To Help Get $20,000 for Mountain Gorillas - Read Here!!

Mountain Gorillas in the Congo are on the brink. Due to many issues, habitat loss, poaching, disease, war, they are severely endangered. But increasingly, the charcoal trade is fast becoming one of their biggest threats. To fuel their stoves, people in the area rely on charcoal. Where does this charcoal come from? Well, it's basically made from rainforest, the Virunga National Park, that's cut down and burned into bricks. What's worse it that this illegal "industry" is run by a thuggish mafia, who kill at will! Attempts to prevent the illegal charcoal burning have been met with assassinations of entire gorilla families; shot to death and babies abducted! We have to help provide alternative energy to the area. Less reliance on this totally unsustainable charcoal industry will help the gorillas somewhat as they battle for existence against all of the other threatening factors. The situation is dire, there are less than 700 left in the world!!!!!!!!!!!! Wildlife direct needs $16,000+ to provide alternative wood for this area.This is not a fix, but a patch until new stoves and alternatives to charcoal can be introduced into this chaotic and dangerous area... Please help with a donation, it's a great gift for the holidays to donate on behalf of a loved one!! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY Here's a bit from the Wildlife Direct site: Now the way this will work is that we are going to try and raise $20,000, that will supply fuel wood to circa 7,000 people for 4 weeks. This is by no means a one-time blanket solution - but we need to do something. This is how the calculations go: UNHCR estimates some 7,000 IDPs are in the area and can potentially fit in the planned Kibati site (initial capacity is 5,000 but we hope this will be extended). They are all in need of fuel wood. 7,000 IDPs equals 1,400 families (average of 5 members per family). 1 family needs 7 kilos of fuel wood/day. Fuel wood costs $12 for 500 kilos. With transport and logistics we have to double this to $24 for 500 kilos of fuel wood. So this means that it costs $0.32 to provide fuel wood to 1 family/day. So it is $19.20 to provide fuel wood to 2 families for 1 month - this is why we made the donation amount for fuel wood on the sidebar $20 http://wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/gorilla/2007/12/15/charcoal-charcoal-everywhere-but-still-need-16540-for-refugee-fuel-wood/ Also, check out Anderson Cooper 360 for his expose on this issue http://cnn.com/360