Entry #19: Empty Stomachs Have No Ears with John Kahekwa

Opwall's Field Notes

John Kahekwa is the director of the Pole Pole Foundation from The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Pole Pole Foundation recently reached international acclaim as a finalist for the first ever Earthshot Prize founded by Prince William, and has been recognized previously by the Goldman Sachs Whitley Award. John grew up among the endangered eastern lowland gorillas of the DRC and always dreamed of working with them to help their population survive. He believed that the fates of the gorillas and local people were bound together by the poverty and war surrounding Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the DRC. Since 1992, he has led the Pole Pole Foundation to try to solve the root causes of deforestation and poaching, poverty, and hunger in local communities. In this episode, we discuss the Pole Pole Foundation's agricultural projects that grow low-cost nutritious foods to help lower local community dependence on the resources of the national park and build local capacity. John discusses how these agricultural programs protect biodiversity (the gorillas in particular) by engaging the surrounding communities in conservation efforts, and how this model can be applied anywhere in the world.