DR Congo | Virunga National Park

Established in 1925, the Virunga National Park is the oldest national park in Africa and one of the last refuges of mountain and lowland gorillas as well as a home for savannah elephants, lions, chimpanzees, leopards, and antelopes. It also has the largest diversity of birdlife in the world.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the most consistently war-torn nations, due to its mineral resources, needed for electronic devices. Virunga itself still exists only through the hard work of rangers on the ground and dedicated campaigners and idealists.

After the coffee is picked it heads to a washing station, where the coffee cherry fruit is stripped off of the beans themselves. This station is run entirely by a female cooperative, showcasing that the conservation of endangered wildlife goes hand in hand with the promotion of the social and economic well-being of all the people of Kivu.