A VEGAN café in south Gwynedd is fundraising to help save critically-endangered gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Eating Gorilla Vegan Café and Restaurant in Penrhyndeudraeth has teamed up with the Pole Pole Foundation (POPOF) which works to conserve the Eastern Lowland Grauer’s gorilla in the South Kivu region of the country.

The fundraising effort will see donations of projects from the café’s ‘Be More Gorilla’ themed merchandise including reusable coffee cups, T-shirts, hoodies and pens.

It follows a chance encounter between The Eating Gorilla owner Diane Harrison and The Pole Pole Foundation trustee Nikki Jones, who visited the café whilst on holiday.

“We opened our vegan café and restaurant in 2019 after transitioning to a plant-based diet a couple of years earlier,” said Mrs Harrison.

“We believed that this was the single biggest thing we could do to protect not only the animals, but our environment, our health and ultimately our future.

“Nikki called in for afternoon tea last summer and she explained how the Pole Pole Foundation was protecting the gorillas and we knew we wanted to help. She told us how the main source of income for the Park, tourism, had totally vanished due to the pandemic.

“Our ‘Be More Gorilla’ merchandise seemed the perfect way to start our fundraising efforts.”

A donation of £10 would fund the planting of 40 trees for a Pole Pole project which aims to provide alternative, sustainable resources for the local people, saving the natural resources of the National Park which is the gorillas’ home habitat.

Pole Pole means ‘slowly slowly’ in Swahili and that’s how things happen in the DRC.

The tree-planting initiative has given employment to local people since 1993 with over four million trees planted in the area.

The Pole Pole Foundation has also set up schools to ensure future generations are aware of the important role they can play in securing the future of the area.

Reducing the consumption of bushmeat is critical to protecting the habitat of the gorillas and ensuring their safety, while bushmeat can be a vector for diseases such as ebola.

Other projects which support the shift to plant-based eating in the area include fruit tree cultivation, a Spirulina production facility and a mushroom growing co-operative.

Diane’s t-shirts, hoodies and other merchandise can be ordered by contacting ‘The Eating Gorilla’ via their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/theeatinggorilla/ or by calling them on 01766 770292

For more information on the Pole Pole Foundation visit www.polepolefoundation.org