Emmanuel de Merode

Emmanuel de Merode (born May 5, 1970) is the Director of Virunga National Park, DRC.

Merode was born at Carthage, the second son of Charles Guillaume, Prince of Merode, and of his wife Princess Hedwig of Ligne (sister of Charles-Antoine Lamoral, prince de Ligne de La Trémoïlle).

Anthropologist, conservationist, pilot, worked to control the bushmeat trade and protect endangered wildlife in Central and Eastern Africa. Belgian, residing in Kenya. His primary interest is to provide support for African wildlife rangers in remote and difficult national parks and reserves. His work was primarily in the parks of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, working to sustain the national parks through the DRC's 10-year civil war. Author of fourteen scientific papers and co-editor of the book " [http://www.virungafund.org Virunga: The Survival of Africa's First National Park] ".

In August 2008, he was appointed by Congolese Government as Director for " [http://gorilla.cd Virunga National Park] ", where he now lives at the park headquarters in Rumangabo.

Merode is married to Louise Leakey, a paleontologist from Kenya. They have 2 daughters:
* Seiya (born 2004)
* Alexia (born 2006) [http://books.google.com/books?id=6LmiKnyVAxgC&printsec=frontcover&dq#PRA2-PR16,M1] .