Planting New Hope

The battle against habitat loss gains pace. It’s coming to the end of the rainy season here in DR Congo and we’ve been busy planting trees!

As you can see, it’s been a few months since we updated this blog. But don’t worry, we haven’t stopped working to save gorillas. In fact, we’ve been busier than ever! As well as our usual work, we’ve been getting our hands dirty planting tens of thousands of trees, and so we’ve been spending much more time in the forests or visiting isolated villages than we have at our computers – so please accept our apologies for the lack of recent updates. We hope you understand. Here’s a little of what we have been up to…

As some of you may know, the Gorilla Organization team here at the Goma Resource Centre recently entered into a partnership with the African Development Bank. Due to our long-standing connections with the communities here and our proven commitment to grassroots conservation and development, we were chosen to lead one of the most ambitious reforestation projects Africa has ever seen.

In all, around 500,000 trees will be planted over the next few years, most of them in the unprotected area situated between the Virunga National Park and the Kahuzi Biega National Park. This area has suffered terribly from deforestation over the past few years. As the local population keeps growing, many are chopping the trees down and using the timber for fuel and to make their homes. Worryingly, since they are so desperate due to the abject poverty of the region, many people feel they have no choice but to take the natural resources of the protected areas, destroying the precious habitat the endangered gorillas rely on for food and shelter!

This is why we have been extra-determined to get this project started as soon as possible. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been busy distributing saplings to a number of communities situated within walking distance of the Kahuzi Biega National Park.

Here you can see some pictures from our visit to villages in Kalehe Territory. Working with our Programmes Manager in the country, Henry Cirhuza, we explained to the people how planting new trees can not only save the gorilla habitat from destruction, it can also benefit them by providing them with a sustainable source of timber and firewood.

Then, with the help of our expert agronomist Bahati, we helped get the planting started! As I write this, we have already distributed tens of thousands of tree saplings. While it may take some time before we can start to reverse decades of deforestation, this is a step in the right direction!

As always, thank you for your ongoing support!

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