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Kivu Emergency Appeal
Gorillas need your help now more urgently than ever before after a series of devastating mudslides
Locals have described the destruction as “worse than the volcano of 2021”. Countless people were killed as their homes were crushed by a terrifying wave of mud and giant rocks. At least 4,000 are still unaccounted for.
Tragically, among those who have lost their lives are Kalire Safari, one of the forestry managers at our Kalehe tree-planting project at Lake Kivu, and more than 200 local people who were benefiting from our work in the area. One of our nurserymen in Nyamukubi has lost his wife, his two children and his house. He’s been left with nothing. It feels like every passing day brings more terrible news about the disaster. But while we mourn the dead, we must act now to help the living.
Our experience and knowledge of the area is saving lives already. It’s absolutely vital that we help give men and women who have lost their homes in this tragedy the lifesaving food, fuel and shelter they need right now. In fact, it’s doubly important that we do this, because it will protect gorillas too. Desperate people, who have lost their homes, who have no food for their children or fuel for their stoves are all too likely to be driven into the forest and into contact with gorillas. They will bring with them the risk of deadly human diseases that are ripping through the population in the aftermath of the catastrophy.
Cholera has already taken hold in parts of Uganda affected by the mudslides. We have to make sure it doesn’t reach gorillas, who are so vulnerable to human diseases. That means we need to send out more ranger patrols as well as provide support for humanitarian disaster relief.
You’ll help restart our vital treeplanting programme in the area. The steep hillsides around Kivu were once covered by dense forests – and home to many gorillas. But recently huge swathes of forest have been clearcut for charcoal. We’d been busy recently planting hundreds of thousands of trees in the area, to create ‘buffer zones’ around the edges of the forest where local people could gather firewood, and to hold the hillsides together. In one nursery alone, 100,000 saplings were carried off by the mudslides and the flooding.
This is an emergency. We need to get started again right now. The sooner we can get more saplings into the ground, the better a chance they’ll have of reaching maturity before the next devastating rains and floods hit the area. And the more saplings we can plant, the sooner we can create that vital ‘buffer zone’ to protect the gorillas’ forest homes.
There’s no time to waste. While we continue to help the urgent humanitarian efforts, we must protect gorillas too. That means we must plant more trees. But to do that, we need tools. We need seedlings. And we need funds. And we need them right now. We already have local workers who are ready to plant the new trees. In fact, they desperately need the work in order to earn money to rebuild their devastated homes. But we urgently need your support to give them the tools and the plants they need. So please make a donation today. We know that we can succeed. We know that we can protect gorillas – and the environment they depend on – by planting more trees.
This genuinely is an emergency, for gorillas and humans alike. I hope that you will be able to help us to overcome it.
Make a difference – help today!
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