KIBATI, DR Congo // A lorry brimming with sacks of produce, chickens and people stopped at a roadblock in this tiny village. Three wildlife rangers in green fatigues climbed into the back and began inspecting.
Within minutes they found what they were looking for: large plastic sacks the size of oil drums, packed full of charcoal.
As the rangers hauled the sacks off the lorry, the owner of the charcoal argued. The charcoal is from the village, he said, not from the surrounding national park.
The rangers tore into one of the sacks and inspected the dark, sooty lumps. They could tell from the bark that the batch was made from old-growth rainforest trees found only in the protected park. Despite protests from the owner, the rangers added the contraband to a pile of about 100 confiscated charcoal sacks and waved the lorry on its way.
Nobody likes the rangers from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN). Their job is to break up the multimillion-dollar illegal charcoal racket, which is run by the Congolese army and rebel militias and feeds local villagers.
"Everyone is our enemy because we are forbidding them to make charcoal," said Kayenga Kalemo, the head of the ranger unit that mans this checkpoint. "It's not an easy task. Every day we take people's charcoal and we are insulted. People shout at us."
Every sack of charcoal from the park that slips past the guards takes with it another piece of the Virunga forest, home to hundreds of species of animals and one of only two habitats for the rare mountain gorillas.
The Virunga National Park, founded in 1925, is Africa's oldest wildlife preserve. The 810,000 hectares of lush rainforest on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is home to nearly half of the world's 700 remaining mountain gorillas. The other half live in Uganda.
But deforestation for charcoal and the presence of rebel groups living in the park have made the Unesco World Heritage site an endangered and dangerous place.
"Charcoal making is a big industry," said Norbert Mushenzi, director of the conservation institute. "It's an activity that makes the rebel groups a lot of money."
Eastern Congo has been embroiled in a 10-year civil war. Despite numerous peace deals, armed groups remain. The two largest groups control large swathes of the southern end of the park.
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia made up of perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, control the west, where much of the charcoal making takes place. Forces loyal to Laurent Nkunda, a Tutsi rebel and former Congolese general who is fighting the FDLR, control the gorilla habitat to the east, making it impossible for conservationists to monitor the gorillas.
Conservation efforts are risky in this war zone. Last month, rebels attacked a World Wildlife Fund vehicle in the park. Two people were killed. Officials attributed the attack to a local militia called the Mai Mai.
Last year, seven gorillas were killed execution-style inside the park. Poachers would have taken the gorillas' hands or heads to sell, but these gorillas were found in one piece. Officials suspected that it was the work of charcoal makers trying to send a message to the rangers that they own the forest.
A few dozen kilometres down the road from the ranger checkpoint, villagers make charcoal in a large earthen kiln. They put the hard, wet wood inside the kiln on top of burning soft wood. As the soft wood burns, it dries the hard wood, turning it into charcoal.
Charcoal making is legal if the villagers use trees from outside the park.
But rebels living in the forest make charcoal from park trees and bring it into the village where it is mixed with other charcoal to fool the rangers.
The charcoal is taken to Goma, the provincial capital, and exported to Rwanda, which has outlawed all charcoal making. A bag of charcoal worth US$30 (Dh113) can last a family about a month. With about 100,000 families living in the densely populated area, the charcoal trade amounts to more than $30 million a year.
The villagers said making charcoal is their only way of earning a living. They cannot go to the fields and farm because rebels occupy their land.
"The only way we can get something to eat is by making charcoal," Jean Sergendo said. "The authorities are considering the wildlife more than they are considering the people in the villages. It's like they condemn us to death."
To stem the flow of illegal charcoal, the conservation community in eastern DR Congo is working on projects such as promoting agriculture and giving micro-loans to villagers to improve their livelihoods so they will not need to make charcoal. But there is still a high demand for the cheap fuel source. Most eastern Congolese have no electricity or gas, and charcoal is their only way to cook and heat their homes.
"We do what we can to reduce charcoal making, and we hope the government will push gas and electricity to reduce the demand," said Urbain Ngobobo of the Frankfurt Zoological Society's office in Goma.
The World Wildlife Fund has planted more than 10 million trees in the region outside the park to provide villagers with wood for charcoal.
Mr Kalemo and his rangers are doing their small part to remove the illegal charcoal from the supply chain. Each day, rangers seize five to 10 bags at the checkpoint; a drop in the bucket but a step in the right direction.
"It is a serious problem," Mr Kalemo said. "There is a conflict between us and the charcoal makers. People are taking part of the park."
@Email:mbrown@thenational.ae
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
UAE%20medallists%20at%20Asian%20Games%202023
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
LIVING IN...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Company%20profile
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South Africa squad
Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh132,000 (Countryman)
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
'Of Love & War'
Lynsey Addario, Penguin Press
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Stage results
1. Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4:39:05
2. Michael Matthews (AUS) Team BikeExchange 0:00:08
3. Primoz Roglic (SLV) Jumbo-Visma same time
4. Jack Haig (AUS) Bahrain Victorious s.t
5. Wilco Kelderman (NED) Bora-Hansgrohe s.t
6. Tadej Pogacar (SLV) UAE Team Emirates s.t
7. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ s.t
8. Sergio Higuita Garcia (COL) EF Education-Nippo s.t
9. Bauke Mollema (NED) Trek-Segafredo s.t
10. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers s.t
Disability on screen
Empire — neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis; bipolar disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Rosewood and Transparent — heart issues
24: Legacy — PTSD;
Superstore and NCIS: New Orleans — wheelchair-bound
Taken and This Is Us — cancer
Trial & Error — cognitive disorder prosopagnosia (facial blindness and dyslexia)
Grey’s Anatomy — prosthetic leg
Scorpion — obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety
Switched at Birth — deafness
One Mississippi, Wentworth and Transparent — double mastectomy
Dragons — double amputee
CRICKET%20WORLD%20CUP%20QUALIFIER%2C%20ZIMBABWE%20
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