The Foreign Service Journal, September 2003

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 he Zakouma National Park is one of Africa’s great wildlife reserves. Little known and sel- dom visited, it covers an area of 1,200 square miles in remote, southeastern Chad. The park is well managed, due in large part to project assistance provided by the European Union since 1989, which has strength- ened the park’s management capacity and improved its infrastructure. Chad’s national parks direc- tor approached U.S. embassy personnel concerning assis- tance for the park’s anti-poach- ing teams following an embassy visit to the park in 1998. Democracy and Development Officer Les McBride contacted the U.S. Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, and within a year the FSW signed an interagency agreement to provide financial support for the anti-poaching effort. The most pressing need was to procure a new radio system and equip it with an autonomous power source, as electricity is in short supply in Zakouma. A previous radio system had been damaged by lightning, and park guards were unable to communicate with their base and each other. The embassy facilitated a series of consultations with the E.U.-funded technical assis- tance team’s project logistician and representatives of Motorola to establish technical specifications for the radio sys- tem and choose the compo- nents. An order was placed for a base station and repeater, five mobile units, and 20 hand- held units with 40 batteries. Solar panels and accessories were ordered separately from a local firm. A New Radio System The radio components arrived in June 2000, and the E.U. project logistician, accom- panied by embassy personnel, inspected the shipment and certified that the order was complete. By the time the solar panels arrived in November, however, the E.U. F O C U S O N F S S P E C I A L I S T S A SSISTING A NTI -P OACHING E FFORTS IN C HAD B Y J OE C OLE S PECIALISTS CAN GET INVOLVED IN DIVERSE AND SUBSTANTIVE WORK , AS THIS IRM EMPLOYEE ’ S EXPERIENCE DEMONSTRATES . T The morning after their first night in the desert camp en route to Zakouma Park, with soldiers who accompanied them to provide protection. Carl Paschall is at left, Defense Attaché Maj. Chris Brown at right, and Joe Cole is kneeling down in front.