A logger's children stand in front of afrormosia logs chopped down by their father, who makes 400 Congolese Francs (less than US$1) a day in an area controlled by the Belgian-American logging giant Safbois. Afrormosia is a protected tree species whose international trade needs to be strictly regulated. Approximately 40 million people in the DRC depend on the rainforest for their basic needs, such as medicine, food or shelter.
Along with Canada's Boreal Forest and the Amazon, the Congo
rainforest plays a vital role in regulating the global climate. The
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone accounts for over 8%
of the world's carbon stocks, making it the fourth largest forest
carbon reservoir in the world.
In spite of the forest's critical
importance, industrial logging is putting the future of the forest
and the life that depends on it in jeopardy.
Logging titles across Central Africa, mainly in the DRC, cover
50 million hectares of rainforest - roughly the size of France.
One-third of logging contracts are in areas that are home to the
endangered tree species afrormosia and a third are in areas
identified as priorities for conservation. All are in areas
inhabited by communities dependent on the forest for their
survival.
Supported by the World Bank and international donors, the DRC
government has encouraged industrial logging as a means of
fostering development and alleviating poverty. But such logging
fuels these problems, cheating the people, all who live on below a
dollar a day, out of their land and livelihoods.
Greenpeace has uncovered the social chaos and environmental
destruction brought about by the logging sector, exposing
international logging companies involved in illegal timber trading,
tax evasion, bribery and dealing with traders blacklisted by the
United Nations Security Council.
Companies like the German-Swiss Danzer
group are cheating the people of this region out of vast amounts of
revenue each year through evading taxes. In 2008, Greenpeace
exposed the company for failing to pay nearly 8 million euros in
taxes; enough to pay for 700,000 Congolese children to be
vaccinated.
Companies like the German-Swiss Danzer group are cheating the
people of this region out of vast amounts of revenue each year
through evading taxes. In 2008, Greenpeace exposed the company for
failing to pay nearly 8 million euros in taxes; enough to pay for
700,000 Congolese children to be vaccinated.
It is common practice for companies to 'pay' for forest access
that yields them hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits with
sacks of salt, soap, coffee, beer and sugar. Furthermore, their
requirement to build critical infrastructure, such as schools or
hospitals for local communities, either fails to materialise or is
far from adequate.
Helping to fight climate change
If logging continues at the projected rate, the DRC risks losing
over 40% of its forest, with the area north of the Congo River
being entirely cleared 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 current income generated by industrial logging.
Deforestation accounts for about one fifth of global greenhouse gas
emissions. Replacing industrial logging by an internationally
financed forest protection system would not only be financially
beneficial to the people of the region by protecting livelihoods
and biodiversity, it will also help save the climate.
Solutions
It is not too late to protect large areas of intact rainforest,
but action must be taken swiftly. 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, including designating 15% of the area as protected with local
communities' full involvement in identifying forest protection
areas from the outset.
Once lost, the forest, its wildlife and the vital environmental
services it provides cannot be replaced. It's not too late to save
the forests of the Congo, but the clock is ticking.