarry. One of my children, Hakizimana, is a Ranger working at Bikenge.