Hydroelectric station provides glimpse of a charcoal-free Virunga

Instability is an undercurrent of life in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Smoke often rises from the peak of Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano in Virunga National Park that has repeatedly blanketed homes, fields and roads in the nearby city of Goma with lava. Lake Kivu itself has been known to explode due to related geologic activity. And decades of conflict between warring militia groups have killed an estimated 6 million people and displaced 6 million more in the region since 1996. A road or town that was safe yesterday may no longer be safe today, causing a constant flux of people seeking refuge from the fighting and trying to simply survive. 

Amid all this volatility, there has been one near-guarantee: on the road leading out of Virunga National Park, locals will be traveling by foot, chukudu or motorbike carrying bundles of makala — virgin charcoal cut from the region’s once prevalent, now quickly dwindling tropical forests — destined for the cooking fires of families from Goma to Kinshasa. Makala production is one of the leading causes of deforestation in Virunga, threatening the survival of the oldest and most biodiverse national park in Africa.

This region’s long-simmering conflicts have deep roots, and no simple solution. However, as the park approaches its 100th anniversary, it is more clear than ever that conservation efforts here will only succeed if they not only protect the wildlife that is found nowhere else on Earth, but also foster peace and economic opportunity for local people. But how do you build a “peace economy” in a place known for conflict, and what will it look like? Recent progress in Virunga’s central sector gives us a glimpse of a future where the park can serve as the foundation for inclusive, sustainable development.

The charcoal economy

Established nearly a century ago as Africa’s first national park, Virunga’s mist-shrouded forests are famously home to more than one-third of the world’s remaining Mountain Gorillas. Although the subspecies is still highly threatened, it is the only great ape whose population is growing, enough so that it was re-classified in 2018 from Critically Endangered to Endangered by IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. Virunga, which has a long-standing partnership with Re:wild, also supports other rare animals including Eastern Lowland Gorillas, Eastern Chimpanzees, Okapi and African Savannah Elephants, the latter of which appear to be staging a comeback within the park despite intense pressures from the ivory trade.

But the park’s fertile slopes aren’t just important for animals; they also impact the lives of the more than 5 million people living within a day’s walk of the park’s boundaries. Take the town of Lubero, for example: Like most residents of Eastern Congo, residents of Lubero and its surrounding villages have no access to electricity. Instead, they must rely on makala to provide energy for basic daily needs such as cooking. But makala is unreliable and expensive. The charcoal economy is largely governed by armed groups, who hike prices and keep the profits for themselves. Meanwhile, the high demand for makala is quickly shrinking the world’s second-largest tropical forest, contributing to climate change and threatening the forest’s ability to continue to provide food and fresh water for millions of Africans. 

Using clean energy to revitalize the local economy

A few miles from Lubero, one solution whirs quietly on the edge of the Congo River. The Luviro Hydroelectric Station uses the flow of the river to produce 14.6 megawatts of accessible and renewable energy; together with several other hydroelectric facilities operated by utility company Virunga Energies, Luviro provides electricity to more than 30,000 homes. Not only is this energy source cleaner, more reliable and more affordable than makala, it also supports, rather than threatens, the park's conservation. Virunga Energies is a subsidiary of the Virunga Foundation, and its profits are funneled directly into the park's conservation and economic development projects. The Virunga Foundation works in tandem with the Virunga Alliance, a partnership launched by the park that brings together North Kivu’s public authorities, civil society and the private sector around a shared vision of building a nature-based peace economy in Eastern Congo.

Beyond providing electricity for public infrastructure (including streetlights, hospitals, and schools) and for a growing number of residents in and around Lubero, the advent of reliable clean energy has also made it possible to initiate an extensive economic revitalization effort in the region. Lubero was once a thriving economic hub, with its diverse range of high-quality agricultural products, like wheat, made available to the global economy and providing livelihoods to most of the region's inhabitants. But three decades of armed conflict have reduced its export industries to a standstill, leading to widespread food insecurity and poverty.

With the hydroelectricity provided by Virunga Energies, the Virunga Alliance has begun to redevelop the region as a thriving agricultural hub. For this to succeed, it is critical that the region becomes a site of both agricultural productivity and transformation, as Congolese farmers have long suffered minimal payment for their raw agricultural products due to a lack of processing infrastructure in the region. 

Accordingly, the Virunga Foundation has invested in processing infrastructure for a number of relevant supply chains — including wheat, coffee, cacao, palm, and chia — in the region to create a local market for farmers and a growing number of jobs for Lubero residents. 

Developing the Lubero economic zone is an important step toward the Virunga Alliance's goal of creating 100,000 jobs and $1 billion in annual revenue from the park and its investments by 2040. Building on this progress, the Alliance is now working to re-establish safe, functional road networks for the region's farmers, many of whom live in rural areas that have become inaccessible due to years without road maintenance and the constant threat of violence from armed groups operating in the region. One successful investment here has been a community road project supported by Re:wild and Arcus Foundation, which recently rehabilitated 14 kilometers of community agricultural roads in the area. 

Poverty, insecurity and deforestation are huge challenges, and they won’t be solved overnight. But in the small signs of progress in the Lubero region, we can see the early stages of the future the Virunga Alliance envisions: a future that transitions the region from a conflict economy defined by poverty, violence, and loss, to one built on peace, stability, and economic development enabled by the park. This shift is critical to enable the park’s transition from merely surviving to flourishing in its second century — and to ensure that Virunga is truly benefitting the people it is asking to protect it.