REDD+ funded project seeks to distribute efficient burning cookstoves in Virunga

 Eco-Makala, a project funded through REDD+, is seeking to reduce the impact of charcoal on Virunga park by establishing tree plantations around it and distributing cookstoves that burn charcoal more efficiently.

In what could be called a charcoal reform, the project seeks to reduce the felling of trees for firewood and conversion into charcoal for cooking ,thereby easing deforestation-driven CO2 emissions.

 The felling of trees for charcoal has become a big problem for Virunga National Park.

 Illegal production in the park has been high in recent years as producers try to meet the demand from the millions of impoverished people who depend on charcoal as their only source of fuel.

This demand has led to the destruction of vast swaths of Virunga's forest as well as the deaths of gorillas and other wildlife that depend on it.