Democratic Republic of the Congo
The subject for my portrait for The Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo is Adams Cassinga, wildlife activist, criminal investigator and founder of Conserv Congo
Geography
The Democratic Republic of the Congo also known as the DR Congo, or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.
Source Wikipedia
Environmental issues
The main environmental problems for DR Congo are deforestation, poaching, which threatens wildlife populations, water pollution and unregulated mining
About Adams
Adams Cassinga was born in DR Congo and tells of how as a child he was aware of tourists visiting the country to see wildlife, especially gorillas, but how as he grew up he rarely saw wildlife outside of what was for sale either alive or as bushmeat in the local markets
The war in Congo led to Adams leaving the country in the mid 1990s and finding his way down to South Africa where he worked in the Kruger National Park as a journalist. He for the first time saw wildlife up close quickly observed how South Africans valued wildlife and saw the value to the country through tourism. He wondered why a similar mindset wasn’t present in Congo
Adams returned to school and studied wildlife conservation. He found work with a gold mining company who sent him back to DR Congo as an environmental consultant.
Adams describes "My job was to minimize the company’s negative impacts, but I was really just counting how many trees we chopped down. One morning, I woke up and quit my job."
Using his savings he set up the organisation Conserv Congo which fights animal trafficking and poaching and now works in partnership with the state environmental agency
The video showing the full timelapse painting process for Adams along with more of his story can be found on the YouTube Channel by clicking on the link below