Adams Cassinga has had many identities: Refugee. Journalist. Mining consultant. And now, defender of wildlife.
As a child, he was captivated by animals—gorillas lived in the forests outside his hometown of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—but his path to conservation was circuitous. In the mid-1990s, civil war sent him to South Africa, where for a time he struggled to survive. Later he found jobs in journalism and then mining.
One day, while flying to a gold mine in northeastern Congo, Cassinga gazed down on the green canopy near Garamba National Park and decided to change course. Armed groups, poachers, and black-market profiteers operate in the country’s parks. So in 2013, he started Conserv Congo, a group of undercover investigators—including police officers, politicians, and students—who track wildlife criminals. The nonprofit has worked on more than 6,000 criminal cases, rescued hundreds of trafficked animals, and seized wildlife contraband. In an industry dominated by foreigners, the National Geographic Explorer hopes to pave the way for Congolese conservationists.
“If we want our children to see these animals, we have to do it,” Cassinga says. “Other people come as part of their job, but it’s not their responsibility to protect what’s ours.”
This story appears in the August 2023 issue of National Geographic magazine.
