I don't speak English. I start speaking English, learning English, about a year ago. I speak French and I grew up with French, so my English is Franglais. I'm born in the Western Congo, in an area around here, and then went to university in Kisangani. And after I finished, I went to this area, the Ituri Forest. But what I've been doing -- when I was about 14, I grew in my uncle's house. And my father was a soldier, and my uncle was a fisherman and also a poacher. What I've been doing from 14 to 17 was, I was assisting them collecting ivory tusk, meat and whatever they were killing, poaching, hunting in the forest, bring it in the main city to get access to the market.
我不会说英文 我刚在一年前开始学说英语,学习英文 我从小说法语长大,所以我的英语是法式英语 我出生在刚果西部一个离这不远的地方 后来去念了基桑加尼大学 毕业后我就来到了这,伊图里森林 但是我一直在从事的 - 在我大约14岁的时候,我是在叔叔家长大 我的父亲是一个士兵 我的叔叔是一个渔夫同时也是一个偷猎者 我在14到17岁间一直做的是 帮他们收集象牙和肉 还有任何他们在森林里所猎杀,偷盗,捕捉的猎物 把这些所得带到大城里的集市上
But finally, I got myself involved. Around 17 to 20 years, I became, myself, a poacher. And I wanted to do it, because -- I believed -- to continue my studies. I wanted to go to university, but my father was poor, my uncle even. So, I did it. And for three to four years, I went to university. For three times, I applied to biomedical science, to be a doctor. I didn't succeed. I was having my inscriptions, my admission to biology. And I said, "No way, I'm not doing it. My family's poor, my area don't have better health care. I want to be a doctor to serve them." Three times, that means three years, and I start getting old. I say, "Oh, no, I continue." So, I did tropical ecology and plant botany. When I finished, I went to the Ituri Forest for my internship. It's where I really getting passion with what I'm doing right up to now -- I'm standing in front of you -- doing botany and wildlife conservation.
但是最后,我自己也参与到了他们的行动中 在约17到20岁时,我自己成为了一名偷猎者 我从事的原因是我相信我的学业会得到继续 我很想去上大学,但是我父亲很穷,叔叔更不用说了 所以我就那么做了 3到4年的时间里,我去了大学 我申请了生物医学3次,想成为一名医生 我没有成功 我拿到了录取通知书,生物系收了我 而我说,没门儿,我不会学它的 我的父亲穷,我生活的地方没有好的医疗服务 我想成为一名医生去给他们服务 3次,也就是说3年,我开始慢慢长大了 我说,噢,不,我要继续下去 所以我学了热带生态学和栽培植物学 当我毕业的时候,我去了伊图里森林实习 就是在那我开始对现在所从事的工作充满激情 一直延续到现在出现在你们面前 还在做植物学和野生动物保护工作
That time the Ituri Forest was created as a forest reserve with some animals and also plants. And the training center there was built around the scientific Congolese staff and some American scientists also. So, the Okapi Faunal Reserve protects number -- I think that is the largest number of elephants we have right now in protected areas in Congo. It has also chimpanzees. And it has been named Okapi Faunal Reserve because of this beautiful creature. That is a forest giraffe. I think you guys know it quite well. Here we have savanna giraffes, but through evolution we have this forest giraffe that lives only in Congo. It has also some beautiful primates. Thirteen species -- highest diversity we can find in one single area in Africa. And it has the Ituri Forest itself -- about 1,300 species of plants, so far known.
那时伊图里森林建成了一个森林保护区 有一些动物及植物 还建了一个训练中心 有一些刚果的科研人员 还有一些美国的科研人员 所以 Okapi 动物保护区防护数量 - 我认为那时数量最多的象群 我们现在正在一个刚果受保护的地区 这里也有黑猩猩 它被命名为 Okapi 动物保护区 是源于这种美丽的物种 那是一个林地长颈鹿 我想大家对它都很了解 这是草原长颈鹿 但在进化过程中演变成林地长颈鹿 它们只生活在刚果 里面还有一些灵长类动物 有13种 - 是我们在非洲能找到密度最大的地方 还有就是伊图里森林本身 据我所知有将近1300种植物
I joined the Wildlife Conservation Society, working there, in 1995, but I started working with them as a student in 1991. I was appointed as a teaching assistant at my university because I accomplished with honor. But I didn't like the way -- the instruction I got was very poor. And I wanted to be formed to a training center and a research center. With the end of the dictatorship regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, that most of you know, life became very, very difficult. And the work we have been doing was completely difficult to do and to achieve it.
我是在1995年加入野生动物保护协会的 但是在1991年,当我还是学生的时候就开始为他们工作了 我那时被任命为我大学的助教 因为我获得了学位 但是我不喜欢那种低质的教学方式 我想到训练中心和研究中心去 在Mobutu Sese Seko是独裁统治结束时 大家都知道,生活变得非常非常困难 而我们的工作 完全无法完成
When Kabila started his movement to liberate Congo, so Mobutu soldiers started moving and retreated. So they started fleeing from the east to the west. And the Okapi Faunal Reserve is there, so there was a road from Goma, somewhere here, and coming like this. So they might go through, pass through the Okapi Faunal Reserve. Congo has five of the world's richest sites of protected area, and the Okapi Faunal Reserve is one of them. So soldier was fleeing in the Okapi Faunal Reserve. On their way, they looted everything. Torture, wars -- oh, my God, you can't believe. Every person was looking his way -- where to go, we don't know. And it was for us, the young, the first time really we hear the language of war, of guns. And even people who faced the rebellion of 1963, after our independence, they didn't believe what was happening. They were killing people. They were doing whatever they want because they have power. Who have been doing that? Young children. Child soldiers. You can't ask him how old he is because he has guns.
当 Kabila 开始他的解放刚果运动的时候 Mobutu 的士兵开始转移和撤退 所以他们开始从东往西撤 而 Okapi 动物保护区正好在那 那有一条通往 Goma 的路,在这附近 就是这样过来的 所以他们可能会从 Okapi 动物保护区通过 刚果有5个世界上最丰富的保护区 而 Okapi 动物保护区就是其中之一 那些士兵撤到了 Okapi 动物保护区里 他们一路上掠劫所有的东西 折磨,战争 - 噢,我的上帝,你们不会相信 每一人都在找寻出路,我们不得而知 特别是对我们这些第一次经历的年轻人 我们感受到了枪林弹雨的滋味 甚至所有经历1963年那场叛乱的人 在我们独立后,他们都没有办法相信当年所发生的事 他们屠杀百姓,胡作非为 因为他们手中有权利 是谁做了那些? 小孩子们,童子军 你不能得知他们的年龄,因为他们手里有枪
But I was from the west, working in the east. I even [at] that time was not speaking Swahili. And when they came, they looted everything. You can't speak Lingala because Lingala was from Mobutu, and everyone speaking Lingala is soldier. And I was from the same area to him. All my friends said, we are leaving because we are a target. But I'm not going to the east, because I don't know Swahili. I stay. If I go, I will be killed. I can't go back to my area -- it's more than 1,000 kilometers [away].
但我是从西部来的,工作在东部 在那时候我甚至不会说斯瓦希里语 他们来后掠夺了所有东西 你不能说林格拉语,因为那是 Mobutu 所用的语言 所有说林格拉语的都是士兵 而我跟他来自同一个地方 我所有的朋友都说,我们最好还是离开,因为我们已经成为目标 但是我是不会去东部的,因为去了那我不会说斯瓦希里语 我要留下。如果我走了会被杀掉 我不能再回到我的地盘 - 那有1000公里远
I stayed after they looted everything. We have been doing research on botany, and we have a small herbarium of 4,500 sheets of plants. We cut, we dry and we packed them, we mounted them on a folder. Purpose: so that we start them for agriculture, for medicine, for whatever, and for science, for the study of the flora and the change of the forest. That is people moving around, that's even Pygmies. And this is a bright guy, hard-working person, and Pygmy. I've been working with him about 10 years. And with soldiers, they went to the forest for poaching elephants. Because he's Pygmy, he knows how to track elephants in the forest. He has been attacked by a leopard and they abandon him in the forest. They came to told me, I have to save him. And what I did, I gave him just antibiotics that we care for tuberculosis. And fortunately, I saved his life.
我再他们掠夺了所有东西后留下 我们一直在开展植物学方面的研究 我们有一个小干燥标本集,上边有4500种植物 我们采摘,干燥,然后把它们包好 我们把它们附在一个夹子上 目的 - 这样我们就能够用它们于农业 于医药,于天气 - 还有于科学 于花卉和森林的变化方面的研究 那是一些人在周围转悠,那甚至还有皮革米人 这是一个聪明勤劳的人,皮革米 我跟他一起共事大概有10年了 跟士兵一起,它们到森林里面从事盗猎大象的活动 因为他是皮革米人,他知道怎样在森林里追踪大象 他曾被豹袭击,那些人就把他抛弃在森林里 他们来跟我说是我救了他们 而我所做的就是给他们一些抗生素而已 那时我们用来治疗肺结核的 幸运的是,我救了他的命
And that was the language of the war. Everywhere there has been constant extraction of mineral, killing animals, the logging timbers and so on. And what of important things -- I think all of you here have a cell phone. That mineral has killed a lot: five millions of Congolese have gone because of this Colombo-Tantalite -- they call it Coltan -- that they use it to make cell phones and it has been in that area, all over in Congo. Extraction, and good, big business of the war.
那就是战争的模样 所有的人都在不断的采伐资源 捕杀动物,砍伐树木等等 而重要的是 我想再座的每一位都有一个手机 那个玩意已经让很多人丧命 五百万的刚果人因为这个而丧生 铜镍合金,他们叫做 Coltan 他们就是用这个来制造手机 这那个地区可以找到这种矿,开采,遍布刚果 这是引起战争的一个重要原因
And what I did for the first war, after we have lost everything, I have to save something, even myself, my life and life of the staff. I buried some of our new vehicle engines, I buried it to save it. And some of equipment went with them, on the top of the canopy, to save it. He's not collecting plants, he's going to save our equipment on the canopy. And with the material that's left -- because they wanted to destroy it, to burn it, they didn't understand it, they didn't go to school -- I packed it. And that is me, going to, hurrying to Uganda, to try to save that 4,000 material, with people carrying them on the bikes, bicycles. And after that, we succeeded. I housed that 4,000 material at the herbarium of Makerere University. And after the war, I have been able to bring it back home, so that we continue our studies.
在第一次战争过后我们失去了所有东西,我所做的是 我挽救了一些东西,包括我自己,我的生命和同事的生命 我埋藏了一些我们的新的汽车引擎,以保护它们 一些设备被他们带走 放在在天棚顶上,以保存它 他不是在采摘植物,而是将要保护我们的设备 在天棚上 至于那些剩下的原料 因为他们想销毁它,烧掉它 他们不理解它,他们没有上过学 我把它们包起来 那是我,将要,赶往乌干达 设法保存那4000个标本 跟人们一起用摩托和单车运 在我们成功以后 我把那4000个标本存放在 Makerere 大学的标本集里 在战争过后,我可以将它们带回来 那样我们就能够继续我们的研究
The second war came while we didn't expect it. With friends, we had been sitting and watching match football, and having some good music with WorldSpace radio, when it started, I think. So, it was so bad. We heard that now from the east again the war started, and it's going fast. This time I think Kabila will go in place of, as he did with Mobutu. And the reserve was a target to the rebels. Three different movements and two militia acting in the same area and competing for natural resources. And there was no way to work. They destroy everything. Poaching -- oh, no way. And that's the powerful men. We have to meet and to talk to them. What's the regulation of the reserve and what is the regulation of the parks? And they can't do what they are doing. So we went to meet them. That is Coltan extraction, gold mining.
而第二次战争在我们没有意识到的情况下爆发 我们和朋友正坐在一起看足球比赛 在用Worldspace收音机收听一些美妙的音乐 当它爆发的时候,我想 所以,那是很糟糕的 我们正听到那,在东部战争又爆发了 它来临得很快 这次我想 Kabila 会去跟 Mobutu 相同的一个地方 储备资源是反叛的目的 3个不同的运动和两支民兵队,在同一地区活动 争夺自然资源 没有什么办法工作 他们破坏了所有东西 盗猎 - 噢,难以置信 那是一些有权力的人,我们必须跟他们会谈 什么是储备规定 什么是公园的规定? 他们不能这样干下去 所以我去会见他们 那时铜镍开采,黄金开采
So, we started talking with them, convincing them that we are in a protected area. There are regulations that it's prohibited to do logging, mining and poaching, specifically. But they said, "You guys, you think that soldiers who are dying are not important, and your animals you are protecting are most important. We don't think so. We have to do it, because to let our movement advance." I say, "No way, you are not going to do it here." We started talking with them and I was negotiating. Tried to protect our equipment, tried to protect our staff and the villages of about 1,500 people. And we continued.
所以我开始跟他们谈 说服他们我们是在一个受保护的地区 这是规定 砍伐,开采和盗猎都是被特别禁止的 但是他们说:“你们” 你认为那些士兵的牺牲都不重要吗 而你们所保护的动物是最重要的 我们不这么认为 我们必须这么做是因为这让我们的运动进步 我说:“不行,你们不能在这这么做” 我们开始和他们对话,我在谈判 试着保护我们的设备,试着保护我们的人员 这个村庄大概有1500人 我们在继续
But I was doing that, negotiating with them. Sometimes we are having meeting and they are talking with Jean-Pierre Bemba, with Mbusa Nyamwisi, with Kabila, and I'm there. Sometimes, they talk to my own language, that is, Lingala. I hear it and what strategy they are doing, what they are planning. Sometimes, they are having a helicopter to supply them with ammunition and so on. They used me to carry that, and I was doing counting, what comes from where, and where, and where. I had only this equipment -- my satellite phone, my computer and a plastic solar panel -- that I hide it in the forest. And every time, daily, after we have meeting, what compromise we have, whatever, I go, I write a short email, send it. I don't know how many people I had on my address. I sent the message: what is going about the progress of the war and what they are planning to do. They started suspecting that what we do on the morning, and the afternoon, it's on the news, BBC, RFI. (Laughter) Something might be going on. And one day, we went for a meeting. (Applause) Sorry.
但我正在做的是,跟他们谈判 有时我们会开会 他们在跟 Jean-Pierre Bemba 对话 和 Mbusa Nyamwisi, 和 Kabila, 那是和我 有时他们说我的语言,林格拉语 我听到他们的策略和他们的计划 有时他们有直升机 来补给他们的弹药等等 他们用我来搬运那些还有我在计算 什么要来,是从哪来等等 这是我唯一的设备 - 我的卫星手机,我的电脑 和一个被我藏在森林里的太阳能板 每一次,每天,当我们开会的时候 我们做出的任何妥协 我去,写一个简短的邮件,发送 我不知道我的地址簿上有多少人 我发送关于战争进展的消息 和那些人将要计划的事 他们开始怀疑我们在早上做的事 下午就发布在了BBC, RFI的新闻上了 (笑声) 一些事可能会继续 一天,我们去参加一个会议 (欢呼声) 对不起
One day, we went to meet the Chief Commander. He had the same iridium cell phone like me. And he asked me, "Do you know how to use this?" I said, "I have never seen it. (Laughter) I don't know." And I had mine on my pocket. So, it was a chance that they trusted me a lot. They didn't -- they was not looking on me. So I was scared. And when we finished the meeting, I went to return it in the forest. And I was sending news, doing whatever, reporting daily to the U.N., to UNESCO, to our institution in New York, what have been going. And for that, they have been having big pressure to leave, to free the area. Because there was no way -- whatever they do, it's known the same time.
一天我们去会见总指挥官 他有和我一样的铱制手机 他问我:“你知道怎么用这东西吗?” 我说:“我从来没有见过” (笑声) 我不知道 而我的手机正在口袋里 所以那是一个他们给我很大信任的机会 他们没有,他们没有看着我 所以我害怕 当我们会议结束的时候,我把它放回到森林里 我正在发新闻,和做一些其他事 每天跟联合国,跟教科文组织,跟我的纽约机构汇报 这是一直在做的事 对于那些人来说离开和释放那个地方是压力巨大的 因为没有其他办法 任何他们做的事,都会在同一时间被公之于众
During the first two rebellions, they killed all animals in the zoo. We have a zoo of 14 Okapis, and one of them was pregnant. And during the war, after a week of heavy war, fighting in the area, we succeeded: we had the first Okapi. This is the only trouser and shirt remind me of this. This is not local population, this is rebels. They are now happy sending the news that they have protected the Okapi with the war, because we sent the news that they are killing and poaching everywhere. After a week, we celebrated the birthday of that Okapi, they killed an elephant, just 50 meters to the area where the zoo, where Okapi was born. And I was mad. I oppose it -- that they are now going to dissect it, until I do my report and then I see the Chief Commander. And I succeeded. The elephant just decayed and they just got the tusks.
在前两次暴乱中,他们杀害了动物园里所有的动物 我们有14只霍加狓,其中有一只还怀孕了 在战争里,持续一个星期的斗争过后,在这个地区的争夺 我们胜利了 - 我们有了第一只霍加狓 这是唯一能够唤醒我这些的裤子和衬衫 这不是当地居民,而是反叛者 他们现在很高兴发布消息 他们在战争中保护了霍加狓 因为我们在战争中发布他们捕杀的消息 和到处偷猎 一个星期后我们庆祝那只霍加狓的生日 他们捕杀大象,仅仅在50米之遥 在那个动物园,就是那个霍加狓出生的地方 我几乎要疯了 我反对他们肢解它 一直到我发布报道和见到总指挥官 而我成功了 那只大象刚刚腐烂掉而那些人获得了象牙
What we are doing after that -- that was the situation of the war -- we have to rebuild. I had some money. I was paid 150 dollars. I devoted half of it to rebuild the herbarium, because we didn't have good infrastructure to start plants. Wildlife Conservation Society more dealing with plants. I started this with 70 dollars, and start fundraising money to where I've been going. I had opportunity to go all over, where herbarium for my African material is. And they supported me a bit, and I built this. Now, it's doing work to train young Congolese.
我们在那之后要做的,在那样的战争情况下 我们必须重建 我们有一些资金 - 我被支付了150美元 我贡献出其中的一半来重建植物标本集 因为我们没有良好的基础设施来开展种植 野生动物保护协会做更多的种植工作 我以70美元开始工作 开始在我所到的每一处募集资金 我有机会重新开始 在我的非洲标本收集的地方 他们给我一些支持,我建了这个 现在它被用来训练年轻的刚果人
And also, what one of the speciality we are doing, my design is tracking the global warming effect on biodiversity, and what the impacts of the Ituri Forest is playing to uptake carbon. This is one of the studies we are doing on a 40-hectare plot, where we have tagged trees and lianas from one centimeters, and we are tracking them. We have now data of about 15 years, to see how that forest is contributing to the carbon reductions. And that is -- I think it's difficult for me. This is a very embarrassing talk, I know. I don't know where to start, where to finish it.
同时,这也是我们所专长的 我的设计是在生物多样化方面跟踪全球温室效应 而伊图里森林所起的影响是吸收二氧化碳 这是我们40英亩计划的研究之一 这是我们以1厘米的距离标记树木和藤蔓植物 我们会一直跟踪它们 我们现在有了将近15年的数据资料 来见证那片森林是怎样为碳减排做出贡献的 而那时 - 我认为对我来说是困难 这是一个很尴尬的演讲,我认为 我不知道从哪开始,从哪结束
When I was thinking to come here, what best title I wanted to say to my talk, I didn't find this. But now I think that I would have titled it, "The Language of Guns." Where are you people? Now we are talking about reconstitution, rebuild Africa. But is gun industries a tool to rebuild, or is it a game? I think we see the war like a game -- like soccer, football. Everybody is happy, but see what it's doing, see what is going in Darfur. Now we say, oh, my God. See what the wars in Rwanda. That's because of the language of guns. I don't think that someone may blame Google, because it's doing the right things, even if people like Al-Qaeda are using Google to connect between them. But it's serving millions for the best. But what is doing with gun industries? Thank you. (Applause)
当我考虑要到这来的时候 对于我要演讲的最佳话题,我没有想到这个 但是现在我想给它起个名字叫:“针锋相对” 你们在听吗? 现在我们所讲的是关于改造,重建非洲 但是军火行业是一个重建的工具,或是一个游戏? 我认为我们见证了战争的游戏法则 就像足球,橄榄球 所有的人都很高兴,但是不想看到它的本质 看看在达尔富尔发生了什么 现在我们说,噢,我的上帝 看看在卢旺达的战争 那时因为靠武力说话 我不认为有人会责备谷歌 因为它在做正确的事 甚至连像奥凯伊德这样的人也用谷歌 来联系彼此 但是它为千千万万人提供最好的服务 但是在军火行业发生了什么呢? 谢谢你 (掌声)
Chris Anderson: Thank you, thank you. Just wait over there. It's an amazing story. I suspect a lot of people here have the same question I have. How can we help you?
Chris Anderson 说:谢谢,谢谢 就在那边等着 这是一个令人惊异的故事 我怀疑在座很多人都会和我有同样的问题 我们怎么样才能帮助你呢?
Corneille Ewango: That's really embarrassing questions. I think that now I feel nervous. And I think, helping us, people are acting sometimes by ignorance. I did it myself. If I know when I was young, that [by] killing an elephant, I'm destroying biodiversity, I would not have done it. Many, many of you have seen the talents of Africans, but there are few who are going to school. Many are dying because of all those kind of pandemics, HIV, malaria, poverty, not going to school. What you can assist us, it's by building capacities. How many have got opportunity like me to go to U.S., do a master's? And go -- now, I'm in the Netherlands to do a Ph.D. But many of them are just here, because they don't have money. And they can't go even to university. They can't even attain the bachelor's degree. Building capacities for the young generation is going to make a better generation and a better future tomorrow for Africa.
Corneille Ewango 说:这是一个很尴尬的问题 现在我感到紧张 我认为,帮助我们,人们有时会无知地做出行动。 我自己就做过 如果我在小时候就知道 我捕杀大象是在破坏生物多样化 我是不会那么做的 在座很多,很多人已经看到了非洲人的智慧 但是那里只有很少的人能上学 很多人死去是因为所有那些流行病 艾滋病,疟疾,贫困,无法上学 你们所能给我们的支持,就是建立各方面能力 有多少人有像我一样的机会 去到美国,读硕士研究生 再去到 - 现在我在荷兰念博士 但是现在他们中很多人在这是因为他们没有钱 他们甚至上不起大学 他们甚至念不起本科学位 为年轻一代建立各方面能力 将会让下一代更强 将会让非洲的明天更美好
CA: Thank you, thank you. (Applause)
Chris Anderson 讲:谢谢 (欢呼声)