amazing iran. in forty five minutes from. every journey begins with the first step and every language with the first word emerged from the. coaches in germany to learn german why not go with him it's simple online on your mobile and free shots for the w.c. you learning course nikos free german made. it clear that. the last gorillas of the room africa's oldest national park because of its immense riches it's also the most endangered. in april twenty twelve wolf once again flared up in north kivu in the eastern democratic republic of congo

a rebel group the m twenty three took control of the region including giving up hard. yet another episode in what's often been called the forgotten war in the country. it is claimed six million lives in twenty years. the minute that suddenly we heard shots. really ran away and heard the villagers being shot. they killed my husband and my parents in law. the treasures of the congo are occurring. at the heart of the seemingly endless war other regions extensive resources its forests lakes and soils are systematically plundered to finance the. slaughter.

to quote mining hero is that dangerous. yes we could die here and if we survive the steel the minerals from. what should be a blessing is a curse here in the virunga region its vast mineral wealth has plunged the population into extreme poverty. is if he gets to be in the civil war is driven by a comic or insists. it's closely intertwined with the illegal exploitation of natural resources. and the world's poorest have to pay the price but this environmental destruction just. him anywhere is the director of the national park he and his ranges want to break the vicious cycle of over exploitation and war.

in the forests. on mountain iraq angle they risk their lives to restore the last bond between humans and nature. is a jewel of nature it was founded in one nine hundred twenty five with the aim of protecting the mountain gorilla population but was and insurgencies are destroying the region's ecosystem. like. zero six by. the dozens of groups who roam the park pose a permanent danger says a man who admitted. in the sun.

in the forest areas near the city of goma over a million people eat firewood. armed groups controlled timber production which is now done on an almost industrial scale. it's mainly the f.d.a. the democratic forces for the liberation of rwanda they're considered the perpetrators of the genocide there. and then there are the regional my my militia groups north of here they are the main course behind illegal fishing they make a fortune with it. there is also the a.d.f. now do a ugandan replica of that is murdered over one thousand civilians in the last year and a half. here in the middle of the danger zone so to speak in the last year they have been countless attacks we've lost five rangers here.

is home to the headquarters of the pot southern sector which is where the guerrillas live. every time the rangers go on some patrol they risk confrontations with militias the six hundred ranges defend eight thousand square kilometers of forest three hundred kilometers from north to south an area about the size of the. fighting on two fronts not only do they have to drive the armed groups out of the park they also have to keep the local population out. our mission is to protect the closest to. the center we have chosen this work and we're ready to give our lives to save the mountain gorillas from extinction. many of our colleagues have died doing their jobs i tell my men to be proud of

their work as rangers of our own good national park. that there if you the sick of the got that if. were. according to united nations estimates the virunga national park ranges are up against five to eight thousand heavily armed militia men an army of different rebel groups all with the same goal the illegal extraction over all materials. the ranges of the long line of defense protecting nature and often deadly position. when the civil war was raging here there were dangers looking everywhere for the rangers. about one hundred forty of our men lost their lives protecting the ecosystem for. the system. in fact in twenty years

of civil war a total of one hundred and fifty rangers have been killed the highest bloodshed ever to occur in protecting in the nature of his a the militias in the area where the guerrillas live mainly control the illegal timber trade and poaching. in light of the ten security situation in the new end of a board made a radical decision he has his ranges undergo combat training. and i guess more on the ground not just boldness it sticks you know ok. here in the ring nature conservation is more like a military operation. the rangers are trained by former belgian and french elite soltis.

there are problems and also at the moment the central sector is most affected. these are the militias facilities the heavily armored. humvee an army. here that recruiting new soldiers on. the park's technology has been upgraded so the area can be monitored more efficiently every yunis and every operation is coordinated in real time. in a seat illegal fishing on lake edward that generates an annual turnover of around forty two million dollars arctic shadowing was illegal logging in the south of the park which is destroying more and more virgin forests geddes which has an annual turnover of thirty four million dollars. dollars forty now so lots of money is involved in this we're talking about over one hundred million

dollars a year enough to maintain these private armies these come back to groups and militias who are responsible for the desolate situation in the eastern democratic republic of congo it's just not second i know has i literally. i don't know the illegal trade in charcoal feeds the entire province of north kivu it's the feel of war eleven million people depend on it some three hundred thousand tons are illegally produced here every year. this is how the black gold is made. ok. we will force you to we lay a new fire to make charcoal looking like they are going to be longer on the move. enough where to not even first we cover it with leaves. and then seeing it tightly with mud we should be merrily so that the leaves don't catch fire. the wood should

burn very slowly. we use it to buy salt clothes or oil we pay the school fees for the children. everything with money from the charcoal the mccollum you know. to save. my beautiful run we bring the cold sharks to the wholesale markets and saki and goma. the ninety five years of the overall. mccullough is transported to the cities by bicycle or on trucks steep population growth has led to soaring demand for charcoal. in north kivu ninety seven percent of people live without electricity coal is their only source of energy. in goma the capital of

north kivu the streets are black with search. this huge cold is run by cecile couple who will. stand mccallum because there's no electricity here in goma you have only one option charcoal in goma and in the rest of congo. and of bashar who label everywhere heat and coke with my camera bag i began one of your frying meats or cooking beings a call on you need. what color is the only fuel source in our everyday lives ritual poor we all depend on luck. my second one has more than a million inhabitants who get three hundred fifty to two hundred truckloads of mccalla every day. their obituary in a hundred and forty and two hundred bags on each truck. this is this and.

that's thousands of felled trees every day none of them from the room or park supposedly to one up. color from the national park is very rare in the past f.t.l. our militia soldiers supplied us with charcoal from virunga park. but if we get caught selling them accounted today we go to jail for years. but the fact is the illegal charcoal trade is impossible to control and it's destroying the park. if it goes unchecked there will be no forests left in the eastern congo in less than ten years. that's why part director money where the mojados top priority is to develop alternative energy sources. he wants to use the

large rivers in the room to supply the province of north kivu with electricity. a first hydroelectric power plant was completed last year in the taping. much of it never was on pretty much as just the beginning so far the power plant has been producing thirteen megawatts but with a bit of luck we'll reach one hundred megawatts in five years watts for one hundred megawatts is twice when there's total energy production and twenty five times the amount of electricity currently supplying the city of goma versus wow thank you get that the point could make an enormous contribution to the energy supply and the profits. of forty three of them explicitly. to the really nothing of it by building a new energy economy that doesn't depend on the legal exploitation of natural resources we're cutting off the source of money on groups that they don't have and secondly we offer alternative employment to the young men who would otherwise join

these groups i've seen no. doubt made. an ambitious project for a region like north kivu the park is pushing the twenty million dollar cost with money donated from foundations in many way to macleod believes it's worthless and argues that in the long term alternative energy will create up to one hundred thousand jobs he wants to prove to the locals that protecting nature is more profitable than destroying it's. more and more households throughout north kivu are now connected to the red tape a power plant. but where they get their energy from is not necessarily the population's first concern families are desperately looking for new arab and food has priority. conflicts on the edges of the conservation zone are multiplying the room to has

already lost tens of thousands of hectares of land here in richie rich farmers are challenging the current boundaries of the park. need a med for the father going to flooded we are a thousand metres away from the very wrong a national park. but in other words the border of the park supposedly runs a thousand meters from the flood but it's moved five hundred metres closer. and now the locals in the pocket ministration are arguing about it with the seal of a place with a fucking us for the. beautiful on the animals and we want them to be protected the environment must also be protected but not at the expense of the people who live here it's.

the national park conflict with our interests the one of the emanuel demo trying to negotiate with the people he's rangers have to protect the park but they must also understand that we did not want to. leave some animals come out of the forest and destroy our fields so what about our interests not. with our harvest if only there were at least development projects here if only areas were cleared for roads and fields and schools built for our children. for the locals the national park means less income a congolese family can make one thousand dollars a year with one hectare of arable land there one million hectares of protected learned in the reserve. the park administration is aware of the problem.

don't get to be many tv's beneath the city go for us to continue having these to relisten elephants the local population loses out on more than a billion dollars a year. that's a high price and it's not fair. he says it initiatives but we have to find a solution of the park is to survive that's true because in the end it's up to the locals and their point of view is understand the political point. that the families have to make a living somehow knew that they need a future. so we want the park to continue we need an alternative that generates at least a billion dollars a year. and we can't do that alone. it took so long before you did too so. the park director has formed partnerships with public and private donors and investors the e.u.

has awarded the room to park fifteen million euros. scale project called eco mccullough has also been launched to cultivate sustainable resources here on the edges of the protected area. fast growing eucalyptus trees have been planted on the eleven thousand hectares of land in a project designed to conserve the forests in the reserve and also to help the locals . the premier is the project has two aspects first it converts the poverty of the local population to newly planted trees provide small farmers with an income but the bizarre bit of plant the. secondly the eco mccollough projects reforestation effort protects the people here from the threat of armed groups lurking in the jungle. to make you saw it here but.

all money then money to someone. it's much better to work on this plantation it's too dangerous in the park that does it one and a good many women and young girls have to go there every day on the summer raid others even killed now and you know i know why our i've been spared that fate a man i mean i'm lucky enough to manage this little piece of forest or to meet the new crop. you not touch would make my karma and i can feed my family you know. but the what the. those who do not have their own plot of land continue to collect wood on the edge of the park. almost four million people live less than

a day's walk from the room and they all help themselves a small bundle of brushwood provides what they need for daily survival. at that i'm not at that level. i know it's forbidden to cut wood near the park but what should i do. either that or i can't give my children anything to eat today. the brushwood earns me five hundred congolese francs and i buy sweet potatoes with it it's not much but everything else is too expensive for us. earning an income this way puts the women in great danger thousands of armed men roam the reserve and here at the edge of the forest women are easy prey. you know if you know good novel that. we come here with fear in our hearts. and we

work fast so we won't be raped. when they catch you rape you until my life is broken. he can't tell anyone you must live alone with your suffering. daily life is fraught with risk here in the ring. to locals the national park is both a vital resource and a looming threat. to. environmental conservation is a constant challenge in the democratic republic of congo. the park rangers face a moral dilemma should they protect people. or nature. down to my sister if you don't go on the slopes of the wrong as volcanoes including

in rwanda and uganda there are only eight hundred eighty mountain gorillas left and they need protection you just. see they are threatened with extinction just eight hundred eighty mountain gorillas on our huge continent and only three countries congo uganda and rwanda to sit in on a week down for being studied nicol a. little under. now based on democracy population growth is threatening the grill is natural habitat.

skill level to some people here in need fertile farmland and the park is the only place where they can find it get it back. in fact that's why they destroy the gorillas habitat they need fertile farmland. in fifty of. the silverback has become a symbol of the very room in the actual park struggle for survival. but the fight also takes a heavy toll on the families of the one hundred fifty ranges killed in action just so these tragedies are often eclipsed by the plight of the gorillas. i'm funny my husband died in one thousand nine hundred ninety two. he was killed in the park

working to protect the gorillas i knew while my husband died on january twenty second twenty sixteen. he was on duty and could body hunting poachers. i do fear my husband was killed on patrol in for i'm going to park. to help the widows of the rangers who lost their lives the park set up a sewing business last september the women make seventy s. were tourists. like i want to wipe out. the park built this little workshop for us because our men were killed in its service as i think. of. him anywhere to move out and his coworkers collect donations abroad in order to pay these families thirty dollars

a month. each of these stars stands for a ranger who was killed you know every day every star belongs to a ranger who died for the park. but i think he did but after my husband died i was completely just to choose so the park or thora trees offered me help. but now the park provides a livelihood for me and my family. my children can even go to the park so no school for charge. fits the passage complexity we must accept that we are first and foremost at the

service of the people who live in the surrounding area people that we don't succeed in sharing the resources of the park with them we have failed in our work and we have failed in our mission and i don't feel.

i'm going to. bring it. up it's a spectacle straight out of a house and one night's. the truckman wedding. filled with romance. entertainment. and trisha.

amazing iran. fifteen minutes on t.w. . sometimes books are more exciting than real life. great to read. what if there's no escape. for list. sherman must treat. it was a fight for survival. model. is a dangerous. floods and droughts climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can write any kind of peace not if you want and

probably most of them will come to. the clinics it starts here for thirty years on t w.

this is news live from berlin sri lankan officials say several suspects have been arrested after wave of easter sunday bombings killed at least two hundred seventy people seven blast targeted luxury hotels and churches filled with easter worshippers hundreds of people were hurt and eighth explosion came as police attempted to search a house the defense minister blamed religious extremists will get the latest from

this reluctant capital colombo. after what we'd like.