'In 10 years, we might not have forests': DRC struggles to halt charcoal trade - a photo essay

Projects involving the Batwa and other marginalised communities offer alternative fuel and income, but can only ever be a small part of a wider drive to stop deforestationEvery few seconds a handful of reddish clay is scraped out of a bucket, rolled briskly into a ball, coated in charcoal dust and left in the sun to dry. For the past three years, Nzigire Ntavuna, 39, has been making these balls on the outskirts of Kahuzi-Biega national park, in the rainforest in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to burn as fuel. The little briquettes represent a tiny glimmer of hope here, at the centre of a multilayered threat to this forest and the people who live in it.Clockwise from top left: Biologist Cédric Muliri shows a fuel ball and soap made by villagers in Chibuga as an alternative income to charcoal; clay balls dry on the floor; Nzigire Ntavuna at her home in Chibuga Continue reading...