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Congo in Conversation
  • Project
  • Congo (DRC)
  • Finbarr O’Reilly
  • Contributors
    • Arlette Bashizi
    • Bernadette Vivuya
    • Charly Kasereka
    • Dieudonne Dirole
    • Guerchom Ndebo
    • Guylain Balume
    • Justin Makangara
    • Ley Uwera
    • Moses Sawasawa
    • Pamela Tulizo
    • Raissa Karama Rwizibuka
  • Themes
    • Access to clean water
    • Economy
    • Electricity and Hydroelectric Plants
    • Environment
    • Gender-Based Violence and Rape
    • Health
    • Mineral Extraction
    • Obstacles to Progress
    • Politics and Insecurity
  • Carmignac Award
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Congo in Conversation
Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. A man stands by a smouldering kiln burning wood being turned into charcoal on a swathe of deforested land on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

Congo’s Charcoal: An Illegal Trade, a Precarious Lifeline

byGuerchom Ndebo
December 31, 2020
in Economy, Environment, Politics and Insecurity
Reading Time: 12min read

Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. A man stands by a smouldering kiln burning wood being turned into charcoal on a swathe of deforested land on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

On a cloudy day in Congo’s North Kivu Province last month, Suma, 27, helped his father gather damp leaves to pile atop a mound of mud, sticks, and other vegetation to create an enclosed oven the size of a small hut.

Then, with the dark outline of active volcanoes looming behind him, Suma lit a fire inside the smothered kiln to slow burn chunks of dense wood that would, over the course of several days, be turned into charcoal, or “makala” as it is called locally. The smouldering kiln was expected to produce three large sacks of about 50 kilograms of charcoal, each worth about $15-$20.

The father and son duo looked just like field workers the world over, carving out a meagre subsistence from the land surrounding their home village. But here in eastern Congo, on the fringes of Virunga National Park, they are just one small link in a complex and lucrative chain of illegal charcoal production that fuels not only cooking fires for the local population, but also conflict and widespread environmental destruction.

  • Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. A man chops a tree to make charcoal on a swathe of deforested land near the village of Rusayo on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. Men cut a tree to make charcoal on a swathe of deforested land near the village of Rusayo on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. A father and son prepare a kiln to make charcoal on a swathe of deforested land near the village of Rusayo on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. Villagers fuel a kiln to make charcoal on a swathe of deforested land on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. A man fuels a kiln to make charcoal on a swathe of deforested land on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. A kiln used to make charcoal stands on a swathe of deforested land on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. [1] & [2] Men chop and cut a tree to make charcoal on a swathe of deforested land near the village of Rusayo on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. [3] A father and son prepare a kiln to make charcoal [4] & [5] Villagers fuel a kiln to make charcoal [6] A kiln used to make charcoal © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

Eastern Congo’s illegal charcoal trade—worth around $35 million a year—is controlled by a criminal network of armed rebels and threatens Virunga’s forests while keeping the local population trapped between armed rebels and the militarized response by the local wildlife authority, the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN).

Covering some 7,770 square kilometers, Virunga National Park, established in 1925, is Africa’s oldest and most bio-diverse national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, and home to endangered mountain gorillas.

Various armed groups operate across eastern Congo, but Virunga is an especially fertile sanctuary for criminal enterprises, including wildlife poaching, fishing and other illegal commerce, much of it controlled by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group linked to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

“For years, the group has helped sustain its activities by exploiting valuable natural resources, including minerals, ivory, fish, and marijuana,” according to a 2016 report by The Enough Project, a US policy group fighting to prevent genocide and atrocities, which referred to the FDLR as a “Mafia”. “But one of the FDLR’s most successful revenue-generating businesses is the illicit charcoal trade.”

  • Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. Men transport charcoal at the roadside market of Kulupango on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. Most of the charcoal bound for Goma passes through Kulupango market. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. The charcoal market of Kulupango on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. Most of the charcoal bound for Goma passes through Kulupango market. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. [1] Men transport charcoal at the roadside market of Kulupango on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. [2] The charcoal market of Kulupango. Most of the charcoal bound for Goma passes through Kulupango market. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

Congo has one of the lowest electrification rates in the world and millions of impoverished people in the region depend on charcoal as their only source of fuel for cooking daily meals. More than half of the charcoal consumed in nearby Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, is illegally sourced inside Virunga, accelerating deforestation, according to the WWF.

To document the charcoal trade, I followed the whole process, from production in the park, to transport to market, and then to sale and further transport for use by consumers at the end of the supply chain. I was warned not to venture too far from where Suma and his father were working due to the threat of FDLR rebels nearby. After the trees are cut and baked into charcoal, the “makala” is transported to roadside markets on overloaded bicycles or motorbikes, or carried for hours on the backs of those who cannot afford wheels. From there, it is sold on to traders who transport it further afield. On the roads leading to Goma, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles are often seen stacked with sacks of charcoal sourced from militia strongholds. Small traders on motorbikes might make $2 per 50-70 kilograms sack they buy, transport, and then resell in a city such as Goma, making for small margins of profit. The big money goes to the armed groups and government officials controlling the broader enterprise.

  • Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. Charcoal traders at Kulupango market on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. Most of the charcoal bound for Goma passes through Kulupango market. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. Charcoal traders at Kulupango market on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Goma, Nord-Kivu, DRC, December 2020. Motorcycle riders transport hundreds of kilos of charcoal on their bikes in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. Charcoal traders at Kulupango market on the edge of Virunga National Park just north of the eastern Congolese city of Goma. Most of the charcoal bound for Goma passes through Kulupango market. [2] Virunga National Park, DRC, December 2020. Charcoal traders at Kulupango market [3] Goma, Nord-Kivu, DRC, December 2020. Motorcycle riders transport hundreds of kilos of charcoal on their bikes in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

Traditionally, the FDLR controls loggers, charcoal burners and sellers, requisitions loggers, and can impose monthly taxes of between $5 and $25 per logger, threatening or sometimes killing those who do not comply.

Deforestation is not confined to eastern Congo. In the capital Kinshasa, 2,500 kms from Goma, residents consume five million tonnes of wood a year, according to French research group Cirad. Increasing urbanization is raising the pressure on the forests and on the hillsides around the capital, there are few trees remaining.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has acknowledged the problem, saying last year that “Given the current rate of population growth and our energy needs, our forests may disappear by the year 2100.”

  • Goma, Nord-Kivu, DRC, December 2020. Motorcycle riders transport hundreds of kilos of charcoal on their bikes in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
Goma, Nord-Kivu, DRC, December 2020. Motorcycle riders transport hundreds of kilos of charcoal on their bikes in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

While the state has responded to the FDLR’s other illicit activities, such as mineral smuggling and elephant poaching, little has been done to tackle the charcoal trade, according to the Enough Project report, which flagged corruption and official complicity as one of the main reasons for inaction.

“Nursing alliances with Congolese army and police units and operating remote trafficking rings in the sanctuaries of Congo’s protected forests, the FDLR is a kingpin in Africa’s Great Lakes region’s organized crime networks and a continuing threat to human security,” the report said.

Park rangers often clash with armed groups in the park and dozens of rangers have been killed, including in one of the deadliest attacks ever in April, when 13 rangers and 4 civilians were killed.

While the narrative around such clashes typically pits the bad guys (the FLDR) against good guys (Virunga park rangers), such narratives ignore the deeper roots behind the violence, including conflicts over land, local disputes and ethnic animosity between Hutu and Nande communities in the area, as well as the government’s inability to demobilize armed groups, and the displacement of these groups as they relocate during offensives against them.

“Any attack against an armed group alters the fragile power equilibrium between armed groups, allied elite networks, and associated civilian communities which often have the same ethnic background as armed group leaderships,” according to Esther Marijnen and Judith Verweijen, who both did post doctoral research in the local communities. “Because populations depend on illegal revenue generation activities in the park, and no alternative livelihood activities are offered after the operations, people feel they have little choice but to solicit the protection of armed groups to re-access the park… Rising violence doesn’t only increase the insecurity of inhabitants, but also puts the lives of the park guards further at risk.”

This vicious cycle seems unlikely to end any time soon, though Congo this year launched an ambitious solar power project and Virunga Park has been building several new hydroelectric power stations to offset the need for charcoal. Still, much more will need to be done to address the full scope of the problem.

 Alternative energy sources are only one of the recommendations made by The Enough Project. Additional proposed measures included improved law enforcement, domestic criminal accountability, international justice, military interventions, and demobilization efforts, few of which have been implemented since the 2016 report.

Until they are, Suma and his father, as well as many others like them, will continue their trade, and charcoal will continue fuelling fires, deforestation, and insecurity.

  • Goma surroundings, DRC, December 2020. Balume Benjamin, 19, (L), sells brochettes cooked on a charcoal grill on the roadside outside the eastern Congolese city of Goma. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Minova, DRC, December 2020. Charmante prepares a meal on a charcoal stove inside her home in the eastern Congolese town of Minova. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
  • Minova, DRC, December 2020. A woman prepares a meal of Sambaza, or fried fish, on a charcoal stove inside her home in the eastern Congolese town of Minova. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac
[1] Goma surroundings, DRC, December 2020. Balume Benjamin, 19, (L), sells brochettes cooked on a charcoal grill on the roadside outside the eastern Congolese city of Goma. [2] Minova, DRC, December 2020. Charmante prepares a meal on a charcoal stove inside her home in the eastern Congolese town of Minova. [3] Minova, DRC, December 2020. A woman prepares a meal of Sambaza, or fried fish, on a charcoal stove inside her home in Minova. © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac

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Guerchom Ndebo

Guerchom Ndebo

Artist photographer and director, passionate about images, Guerchom Ndebo uses photography to communicate his concerns on complex subjects and to stimulate reflection on contemporary issues. At the heart of his artistic approach, the concepts of equality, cultural differences, solidarity and decadence collide.

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  • 📣 “Congo in Conversation” a collaborative online chronicle presented by @fondationcarmignac and imagined by the 11th edition @prixcarmignac laureate, @finbarroreilly, and the Award team, is now exhibited in the streets of Paris, with @paris_maville, on the gates of the Saint-Jacques Tower (Paris 4, 39 rue de Rivoli)
 
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📸 Tintype portraits of Congo in Conversation contributors by Finbarr O’Reilly (@finbarroreilly) in Goma, December 2020 : @pamelatulizo, @makangarajustin, @guerchomndebo, @raissa_rkar, @dieudonnedio @guylainbalume, @arty_bashizi, @mosessawasawa @guylainbalume, @charlykasereka & @kudramaliro2. Bernadette Vivuya (@bernadettevivuya) and Ley Uwera (@leyuwera1) are also part of this adventure!
 
⏪ The collaborative online chronicle “Congo in Conversation” by @finbarroreilly, 11th laureate of the #PrixCarmignac Award, was launched in April 2020. Through close cooperation with Congolese #journalists and #photographers, the project addresses the #human, #social and #ecological challenges that the Congo faces today, within the context of this new health crisis. Relaying information via a dedicated website and social networks and presented in a bilingual French-English #monograph, co-published by @fondationcarmignac and @reliefseditions, it provides an outlet for Congolese voices to contribute to the global discourse, communally attest to the on-the-ground situation within this immense country, and raise public awareness.
 
We hope you enjoy discovering their stories. They will continue their reports in #2021!
 
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  • On a cloudy day in Congo’s North Kivu Province last month, Suma, 27, helped his father gather damp leaves to pile atop a mound of mud, sticks, and other vegetation to create an enclosed oven the size of a small hut. Then, with the dark outline of active volcanoes looming behind him, Suma lit a fire inside the smothered kiln to slow burn chunks of dense wood that would, over the course of several days, be turned into charcoal, or “makala” as it is called locally.
 
The father and son duo looked just like field workers the world over, carving out a meagre subsistence from the land surrounding their home village. But here in eastern Congo, on the fringes of Virunga National Park, they are just one small link in a complex and lucrative chain of illegal charcoal production that fuels not only cooking fires for the local population, but also conflict and widespread environmental destruction.

📌 To discover the full report, read our blog. Link in bio.

📸 Virunga National Park, DRC, November 2020. Guerchom Ndebo (@guerchomndebo) for Fondation Carmignac.

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🇫🇷 Novembre 2020 : sous un ciel nuageux dans la province orientale du Nord-Kivu, Suma, 27 ans, aide son père à ramasser des feuilles mouillées pour recouvrir un monticule de boue, de branchages et de végétation abritant un four de la taille d’une petite case. À l’ombre tutélaire des volcans actifs de la région, il allume le fourneau et carbonise des piles de bois dense qui donneront en quelques jours du charbon de bois, le « makala » comme on le nomme ici en lingala.
 
Père et fils ressemblent aux travailleurs agricoles du monde entier, tirant une maigre subsistance des terres qui entourent leur village. Mais dans l’est de la RDC, en bordure du parc national des Virunga, ils sont deux petits rouages d’une chaîne de production complexe et très lucrative : leur charbon n’alimente pas seulement les cuisinières de la population locale, mais aussi nombre de conflits et une destruction généralisée de l’environnement.

#congoinconversation #prixcarmignac #congo #RDC #DRC #DRCongo #environnement #virunga #photography #photojournalism #photographer #journalism
  • “The photographs shown here represent a revival of Congolese culture and illustrate how we use creativity and tradition to showcase natural hair as a symbol of pride and the reclaiming of ownership over our bodies while being comfortable and proud of our appearance without artificial products. They also show a tradition that needs to be preserved and passed on to the next generation.”
 
Videographer @bernadettevivuya and photographer @raissa_rkar, met in Goma and Bukavu the women who embraced traditional Congolese hairstyles.
 
📌 To discover the full report read our blog. Link in bio.

📸 Raissa Karama Rwizibuka for Fondation Carmignac.
 
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« Les photographies présentées ici documentent un renouveau de la culture congolaise et illustrent le mélange de créativité et de tradition mis en œuvre pour faire des cheveux naturels un symbole de notre fierté et de la repossession de nos corps, tout en préservant sans produits artificiels notre confort et notre belle apparence. Elles dévoilent aussi une tradition qu’il nous faut préserver et transmettre aux prochaines générations. »
 
La vidéaste @bernadettevivuya et la photographe @raissa_rkar ont rencontré à Goma et à Bukavu ces femmes qui ont opté pour des coiffures congolaises traditionnelles.
 
📌 Pour découvrir le reportage dans son intégralité, rendez-vous sur notre blog. Le lien est en bio.
 
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  • “If we say photography is around 180 years old, then we’re going to need another sense of photography (to develop and to encourage new ways of seeing that challenge photography as an inherently racialized medium that maintains the white or Eurocetric perspective). All of this will take decades, if not centuries, to push back. Its present unpicking will help push back some of the debasing historical images of the Black subject. If you look in the archive, it’s full of broken Black bodies, especially around conflict. When there are internal European conflicts, the body often gets treated very differently. It’s evident in the work and in the public’s emotional responses to those images. When you’re looking at subjects, whose lives do we value? If we can get to a place where the value of an African person or a Black person caught up in conflict is treated with care and compassion, then we can begin to make some progress.” – Mark Sealy, curator @autographabp, cultural historian, and author of Decolonizing the Camera, exploring the relationship between photography, race and human rights in his introduction to the new collaborative book, Congo in Conversation, featuring the work of 10 Congolese photographers —half of them women— published this week in English & French by @prixcarmignac & @reliefseditions.⁠⠀
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Link in bio to pre-order⁠⠀
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Repost @finbarroreilly, Prix Carmignac 11th edition laureate⁠⠀
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