Mountain gorillas are on the ‘Red List of Threatened Species’ (International Union for Conservation of Nature) – with only around 782 mountain gorillas surviving in the wild today.

Inhabiting the area between the Virunga volcanic mountain range which spans the border area of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo − and the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda – a combination of regional conflict, hunting, deforestation, mining, the illegal charcoal trade and capture for the illegal pet trade all pose a threat to the mountain gorilla. And as we share much of the same DNA as gorillas, diseases can easily be passed from humans to mountain gorillas unintentionally.

Mountain Gorillas are primarily vegetarian with around 85% of their diet coming from leaves, shoots and stems. They also eat small amounts of wood, roots, fruit, flowers and occasionally larvae, snails and ants. They are generally larger than the other three surviving gorilla subspecies and have longer hair. On average, adult males weigh 160kg and adult females 98kg. Dominant adult males are known as ‘silverbacks’ because of the patch of silver hair on their back and hips. A male becomes a silver back when they are about 7-9 years old. The longer hair helps them keep warm in the high altitude cloud forests where they are found.

Since 1991 when the WWF co-founded the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) with Fauna and Flora International, the African Wildlife Foundation, and the protected area authorities of the governments of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, there has been a 10% increase in the mountain gorilla population and those numbers continue to grow.

A vital part of these activities is to implement more sophisticated monitoring and patrolling techniques throughout the protected areas, alongside helping to meet the needs of the local people.

We hope that our donation to this great cause will play a small part in achieving the bigger goals of securing a safe future for the mountain gorillas. You too can help protect the mountain gorilla by donating on the WWF website.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced that a £12million fund is being made to increase the payments available to householders across Britain who are switching to renewable heating. The money will be available in the form of vouchers under the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme and is targeted at those living off the gas grid – where the greatest savings can be made on bills and carbon reduction.

Since July 2011, DECC has run two phases of the household voucher scheme and has supported over 10,000 new renewable heat installations. These newly increased vouchers will be replaced in March 2014 with the Renewable Heat Incentive for householders (domestic RHI) – details of which have yet to be announced.

Householders will now be required to undertake a Green Deal assessment before submitting a claim on the Energy Saving Trust website to redeem their voucher.

The Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme – Phase 2 extension will run from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014, subject to available funding.

A 90kW ETA wood chip biomass boiler heats multiple dwellings in this district biomass heating system near Glasgow.