Fueling Change

Category: Alternative energy | Date: Sep 01 2008 | By: endingcharcoal

Condolences
This is Robert. I want to start this blog with an acknowledgment of Villavu Kamate, the ranger who just lost his life working to protect the northern sector of the park (and the others who were on patrol with him). Like so many before him, he made the ultimate sacrifice to protect Virunga. These guys are my heroes and deserve all the support we can give them.

Donations
Thank you to the following people for their generous donations: Jacque O - $150, Rebecca - $50, Carrie B. - $40, Brigitta S- $25, and Amy M - $20!! It’s so heartening to have your support, especially on the heals of such tough news.

Meeting with the Minister of Environment
I would like to fill you in on the meeting that Ephrem and I had with Felicite Kalume Ndoole, the Provincial Minister of the Environment. We went to see the Minister to share our plans for the briquette project in Goma and north of Kibati. She has been a strong ally of ours in the fight to save the park, and on several occasions stood up to a great deal of pressure from the charcoal lobby.

Ephrem explaining the program - while I wonder what the filming is all about. Turns out, the briquette program was to be a feature on the news. Unfortunately, there was a long power outage that night and I don’t think it ever aired. The reality is, very few have power, let alone televisions.

Realizing that she can’t hold the charcoal lobby at bay for long without viable alternatives, Ephrem and I wanted to make sure she understood that we have a road map for success. We shared our plans for developing the market in Goma and in the villages north of the city, which she was pleased to hear about, but she kept hammering the question, “When will you be able to replace charcoal with these briquettes? I wish we could just snap our fingers and it would be done, but it’s huge undertaking that is going to take time. Good news is, we’re growing the business rapidly and already have 9 presses online and 18 more to go into production this week. If we’re producing at peak capacity, these presses can meet the fuel needs for almost 3000 people.

When we left the meeting, we passed a long line of people who had the next meeting with the Minister. Ephrem looked back at them, looked at me, and smiled, “Do you know who those people are?” to which I answered, “No”. “They are from the charcoal lobby and they are trying to convince her to open up the park to charcoal production”. It was very sobering to witness this effort in the halls of government. Make no mistake, there is a massive amount of pressure on local officials to get out of the way of charcoal production. This is why it is so important that we scale up our briquette program rapidly – and why we need your help!