North Kivu is home to one of Africa’s richest ecosystems. Virunga National Park, the continent’s oldest national park, covers 790,000 hectares and is home to 218 mammal species, including nearly one-third of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas and Africa’s largest population of hippos. The province also borders Lake Kivu, whose waters support drinking water supplies, fisheries and the livelihoods of millions of people.
For more than three decades, this exceptional natural heritage has come under mounting pressure from armed conflict, repeated displacement and rapid urbanisation. Goma has grown from around 50,000 inhabitants in 1990 to nearly 2.5 million today, as successive waves of people have fled insecurity, land loss and violence.
Conflict has also been fuelled by one of the world’s most strategically important mineral reserves. From Rubaya to the province’s many artisanal mining sites, mining expansion has accelerated land dispossession and steadily eroded rural livelihoods. As families lose access to their farmland, many are pushed into a survival economy where men remain at mining sites while women take on the responsibility of supporting displaced households.
Women are at the heart of their communities’ resilience, yet they also bear the greatest burden of the energy crisis. With few affordable alternatives available, they rely on firewood for cooking, forcing many to make long journeys beyond displacement camps where they face heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence. At the same time, humanitarian food assistance still consists largely of dry food rations that require firewood or charcoal to prepare, placing even greater pressure on already fragile forests.
In a context where humanitarian crises, deforestation and insecurity reinforce one another, providing sustainable energy alternatives is both a powerful way to protect women and a vital step towards strengthening food security while safeguarding North Kivu’s extraordinary ecosystems.
WAHDi trains women to produce eco-briquettes from biodegradable waste, providing a locally produced and affordable alternative to firewood that helps reduce pressure on forest resources while creating income opportunities for the women who produce them. More than 350 women have already been trained through a training-of-trainers model, enabling each participant to become a trainer within her own community. This multiplier effect extends the programme’s impact far beyond the initial group of participants.
By reducing the need for the long, isolated journeys associated with collecting firewood, the initiative also directly reduces women’s and girls’ exposure to sexual and gender-based violence.
WAHDi establishes community gardens and composting initiatives in displacement camps, improving access to fresh food while reducing communities’ reliance on standardised food assistance, which often consists largely of dry rations that themselves require firewood or charcoal to prepare.
WAHDi’s work helps address critical gaps in humanitarian assistance, where food distributions do not always take into account cooking needs, access to household energy or the availability of fresh food essential to a balanced diet.
By advocating for stronger integration of environmental considerations into humanitarian response, the organisation connects access to energy, food security and the protection of livelihoods, helping build responses that are better adapted to the realities faced by displaced communities.
Gratias Kibanja Lukoo is a legal expert and climate justice advocate committed to protecting women and advancing environmental justice in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Based in Goma, she works in contexts shaped by instability, displacement and mounting pressure on natural resources, where the realities of daily life place women at heightened risk.
Her work connects environmental protection, human dignity and human security, with a particular focus on the realities faced by communities living in fragile and conflict-affected territories.
She believes that the ecological transition must first and foremost respond to the essential needs of communities living through crisis—especially the women who stand on the frontlines every day.
