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

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.