THE TIMES / Dec. 12th, 2009

Tristan McConnell in Rumangabo, DR Congo

Wisps of smoke rise from the dense forest between Rumangabo and the distant crater of the Nyiragongo volcano. The beautiful vapour trails are not a natural phenomenon; they are evidence of Man’s destruction of the forests to manufacture charcoal — a trade that fuels civil war and is driving gorillas to the edge of extinction.

Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest nature reserve, stretches across 3,000sq miles (8,000sq km) of forest, mountain, river and volcano in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s most volatile regions. It is also home to around 200 mountain gorillas, more than a quarter of the world population. They have survived eastern Congo’s cycles of violence, but it is the destruction of their habitat that poses the greatest threat. In thousands of rough kilns hidden in the park, the production and trade of charcoal, or makala, is ruining gorillas’ habitat.

Photo: Jan-Joseph Stok

Rangers are trying to protect them, but it is deadly work: in the past decade 150 rangers from the Congolese national wildlife service have been killed in eastern Congo’s five reserves. This year the rangers have taken the fight to the charcoal barons. In August and September, 150 rangers with automatic weapons raided the charcoal furnaces and forest encampments at dawn. Three rangers were wounded in gun battles, but the operation destroyed 1,000 kilns — piles of earth and wood as tall as a man in which branches are burnt for days at high heat and pressure to make charcoal. The charcoal produced by each kiln is worth about £600.

The human suffering in eastern Congo makes it hard to believe that a nature reserve warrants such attention, but everything in this conflict is connected. Refugees end up in camps encircling the regional capital Goma, on the edge of Virunga. They need to cook food and boil water to avoid cholera, so they buy sacks of charcoal made from the nearby forest. But the very armed groups that force people from their homes in the first place also control the charcoal trade. Profits are spent on sustaining their war. “What we’re fighting is the looting of natural resources, and the failure to uphold the law. These are the root causes of the conflict in the region,” said Emmanuel de Merode, Virunga’s chief warden.

The local trade in charcoal is estimated to bring in at least £18million every year — which buys a lot of guns and bullets for rebels such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who roam the slopes of the 3470m ( 11,400ft) Nyiragongo. In May, UN investigators noted the “intense charcoal production controlled by FDLR” in the national park. Jean Bosco Bichamakara, a ranger, is charged with trying to persuade people to switch from charcoal to fuel briquettes made from sawdust, rice husks, leaf mulch and other organic waste. The wildlife service has paid for the distribution of £180 kits that include presses to make the briquettes, shaped like fat discs. The rangers buy any surplus and sell them in Goma’s busy markets for £7 a sack, roughly a third the price of charcoal.

“There are 550 presses being used now,” said Mr Bichamakara. “Our objective is to have 1,000 by the end of the year and 6,000 by the end of 2011, all to diminish the threat to our environment.” In Kibumba village Charlotte Bosimba, 53, and five family members are using a press to make briquettes to use and sell. She said: “The briquettes cook faster than makala so now we never use it.”

IDP village in North Kivu, DRC

A few weeks ago a story in the Financial Times led with the stove project of Mercy Corps, a relief agency working in camp for Internally Displaced People in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

We wanted to know more so we sent a list of questions to Elisha Moore-Delate. She is the Environment Program Manager for Mercy Corps in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the person responsible for the stoves program.

We’re sharing her inspiring and insightful responses below.

Stoves in the atelier ready for distribution

1. When, and how, did you realize that introducing energy efficient stoves would help improve conditions for the IDPs?
Energy Efficient Stoves and their need is something that has been and is easily recognized by people who witness the marginal lands where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the DRC are often placed. In this case, IDPs lived on the volcanic lava stone of two past eruptions. They have very limited earth to cultivate and very few trees (with the exception of those found in or along nearby Virunga National Park) available for families to collect as fuel wood. Charcoal, the main fuel wood substitute, is expensive and was not what was previously used by the majority of IDPs in their homes of origin.(They presumably used wood.) Thus the need for fuel efficient stoves is real and the impact of fuel savings is tangible. With fuel efficient stoves (depending on the stove type) families can often cut their fuel wood consumption in half. Our stoves have been tested and show results of fuel wood reductions by 60% among beneficiaries and 71% in our lab testing. This translates into savings all around: saving the forests and protecting a world heritage site, and saving lives put in danger during wood collection.

Efficient Stove model

2. How has this project improved the lives of women, children?
It has improved their lives by reducing indoor air pollution and smoke inhalation compared to a traditional fire. It has also allowed women to spend less time on menial yet dangerous tasks such as fuel wood collection, where they must travel sometimes 14km to collect wood. It allows them to spend more time pursuing other activities that could generate income or could be spent studying or going to school. It helps people adopt more efficient methods of cooking and should overall help make their difficult lives just a small bit easier. It also provides a form of employment for more than 300 men and women who construct the stoves themselves.

3. What criteria did you use to find the right stove?
Before I started on the project, in October 2008 Mercy Corps conducted a number of cooking tests and focus groups to examine which stove type they should select. The study found that beneficiaries in the camps preferred a clay model. This was based on their prior stove experience and fear of fires- metal stoves heat up and with the small huts so close together fires can be extremely dangerous for people who have already been displaced. The people we surveyed also recognized that they wanted a stove that would hold the pot when stirring foufou, a local staple food. Unfortunately the stove model initially selected did not meet the minimal 50% wood reductions we were aiming for. When I arrived, Mercy Corps began looking at the project through a carbon reduction lens, we realized we needed a model that was more efficient but could still help us achieve our development objectives.  Those objectives are 1) the inclusion and employment of women, 2) creating employment or a source of funds for IDPs who have little income and are largely dependent upon their food rations provided by the World Food Program 3) to build up capacity and skill levels of the IDPs, 4) to positively impact the environment and 5) to improve the security of the IDPs, especially women.

4. How hard or easy has it been to get the community to accept the stoves?
It was very easy for them to accept the stoves. They see the real need and welcome the opportunity to use them.

5. Did you give any consideration to implementing a briquettes program as well?
We are working with African Conservation Fund who is already implementing a briquette program here in North Kivu. Prior to the recent closure of several IDP camps, Mercy Corps and WWF were the largest consumers of briquettes because we purchased them and then Mercy Corps distributed them to 4200 vulnerable IDPs. Mercy Corps does not want to duplicate these efforts with our own briquette program. Instead we would prefer to collaborate with the existing program and strengthen their capacity to further develop the briquette market.

6. Do you think this program can be a model for displaced people elsewhere?
Other organizations are currently implementing similar stove programs for displaced people in conflict and post-conflict places, like Darfur for example. What is innovative about our program is that we combine the distribution of stoves with an agro-forestry program which allows displaced people to also access land to cultivate and increase their food security. This component provides planted trees to the owners and food for the IDPS. We also have an environmental education component that was designed to show our beneficiaries environmentally friendly ways to generate income upon their return home. It focused on composting, briquette making, permaculture, beekeeping, leguminous and arborous nursery management and animal husbandry. These activities showed IDPs and the local population who lived near the camps how it is possible to have profitable harvests on marginal lands.

Elisha Moore-Delate and Edwige Kavuo speaking to project beneficiaries who receive the stove models above.

7. Are there any plans to roll this out elsewhere within the Mercy Corps programs?
Yes, there are. I believe that one of Mercy Corps’ strengths is that we take each situation individually and don’t apply a cookie cutter method. Something that works in the DRC may not work exactly the same way in another country. You need to look at the culture, resources available, the environmental impact of such a program and the overall need before implementing a program. In Indonesia, for example, we have a similar stoves project, but there we’ve focused on the production of stoves and creating a market for people to sell them. The focus is more on income generation rather than immediate humanitarian needs and human security. We are also working on implementing adapted stoves projects in Uganda, East Timor and Myanmar.
8. Finally, what challenges and opportunities would you see in launching a country or region-wide energy efficient stove/kiln and sustainable biomass briquettes program?
The biggest challenge would be funding. The Congo is huge and such an operation would require funds and more than one organization to implement it. Mercy Corps is now implementing this program in four villages located in the areas where IDPs are returning home and the need for such stoves overwhelms our limited funds. The second challenge would be capacity. You need time to train staff to implement large programs and we operate in a very challenging emergency environment where it can be hard to recruit and keep good staff on board. I also don’t believe in growth just for the sake of growth. Yes, there is a real need but I also want to make sure that we can maintain the quality we seek to achieve and that we are having a real positive impact with the people who we serve here.

Stove Prototype for wood, briquettes and charcoal usage.

We wish to thank Elisha and Mercy Corps for taking the time to answer our questions!

Keep up the great work!

Elisha Moore-Delate (right) with members of the stove project

Kim
Photos are courtesy of Elisha Moore-Delate/ Mercy Corps

Photo of Elisha Moore-Delate (below) courtesy of Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

A December 3rd article in the Financial Times reports how a Mercy Corps-operated stove project in Goma (eastern Congo) is selling carbon offsets to western companies on the voluntary market. It is partially reproduced below but you can only read the complete article on the FT site.

Among the more interesting facts reported are:

* Projects like these are attractive to private investors in the the voluntary carbon market (as opposed to CDM) because the provide a social benefit as well as an environmental one. More bang for your buck, so to speak.

* A project on this scale does not generate sufficient income from the sale of carbon offsets to cover its costs. In this case, this project receives funding from the EU.

* Climate change scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan (UC San Diego) says projects like this one could also have a “huge benefit” for global warming through the reduction of “black carbon” (CO2 mixed with soot). Prof. Ramanathan has begun a project in India that will be the

“first to measure systematically the climatic effects of whole villages changing the type of cooking stove they use. He believes the results will show that reducing black carbon emissions is spectacularly more effective than cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

He concludes:

If my data can show that one ton of black carbon has the same effect of healing the climate as 1,000 tons of CO2, — just imagine the carbon credits each villager would gain.”

Needless to say we’ll be keeping a close eye on Prof. Ramanathan’s work.  We’ll also try to get a hold of the Mercy Corps team implementing the stove project to get their views.

Financial Times

A burning issue in the climate change fight

By Jack Farchy in Goma

Published: December 3 2009 18:03 | Last updated: December 3 2009 19:11

Agnes Nyanzira is not concerned about her carbon footprint. She lives in a camp for internal refugees just outside Goma, eastern Congo, has seven children to care for, has a problem with one of her feet, and feels she spends all day collecting firewood.

That should soon change. On the uneven volcanic ground where she has pitched her tiny tent, Ms Nyanzira is showing off her new, fuel-efficient cooking stove. It is a potent, if modest, weapon against climate change. By burning wood more completely, it will roughly halve the amount of fuel she uses.

Partly funded by selling carbon credits to western companies trying to offset their emissions, Ms Nyanzira’s cooking stove offers an insight into how environmentally friendly projects can help more than just the environment.

Elisha Moore-Delate, who runs the stoves project in Congo for aid agency Mercy Corps, says the biggest benefit of the stoves is that they increase security in the volatile region, particularly for women. “There are large military factions where they are going to collect wood. [The fuel-efficient stoves mean] they are less frequently out in areas of conflict and potential danger.”

It is the social potential of projects such as this as well as their environmental impact that attracts western investors, says Jamal Gore, managing-director of Carbon Clear, a London-based company that buys the carbon credits generated by the programme in eastern Congo.

This is the appeal of the voluntary carbon trading market, he says, as opposed to the market in “compliance” carbon credits regulated under the Kyoto protocol, through the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism and the European Union’s emissions trading scheme. “It would be easier to go out and invest in a traditional wind farm or landfill gas project but that wouldn’t reach the goals we’re aiming for.” Read more.