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Most of you know Katya - he does all of the video editing for this website and has been working with us for over a year. Well, in his spare time he also makes music. He wrote for example a song called Makala Ya Sasa (”The New Charcoal” in Swahili) which you have heard being played on this blog (with the guys in the gorilla costumes) - and indeed most people in and around Goma now know this tune, that aims to bring awareness to using briquettes instead of charcoal.

Katya has now won a prize awarded by the World Bank Institute and Jeunesses Musicales International for Fair Play Anti-Corruption Youth Voices. Katya is one of the 3 winning bands (the other 2 are from Malawi and Lebanon), and will go to Brussels in May to be officially congratulated. Well done Katya. The video (below) shows some of the realities of living in a conflict zone. One thing that is often forgotten is that war pretty much stiffles creativity, for obvious reasons. So it is refreshing to see this creative comeback. Bravo.

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Solar eclipse

We just had a solar eclipse. I actually missed it (I have no idea how) – but Temoris, a visiting journalist, took these pictures from our office.

Everyone is talking about it. Virginia and Balemba missed it too, so I am not the only one!

Solar Eclipse in Virunga

Happy New Year from all of us here in Virunga National Park. Thank you for your tremendous support over the last 12 months. The global community of individuals - ie YOU - that helps us to protect Virunga - through thick and thin, and through the highs and the lows - is critical to our work. Thank you.

We hope in 2010 to re-open the Nyirangongo Volcano to tourism. We are working on improving the security in the area through increased patrols, that target the illegal charcoal trade in the park.

Lions are gradually returning to Virunga’s savannahs, having crossed over from Uganda. This is an extremely positive sign and we hope to see a population increase in the year to come.

The hippo population in Lake Edward is also gradually increasing, but still has a long way to come before recovering from the mass slaughter of thousands of hippos in recent years.

And Virunga’s Rangers continue to patrol Virunga to rid the park of snares, poachers, charcoal kilns and additional threats to wildlife. Patrols can last anywhere between a day and 3 weeks - such is the extent of Virunga.

And Innocent told me 15 minutes ago that a gorilla has just been born in the Mapuwa family. What a wonderful start to 2010.

Thank you.

A glimpse of the Congolese Alps… the Rwenzori Mountain Range located on the border between DR Congo and Uganda.

This is a post by Thierry and Catherine, of World Wildlife Fund. They completed the ascent of the Rwenzori Mountains in Virunga last month - a stunning 5-day trek that takes you through rainforest, waterfalls, lakes, glaciers and rich alpine forest. This is certainly one of Africa’s most beautiful areas.

Thierry and Catherine wanted to share the photos of this adventure - to encourage others to follow suit and visit this central African mountain range that is rich in unusual flora and fauna.

Here is their story, that starts with a map of the journey.

“Everything began at Mutsora park station in Virunga National Park, at 1,200m (3,600 feet). After a warm welcome by the ICCN team, we began our ascent through dense and humid forest.

Every plant seemed to fight for a little light. And the spectacle was accompanied by bird song and the shrieks of monkeys.

We reached Kalonge at 2,138m (over 6,000 feet) where there is a clean and well-equipped hut, recently restored by WWF.

The next day we trekked through bamboo trees and then a forest of heather, where the soil was covered with stunning bright yellow moss. We walked in the mist, surrounded by twisted trunks.

It gradually became colder, but the decor remained unique. It really felt as if we were in a movie. It was all very surreal.

At Mahangu at 3,310m (almost 10,000 feet), we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

On the third day, at around 3,700m (over 11,000 feet), we encountered the giant Lobelia and Senecio, these plants with very strange shapes. The Rwenzori mountains are known for these plants. At this point the silence was total…

At Kiondo (4,200m), the nights were cold, but the porters and guide looked after us and generously fed the fire.

On the last day of climbing, from Wasiwameso (4,300m) we had a complete panoramic view of the glaciers. We made it up to Moraine at 4,350m but it is only well-equipped and experienced climbers that can continue to the summit of Margherita at 5,109m, which takes another day.

It took 2 days to get back down - and we would like to thank our guide Paluku, the porters Bonaventure, Isaac and Cabral and the ‘weather’ (barely 30 minutes’ rain!) for making this such an enjoyable experience.”

If you would like to ask Thierry and Catherine any questions about their trip, please leave a comment here…

We’ve reached a cross roads with the briquette programme.  As you remember, we had pledged to set up 1,000 briquette businesses this year.  1000 village briquette businesses translates into the creation of 6000 employments and the substition of about 15% of charcoal consumption with a clean, sustainable and cheap source of domestic energy for poor households in Goma.  We currently have over 3000 people making briquettes and the idea is to have 34,000 by the end of 2011.

That could make the briquette business the biggest employer in the province after agriculture.  Hmmm…

It meant setting up a workshop in Rumangabo to build presses, creating a team of trainers and business advisors, a very effective logistics, finance and administrative support system, a transport business, and the rest.  But now we have over 500 presses in production, and amazingly, we are on track to reaching our target, and more.

About 85% of briquette producers are women, most of whom were forced from their homes by the fighting last year

But there remains one BIG question mark.  Will the briquettes sell on the open market?

So far  we have been distributing briquettes in the Internally displaced camps around Goma.  They have now largely returned home as peace starts to come back to the region.  We are now producing over 4000 sacks of briquettes a month, and we have to convince people to buy them.  Cultural barriers run high, and people just don’t like to change the way they cook.  Briquettes do produce more smoke, which people hate, but they are also much cheaper.  Old habits die hard and it’s not an easy sell.

So what are we doing about it?

Katya and Balemba have been spearheading a marketing campaign.  We have the billboards, youth groups running around with leaflets, pamphlets, and… a gorilla reggae band that goes around Goma on the back of truck singing about the briquettes, the forest, the gorillas (the World Premiere of their video will appear on this blog later this week, so don’t miss it).

We have to sell those briquettes to save the forest and the Mountain Gorillas’ home.  So far, we’re selling about 10 sacks a day, which is not enough.  We really need some clever ideas.  If you have any thoughts or ideas on what we could do to promote the briquettes, we’d love you have your comments.  There’s a very good chance we’ll try to put your ideas into practice.

This is a copy of the comic strip produced by Katya that we have started distributing around Goma.  It’s all in Swahili, but you can hopefully get the message from the pictures.

AVIS DE RECRUTEMENT

Africa Conservation Fund - ACF(UK) recrute :
Un(e) COMPTABLE pour la Direction du Parc National des Virunga (Nord Kivu), en charge de la fonction comptable.
Le poste, ouvert dès le 15 novembre 2009, est basé à Rumangabo (Nord Kivu) au sein d’une équipe dynamique animant la Direction du Parc National des Virunga.
Les candidats intéressés doivent adresser leur candidature par courrier électronique au plus tard le 15 octobre 2009 à l’adresse suivante :  dp at gorilla.cd avec copie à  joel at gorilla.cd ,  ephrem at gorilla.cd et  reformeiccn at gmail.com en indiquant clairement dans le sujet du message « recrutement comptable ». Le dossier de candidature comprendra une lettre de motivation et un CV à jour ainsi que trois personnes de référence qui puissent être contactées par courrier électronique et par téléphone.
N.B: Seuls les meilleurs candidats seront contactés pour un entretien.

In the early hours of the morning we launched Makala II, the second phase of operations to break the charcoal trafficking.   On Friday, 150 rangers arrived discretely in Rumangabo to prepare for a second offensive around the Nyiragongo volcano.  They received some training and an extensive brief before launching the operation.

The first charcoal kilns were found and destroyed before dawn

At 2 o’clock this morning, we deployed the rangers in 5 platoons of 30 men each in a sweep across the southerns slopes of the volcano. The number of charcoal kilns was staggering.  Far more than in the previous operation six weeks ago.  It seems they never thought we’d come back, and were clearing the forests as quickly as they could.  In the end, we destroyed a record 177 kilns today, and made 6 arrests.  That’s almost half of all the kilns destroyed in the last operation, which lasted 8 days.  It’s good to have damaged the charcoal trafficking system in the park, but the scale of the destruction is extremely worrying.

It was a tough day, over 18 hours.  In the late morning a section of rangers had a violent contact with an armed group.  Less than an hour later, a second platoon came under heavy fire.  Fortunately no one was hurt, but one of our rangers was seperated from the rest and then lost, so we had a very worrying few hours searching for him.  He turned at camp in the evening exhausted but unhurt.

One of the 177 kilns destroyed today

Tomorrow is another day, but morale remains high.  It makes all the difference to be able to provide proper support for the rangers in terms of rations and equipment.  This is largely thanks to your support over the last few months.  We’ll keep you updated on the operation as it unfolds over the next few days.

This time of year is a period of friction between the gorilla families in Mikeno.  Bamboo shoots start sprouting because it’s the beginning of the rain season.  The shoots are in short supply and there is a bit of a scramble, which opens the scene for the occasional fight between silverbacks.

The Munyaga group usually avoids a fight, but has now drifted towards the Kabirizi and Humba group in search of bamboo shoots.

Infact, the gorillas are not alone.  Elephants, Antelopes and Buffalos as well as the gorillas move up into the forest looking for bamboo shoots

Kadogo the bald silverback from the Munyaga group, was spotted at higher altitude enjoying the bamboo.

The Munyaga family is now lead by a silverback called mawazo has only limited experience in leading a group.

This is Mawazo who dominates Kadogo and Kasole, the other two silver backs in the group.

Kasole

Injured but happy because the goup has beaten the fight and entered a new wild female gorilla.

Kagogo again

A furtive shot of Bilali, the only one female in the group, with her baby.