In September of 1999, J. Michael Fay, a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) biologist, embarked on a 15-month trek that passed through central Gabon's Langoué Forest. This journey would take him to places where elephants and gorillas, unfamiliar with humans or hunting, abound. But, Langoué Forest will soon be logged.
The forest is now endangered. "Since the Megatransect trek across central Africa, many places where we walked have been lost to logging," says Fay. Every day new roads in central Africa are built into the forest, opening the wilderness not only to logging but also to hunting, mining, and human colonization.
Fay walked a path through the Congo and Gabon with a team of 12 and systematically surveyed plants, trees, wildlife, and human impacts on the area. He carried with him a digital video camera, digital audio recorder, GPS, and 50 rainproof notebooks to gather data. The data paints a disturbing portrait of a seriously threatened wilderness.