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Protecting Forests
Globally, an area of forest the size of a football pitch is destroyed every two seconds contributing to around 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Some 40 million people depend on the Congo Basin rainforest for their livelihoods. As the second largest rainforest after the Amazon, it also plays a vital role in controlling climate change.
Over 8 percent of the world's stored carbon exists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone, making it the fourth largest forest carbon reservoir in the world.
Click for the solutions to deforestation
It is home to 270 species of mammals, including the endangered gorilla, chimpanzee and bonobo, and 39 species unique to the region, including the okapi and forest elephant. In spite of its critical importance, industrial logging has put the future of the forest, the life that depends on it, and the world's climate, in jeopardy.
Logging concessions across Central Africa, mainly in the DRC, cover 50 million hectares of rainforest - an area roughly the size of France. The World Bank, international donor countries and the DRC government have encouraged industrial logging believing it will bring development and alleviate poverty. This type of logging, however, only fuels these problems, cheating the local people, who live on less than a dollar a day, out of their land and livelihoods.
Greenpeace has uncovered the social chaos and environmental destruction brought about by the industrial logging sector, exposing international companies involved in illegal timber trading, tax evasion, bribery and dealing with companies blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council.
Companies like the German-Swiss Danzer Group are cheating the people of Central Africa out of vast amounts of money each year through tax evasion. In 2008, Greenpeace exposed the company for failing to pay nearly 8 million euros (US$10.8 million) in taxes; enough to pay for 700,000 children in the DRC to be vaccinated.
It is common practice for companies to 'pay' local communities with sacks of salt, soap, coffee, beer and sugar, for access to forest areas that yields hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.
Forests act as vast carbon reserves which are vital for fighting climate change. If industrial logging is allowed to continue to develop, the DRC risks losing over 40 percent of its forest by 2050. This will release up to 34.4 billon tonnes of C02, roughly equal to the United Kingdom's total emissions over the last 60 years.
The potential value of these forests as a carbon store is far greater than the income generated by industrial logging. Replacing industrial logging with an internationally financed forest protection system would be financially beneficial to the local people, protect livelihoods and biodiversity, and it will also help save the climate.
The Congo Basin rainforest
Some 40 million people depend on the Congo Basin rainforest for their livelihoods. As the second largest rainforest after the Amazon, it also plays a vital role in controlling climate change.
Over 8 percent of the world's stored carbon exists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone, making it the fourth largest forest carbon reservoir in the world.
Click for the solutions to deforestation
It is home to 270 species of mammals, including the endangered gorilla, chimpanzee and bonobo, and 39 species unique to the region, including the okapi and forest elephant. In spite of its critical importance, industrial logging has put the future of the forest, the life that depends on it, and the world's climate, in jeopardy.
Logging concessions across Central Africa, mainly in the DRC, cover 50 million hectares of rainforest - an area roughly the size of France. The World Bank, international donor countries and the DRC government have encouraged industrial logging believing it will bring development and alleviate poverty. This type of logging, however, only fuels these problems, cheating the local people, who live on less than a dollar a day, out of their land and livelihoods.
Tax cheats
Greenpeace has uncovered the social chaos and environmental destruction brought about by the industrial logging sector, exposing international companies involved in illegal timber trading, tax evasion, bribery and dealing with companies blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council.
Companies like the German-Swiss Danzer Group are cheating the people of Central Africa out of vast amounts of money each year through tax evasion. In 2008, Greenpeace exposed the company for failing to pay nearly 8 million euros (US$10.8 million) in taxes; enough to pay for 700,000 children in the DRC to be vaccinated.
It is common practice for companies to 'pay' local communities with sacks of salt, soap, coffee, beer and sugar, for access to forest areas that yields hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.
Helping to fight climate change
A river flows through the Salonga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Congo River basin. It is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. With its 33.350 km2, the park is larger then Belgium.
The potential value of these forests as a carbon store is far greater than the income generated by industrial logging. Replacing industrial logging with an internationally financed forest protection system would be financially beneficial to the local people, protect livelihoods and biodiversity, and it will also help save the climate.
Solutions
It is not too late to protect large areas of intact rainforest, but urgent action is required.
Greenpeace is calling for:
Greenpeace is calling for:
- Zero deforestation in the world's intact tropical forests by 2015;
- Adoption of "Forests for Climate", an international financing mechanism that makes safeguarding intact forests more economical than their wholesale destruction;
- Stringent steps to end the international market for illegal timber;
- The DRC government to develop an integrated, national land use plan, with local communities' full involvement in identifying forest protection areas from the outset.
