Month: April 2014

Virunga Alliance

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Howard G. Buffett, Richard Branson and Desmond Tutu wrote a great article in the Huff Post BUSINESS section dd. 27APR2014:

“The three of us have long histories of supporting the protection of Africa’s unique natural resources, wildlife, habitats and its people. We have enormous respect for the role private investment can play in development. We see an opportunity in Virunga and elsewhere to go beyond traditional aid to help local economies grow. Notably, there is a well-considered economic plan for the region called the Virunga Alliance that the park’s own chief warden, Emmanuel de Merode, has developed and the park’s director general has endorsed. It is already showing impressive progress.”

Please find the full article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-branson/virunga-national-park_b_5222851.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

 

Riding the New Frontier!

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Frontier markets

Frontier markets

“Frontier markets have proven to be one of the best investments for equity plays on a year over year basis versus MSCI Emerging Markets (see EM vs FM ratio chart below) and even versus U.S. markets (see FM vs SPY ration chart).”

“We see no reason to expect this trend to reverse, especially as ASEAN and sub-Sahara Africa regions continue to boom.”

Source: http://emergingmoney.com/china/emerging-vs-frontier-markets-riding-the-new-frontier/

Orlando’s CNN interview, Emmanuel’s statement and the first review articles

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CNN Virunga interview

CNN Virunga interview

A great interview with Orlando von Einsiedel on CNN (dd. 23APR2014):

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/23/worlds-collide-in-central-african-world-heritage-park/

 

News directly from Emmanuel de Merode (dd. 20APR2014):

http://virunga.org/news/statement-from-chief-warden-de-merode-regarding-the-recent-events/

 

And… the first “Virunga” documentary reviews (dd. 20APR2014 and dd. 24APR2014):

http://www.thewrap.com/tribeca-documentaries-tomorrow-we-disappear-virunga

http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tribeca-review-big-business-and-violent-rebellion-prowl-africas-oldest-national-park-in-virunga

 

What an overwhelming week…

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Virunga documentary

Virunga documentary

First, on Tuesday 15 April, the shocking news that Virunga National Park director Emmanuel de Merode got attacked on the road between Goma and Rumangabo (he survived the gunshots and is recovering) and then the world premiere of the impressive “Virunga” documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Thursday 17 April.

 

 

I would like to share a selection of links to the trailer of the overwhelming documentary and to news messages in the international media:

 

Information on the documentary and the trailer:

http://virungamovie.com/

 

Interesting broadcast on Virunga in Belgian news show (please see minute 16.45 to 21.12)

 

BBC on attack Emmanuel

BBC on attack Emmanuel

BBC article

 

Belgian news – De Morgen

 

Dutch news – NOS

 

German news – Zeit Online

 

African news – News 24

 

United Nations statement – allAfrica/ UN News service

 

SOCO International statement on their website

 

NY news after the world premiere of the “Virunga” documentary – ABC news

 

Upsides – “Thinking outside the Park”

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Upsides on Virunga

Upsides on Virunga

Upsides (www.upsides.com) is an international online platform about responsible finance and sustainable development in emerging markets. It is a joint initiative of the Dutch development bank FMO and leading sustainable bank Triodos bank. They recently publised an article about Virunga National Park and the Virunga Social Enterprise explaining our strategy and business models. Worthwhile the read!

http://www.upsides.com/2014/03/26/thinking-outside-park/