Energy Crisis in Eastern DR Congo

Introduction

In the east of the DR Congo a war is being fought, which forces tens of thousands of men, women and children to flee for their lives. Traumatised, undernourished, lacking work and property, they often have no choice other than to fight for their lives – with or without arms. This has created a disastrous situation for people in the North-Kivu province. Even when the fighting will stop immediately, a huge humanitarian and ecological catastrophe is threatening the whole region.

Looting Virunga National Park

To prepare food on wood stoves, large amounts of trees are being cut from the Virunga National Park – Africa's oldest national park that - thanks to its enormous variety of species - is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for almost 30 years. The firewood and charcoal is being transported to surrounding towns and, especially, the provincial capital of Goma, where demand for firewood is very high. The various (rebel) armies that are present in and around the protected area, make a lot of money with this charcoal trade.

The rate of deforestation of this National Park, which forms the habitat of the world famous but seriously threatened mountain gorillas, is incredibly high. There is no doubt that in the short – and long – term, this situation will cause tremendous problems.

Humanitarian and ecological disasters

Firstly, disappearance of the forested area will lead to serious chaos. Availability of wood and charcoal will further decrease, causing prices to rise; in their struggle for survival, all (displaced) people will do all they can to fulfil their food and energy needs. While we are already witnessing an extremely serious situation now, we can hardly imagine the chaos in and around Goma when the energy scarcity increases further. The situation will become totally out of control, causing a humanitarian disaster for hundreds of thousands of people.

Secondly, the high-speed deforestation in the southern part of Virunga National Park reduces the size of the mountain gorilla habitat even further, until it will disappear. An estimated 700 mountain gorillas survive in the world, of which about 200 live in the volcanic forest on the Congolese side of the Rwandan and Ugandan border. These magnificent black creatures, also referred to as “gentle giants”, are well-known for their quiet and friendly character.

Western tourists are willing to pay big money for a hike through the jungle, to visit a mountain gorilla family and witness their behaviour from close by. Rwanda and Uganda are greatly benefiting from this form of tourism. For Rwanda, tourism has even become the number-1 export product. Also for the DR Congo, which has greatly invested in research and conservation of the mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park, tourism is a potential source of large foreign capital flows into the country. The "gentle giants", so to speak, offer the people of North Kivu giant opportunities. It would therefore be foolish, from both ecologic and socio-economic perspective, to allow the total and irreversible destruction of the mountain gorilla habitat.

Thirdly, the mountainous Virunga-forest has an important function from a climate perspective. The ecological functions of the tropical forest – water absorption, evaporation, carbon absorption – are important for climate regulation on local regional as well as global level. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) deforestation contributes for about 17.5% to global climate change. Hence preservation of tropical forests, such as the Virunga National Park, is crucial for combating climate change.

United Nations

Not only the rebel groups and hundreds of thousands of refugees in the North-Kivu province can be held responsible for these problems. Also the United Nations contribute to deforestation of Virunga National Park. The UN Mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) officially states that the 17,000 troops are cooking on butane gas, implying that no relation exists between their presence and deforestation of Virunga National Park. The reality is, however, that sacks of charcoal have been spotted on UN compounds in Goma. In other words, UN peace keepers are contributing to the deforestation of this UNESCO(!) World Heritage Site.

Rwanda

Moreover, also people and politicians in the neighbouring country Rwanda can, to a certain extent, be held accountable for the degradation of Virunga National Park. Via its widely presumed support to the rebel army CNDP, the Rwandan government is one of the key actors behind the scenes of the conflict in the east of the DR Congo. By supporting this rebel army, led by former general Laurent Nkunda, the Rwandan government tries to fight the Interahamwe, the militia that is to a large extent accountable for the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Further, the east of the DR Congo has important strategic and economic significance to Rwanda as it hardly possesses any mineral resources itself. Through the impenetrable forests of the Virunga Volcanoes area, large amounts of clothing, weapons and ammunition are being smuggled into the DR Congo. As such, these goods easily find their ways into the CNDP. Congolese people, who prefer to remain anonymous, have confirmed these practices.

After heavy fighting that took place from August 2007 until October 2008, this well-armed and -equipped army of General Nkunda has extended its sphere of influence in the region. The refugee flows that followed have strongly aggravated the humanitarian and ecological drama around Virunga National Park and the city of Goma. This makes Rwanda partly responsible and accountable for the continuous - and quickly deteriorating - state of insecurity in the east of the DR Congo.

As a result of the growing population and the large demand for energy, Rwanda witnessed a strong decrease of forest cover change in the past decades. To halt this process, the government wisely decided to stop cutting forest, while promoting reforestation projects. However, to fulfil the energy needs of the population – the country has the highest population density in Africa – one thing is still lacking: a large sustainable energy supply programme. The current domestic energy supply is not enough to provide local households with enough fuel for cooking.

Bags of charcoal, which are smuggled through the misty forest from the east of the DR Congo over the Rwandan border, are therefore a welcome addition for the people in Northwest Rwanda. Although understandable, this is a very concerning situation.

Action

So, what should happen now? Key is to promote alternative, sustainable energy supply, to provide for the energy needs of the people in this region.

The Legacy Foundation has worldwide experience with development, training and technology of biomass-briquette production for sustainable development. Biomass briquettes are made from the likes of leaves, grass, coffee husks, sawdust, and scrap paper. They are pressed into briquettes using simple wood presses that can be made anywhere with a minimal amount of tools. Most importantly, no trees have to be cut to make briquettes, which, similar to charcoal, are used for cooking meals. Local trials in the east of the DR Congo (Goma, Bukavu, Rumangabo) have proved them to be a readily acceptable alternative to charcoal.

The idea of Legacy Foundation, Africa Conservation Fund, Groupe d'Action pour le Droite and the Institute for Environmental Security is, as soon as the security situation permits, to start scaling up the pilot project in Goma. Furthermore, these organizations would like to start with a similar project in or around Kinigi, Northwest Rwanda, to provide for local energy needs with biomass briquettes, instead of with (smuggled) charcoal.

Aid organisations and governments should pay specific attention to these energy needs at household level. For the realization of objectives aimed at sustainable energy production and poverty alleviation it is advised to focus on:

• Making direct investments in biomass-briquette-projects (such as is currently being done by the Legacy Foundation and Africa Conservation Fund)
• Urging the Rwandan government to set up alternative energy projects and halt transboundary smuggling and trade in illegally obtained charcoal and wood; and
• Developing capacity and know-how in the field of other sustainable alternatives for charcoal production, such as solar power, biogas, improved cooking stoves.

These actions could help prevent a further deterioration of the current humanitarian and ecological catastrophe around the Virunga National Park.

Recommended Reading

For more information on this issue and on other environmental security issues in the African Great Lakes region, please have a look at our selected list of Recommended Reading material.

By Eric van de Giessen - Institute for Environmental Security

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