This is Ephrem. During the last two weeks, the Virunga National Park has lost 14 elephants and 2 hippos as recorded below. All the park has been affected especially the central sector: Rwindi and Rutshuru where 12 elephants have been recorded. The main responsible of this killing are Rwanda militias (FDLR): 5 elephants, Congolese militias (PARECO): 3 elephants and Congolese soldiers (FARDC): 5. A Congolese high Commander has recently told to soldiers that poaching is a crime that is going to be severely punished.

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At Kibati Patrol Post, rangers are discovering different means to escape the control. If the common mean are trucs, there is another insolite mean people are using now: paralytic’s bike.

Paralytics are now hired to cross the checkpoint with charcoal. This one on the photo has crossed many times with 2 sacs on his bike. He earns US $ 10 per sac he can manage to deliver to people in Goma. These are only transportation fees to cross the checkpoint. Rangers used to tolerate him before they discovered the network behind his traffic.

But traders still believe that it’s possible to cross with a military truck. Here’s one recently seized with charcoal.

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As pointed out in the gorilla protection blog, the checkpoints have yielded approximately 80 tons of illegal charcoal coming out of Virunga NP. These checkpoints have also proved effective in interdicting illegal bushmeat.

Bushmeat hidden amongst a load of produce

Like illegal charcoal, the bushmeat trade has a wide variety of players, both in the forest and in the marketplace. Among the more well-known, are soldiers that often run loads of bushmeat together with illegal charcoal. Women try to smuggle out smaller quantities on foot. The checkpoints are now becoming the #1 way to intercept bushmeat.

Sad end: elephant, buffalo, hippo, and antelope intercepted before making it to Goma

Unusual find: Fresh bushmeat — usually it is smoked before being transported

In the city of Goma, the bushmeat trade isn’t an officially recognized trade, but regardless, it is a flourishing informal one. Women sell bushmeat door to door, calling on a well-established clientele comprised of households, restaurants — even offices. This somewhat clandestine approach to selling makes it difficult to crack the bushmeat rings in Goma. For now though, it is a good sign that the larger shipments are being stopped at the checkpoints. Small amounts can easily be smuggled around these checkpoints, but at least the new charcoal interdiction measures are constricting the bushmeat trade.

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A follow-up post by Ephrem:
After two months in operation, the ICCN Kibati checkpoint has made an appreciable difference in reducing the illegal charcoal trade at the south-eastern side of Virunga National Park. ICCN rangers and government troops are now doing joint patrols and working together to man the checkpoints. The results of these actions are:

• 2200 sacs (more than 110 tons) of illegal charcoal has been confiscated and re-distributed by UNHCR to camps providing refuge to displaced people
• Decrease in the number of sacs seized per day from 200 to less than 20
• 80% decrease in charcoal production in the Virunga NP
• Nearly 100% reduction of illegal charcoal smuggled to Rwanda

Checkpoint: One of the few military trucks still trying to pass through with charcoal

Who has been affected by the new charcoal interdiction efforts? Those in the commodity chain:

• Rwandan militias or Interahamwe, who charge fees to access areas of the forest and who oversee the actual carbonization of the wood to make charcoal.

• Corrupt members of the Congolese military who also charge the people making charcoal to look the other way, those in the military who sell Makala or charcoal, and those who charge the charcoal “mules” (peasants) for passage out of the park. Most of these peasants have now returned to their fields so the soldiers have lost this source of income.
• Truckers
• Charcoal production and distribution bosses

Who are the big losers?
Sadly, it is the people in Goma City. In December 20007, the price was $15 (US) per sac. That same sac now costs $25-30 (US). This isn’t entirely the result of the charcoal interdiction efforts. The effects of increased fuel prices and logistical issues related to washed out roads (common in the rainy season) are also to blame. With prices on the rise, it is clear that the policy of charcoal interdiction will meet with increased resistance and resentment unless affordable alternatives to charcoal are made available. That is the mission of this blog!

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Latest report from Ephrem:

Local politicians in Goma question the crackdown
The campaign against illegal charcoal continues, but there is a lot of pressure from local politicians to remove the checkpoint established by ICCN in Kibati. Provincial Senator Muhindo Nzangi Butondo made a formal request to the Environmental Provincial Minister asking him to open up the charcoal crisis to a public debate, in hopes of increasing awareness about the energy crisis in the N. Kivu province.

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Scan of the letter sent by Butondo to Provincial Minister of Environment, Ndoole

This is our translation to English:
According to article 197 of the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as articles 149 and 161, we would like to address the following question and open it up for debate: In the last few days, we have seen measures taken which limit the supply of charcoal in Goma City — the main fuel used by eighty percent of the population. These measures have increased the scarcity of charcoal and driven up prices in the market. Because such issues fall under your jurisdiction, we respectfully request answers to the following questions:

• Why is the charcoal supply being restricted?
• Who has made this unilateral decision?
• Because the people of Goma have begun to suffer as a result of this decision, something must be done to remedy the problems that have surfaced as a result of restricting the charcoal supply. What kind of measures is your Ministry taking to mitigate the effects of this new policy?
• What kind of sustainable solutions are you considering regarding the need for wood-based fuels in the Province?

Please give this your utmost attention your Excellence, and know that it is my patriotism that causes me to bring this to your attention.

-Honorable Butonto Nzangi

Response from the Provincial Minister of the Environment
Mme Félicité Ndoole, the Provincial Minister of Environment, addressed Nganzi’s questions in the local Parliament today. She upheld the move to restrict illegally harvested charcoal coming out of the Virunga NP, and made it clear that, in the long-term, this was in the best interest of everyone. Ndoole’s explanations received the support from the majority of Parliament members, and their approval to continue with the interdiction measures. This is a big success for conservationist and a blow to the self-interests of the charcoal lobby.

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In my last post, I talked about all of the various stuff or “residues” that can be used to make briquettes — to replace illegal forest charcoal. Although there are definitely some nuances to making a good briquette, it seems pretty feasible. But what about building the press itself? We are looking into the feasibility of bringing briquette making to the displaced peoples camps and elsewhere in the Congo, but really don’t have a good feeling for what it takes to build a briquette press, so I decided to try and build one. I figure that by building a press, I’ll better understand the challenges that will be faced by those trying to do the same in Congo. Armed with a press building manual from the Legacy Foundation, I headed to the lumber yard to buy my materials.

Getting the materials
The wood required is basic 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 stock, which is readily available in the DRC. Very basic cuts need to be made to get the various pieces to the required dimensions. I cheated by using power tools, but hand tools could easily do the same thing, they would just take longer. The other materials needed are 3/4-inch gas pipe, to be used for pivot points on the press and as a piston guide, eight bolts, 4-inch PVC pipe, and a couple of metal “washers” that attach to a wood piston that slides through the PVC pipe and compresses the briquette material.

Measuring and cutting
This part of the process went quickly, taking only about an hour and a half. Without power tools, I think it would take about 4-5 hours. The only other tool needed is a framing square.

Cheating: Using a power saw and drill instead of a hand saw and manual drill

Preserving the wood
Because the press is going to be used in a wet environment, it’s important to protect the wood against moisture damage. I used a non-toxic water-based deck oil, but linseed oil or even motor oil will work fine. This step will literally add years to the life of the press.

Oiled and ready to be put together

Putting the puzzle together
Who needs directions!? Hmm… I guess I do. This is where things started to get a little more challenging. Constructing a press doesn’t seem to be that difficult, but one can’t wing it, especially when it comes to the piston assembly, which, I’m still working on. Virginia, who has been busy buying the materials for her own press near Bukavu, may run into difficulties if she finds a fabricator that thinks he knows everything (the kind of guy whose first move is to throw away the manual when putting something new together). I’m sure she’ll keep him honest. And, it’s not just about following directions. Things such as installing the pivot pipes and cotter pins require being methodical and exacting. If one tries to slam these parts of the puzzle into place, they will have a press that teeters and groans, and will in all likelihood, not last very long.

So far, so good…

Next steps
Tomorrow, I’ll put the top beam and handle assembly together and drill the holes for the cotter pins, which will keep the pivot pipes from falling out. And, once I make the metal washers for the piston, we can take a close look at where the actual briquette is formed — and how.

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Time to get our hands dirty. In my last post, I spoke of why cooking briquettes made of agricultural residue and other dry biomass can be a great alternative to illegal charcoal production in the Virunga National Park — or most anywhere for that matter. Now let’s see what it takes to actually make these briquettes.

Get your residues
To begin with, you have to gather your residues. Sounds a bit comical doesn’t it? “Well, I’m going out looking for residue today…” OK, so I’m a residue nerd. What we need is any biomass residue — by that I mean anything that once grew out of the ground or is made from something that did — that will readily burn. That leaves us (pardon the pun…) a lot of options, but most likely, we’re talking about collecting leaves, grasses, rice husks, jatropha or moringa olifeira husks, coconut husks, coffee husks, corn husks, straw, and the like. We’ll need about 125 -150 kg of dry material per day to keep one press busy. If we can come upon sawdust and paper scraps we may be able to reduce this amount by as much as 40%.

Dry and pulverize your residues
One of the keys to a good briquette is that it compresses well and doesn’t fall apart. In order to achieve this, the fibers making up the briquette must interlock and stick together. This means that all your materials being used must be ground or pulverized before being pressed. In the most primitive (and slow) briquette making operations, a mortar and pestle is used. As the Legacy Foundation points out, though, this approach can mean that briquette makers are spending 70% of their time hand grinding. This could be a major disincentive to people trying to make the switch from illegal forest charcoal to residue briquettes. In more advanced operations, however, a hand-cranked grinder can be used — or even a modified chipper or lawn mower.

Make your residue slurry
Once the mix of residues has been ground, it’s time to turn it into a damp slurry. The goal here is to create a mixed mush of all your ingredients. As you might imagine, this is where all of the various residues starting sticking together and interlocking, which is the key to making a briquette that doesn’t fall apart. But, because our mix still has a lot of it’s organic structure left, it’s still going to want to resist being pressed into a tight and compact briquette. We need to get our slurry ingredients to relax and get comfortable with the idea of being pressed tightly together with a bunch of residues that they don’t know. This process is similar to the breaking down of wood lignin in the paper making, except here, we aren’t using toxic chemicals.

Residues that compost together, stick together
To get our various residues to relax, we’ll need to spread them out on a big sheet of black plastic, and then cover them with more of that same black plastic. For the next several days or weeks, depending on conditions, the residues will be having a “bacterial social”. All sorts of composting bacteria will be working to soften the attitudes of our residues, convincing them that true love comes only with closeness. The trick here, though, is not to overdo the composting - or the love. We only want to soften our residues, not turn them into soil. If we’ve put on a good decomposition party, we’ll have a group of disparate residues that are dying to be pressed into briquettes.

Hey, where’s the press?!
Detail, details… looks like we have all this great briquette mix, but no press. Better get on that before our residues have a change of heart. Be right back…

Next Post: Building a briquette press…

DONATIONS
A big “thank you” goes out to Alisa Y. who donated $100.00, Jennifer E. who donated $35.00, Chris and Kristi K., and Scott and Cindy N. who donated $25.00. Thanks for being a part of the solution!

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