This is Samantha. I know you have all been waiting for an update on the fuel wood for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Kibati. This follows on from December’s fuel wood campaign when WildlifeDirect request $20K to provide fuel wood to 7,000 people for 4 weeks. This was to prevent IDPs from cutting down the park for fuel wood, something that would take years and years for the park to recover from.
This was always intended to be a stop-gap measure, until the humanitarian agencies provided the fuel wood to the IDPs themselves. There is simply no way that a small conservation organization like WildlifeDirect can commit to providing fuel wood in the long term to IDPs. We just do not have the funds, despite amazing generosity from all the blog readers.

To refresh your memory courtesy of WWF, with whom we are working closely on this issue as they have the expertise: Mikeno Sector is aka the Gorilla Sector. Kibumba site and around there is where IDPs have come from. Kibati is where the IDP camp has been set up. Nyamulagira Sector is the other part of the southern sector of Virunga National Park (with Mikeno Sector).
So on 27 December I blogged that we had reached the $20K campaign target - in fact we ended up surpassing it and reached $21,385. So these funds in their entirety will go to the IDP fuel wood.
Now when we started this campaign, I was clear that in the end we may not need to provide fuel wood. In other words the conflict may have ended and the IDPs could all return home. Regrettably this has not been the case. While the conflict has diminished in intensity due to the ongoing peace conference (see below), the insecurity is still there and no IDPs are returning home. So we absolutely need the money for the fuel wood.
You may have read in the press there is a peace conference currently being held in Goma that aims to find a solution to this conflict that has dogged the east of DRC for far too long. The conference, with 1,300 participants, over 60 working commissions, and reaching a cost of nearly $5 million (funded by the European Union), will continue toward the end of Jan. We all hope a compromise will be reached, that the fighting will end, that people will be able to go home and that the Rangers will once again be able to patrol the Gorilla Sector. We shall see.
So, back to the IDP camp at Kibati. I went there last Sunday. Last time I was there was mid-December, and I blogged about it, with pictures. In mid-December there were just a couple of “hangars”, large structures made of tarp. Nothing else.
Now the camp looks like this:

One of the “hangars” is to the left of the photo, and on the right is the water supply.

This was an empty space when I visited in December. Now there are some 4,500 IDPs living here.

Each shelter houses at least 4 people. Conditions are cramped and sanitation lacking.

IDPs are waiting for delivery of food.

The water truck in background and water storage in fore.

Children & adults mill about, waiting.
There are an estimated 4,500 IDPs in the camp, in what I can only describe as miserable conditions. UNHCR, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, is in charge of the camp, with management subcontracted out for the most part to NRC, the Norwegian Refugee Council. That is how it works basically, UNHCR subcontracts to other humanitarian NGOs for the management of IDP camps.
So the people have been moved there from around the Gorilla Sector. This is positive in the sense that now they are all in one place to help. The UNHCR however has yet to deliver food to the camp - which of course means we cannot deliver fuel wood. I have no idea how on earth people are getting by. I am hopeful that the food delivery will happen next week, and WildlifeDirect is coordinating with Rob at FZS and Bruno at World Wildlife Fund to see if the fuel wood can be delivered at same time as the food. Logistics as you know are fairly challenging here. In addition the price of fuel has gone up as a result of the Kenya troubles - everything in eastern DRC comes from Mombassa. But nevertheless we are ready to jump.
So the long and short of it is that the fuel wood has not yet been delivered, but it will be very soon, and so the campaign has been a success. In other words, we have ended up needing those funds that you all donated to this effect. Thank you to each and everyone of you who donated. This is a small step toward protecting the forests of Virunga National Park, and the habitat of the Mountain Gorillas.
Samantha
Technorati : congo, drc, fuel wood, iccn, idp, wildlifedirect
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