Using cookstoves to protect Mountain Gorillas

The pain of knowing that each year 2 million people — mostly women and children — die as a consequence of the inefficient combustion of household cooking and heating fuels, like wood and animal dung, is with good reason, the engine behind the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves this past September.

But if the public health impact of indoor air pollution is not enough to convince people of the magnitude of the problem, then the UN’s most recent Human Development Report makes the clearest argument yet that Climate Change and destruction of the environment are the biggest threats to improving the livelihoods of the world’s poor.

Fortunately, there is a lot that can be done — and there’s a lot being done — to address some of the most urgent threats facing global tropical forests from the unsustainable use of trees for domestic and commercial consumption.

One of our favorite programs is happening right now in the perimeter of the DRC’s Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to that last viable population of the majestic mountain gorillas.

Emmanuel de Merode is the Chief Warden of Virunga National Park and one of the biggest boosters for the largescale deployment of energy efficient cookstoves and alternative sustainable biomass fuels for the communities that surround the park.

Working with partners, such as UNEP and other like-minded NGOs, DRC and Rwandan authorities have managed to spur the adoption of simple ecosystem-saving technologies like clean cookstoves and briquettes. Here’s a recent post from UNEP’s website on the project:

Fuel-efficient stoves are helping to tackle three of the world’s greatest challenges: poverty, climate change and loss of biodiversity. More than 3500 people have already benefited from this initiative. Less money is being spent on fuel, allowing more to be invested in developing livelihoods; health is improving as a result of reduced wood fuel use; and children, freed from time-consuming firewood collection, can go to school. The environmental benefits are also considerable. A reduction in fuel consumption in one of the Africa’s most densely populated regions is making a significant contribution towards the fight against climate change. And, crucially, as demand for firewood and charcoal falls and reliance on forest resources diminishes, deforestation eases. The project gives the critically endangered Mountain Gorilla population a chance to prosper, and the rich biodiversity of the Virunga National Park – a World Heritage Site – a chance to flourish.

To learn more about the work being done by Virunga National Park authorities to provide alternative fuel solutions, please visit gorillacd.org