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Greenpeace has been keeping a close eye on the entire review process to determine whether or not it will actually protect the DRC's ever-diminishing tropical forests over the loggers' short-term profits. The results were officially announced on October 6th and, unfortunately, some 46 of the 156 contracts are now to be converted into legal concessions.
In announcing the decision about the contracts, DRC Environmental Minister Jose Endundo also made a public commitment to extending the current moratorium on granting new logging titles in the Congo, which was established in 2002. Yet 33 of the 46 contracts that are now to be turned into legal concessions were granted after the 2002 moratorium was already in place. While the announcement of the moratorium extension is good news, Greenpeace fears that granting these concessions is a dangerous precedent being to set, and the future could hold business-as-usual for unregulated logging in the region.
The Greenpeace briefing paper published in response to the announcement details how the review of logging contracts in the DRC is allowing the Congo to continue to be carved up by rapacious corporations.
Flawed process
From the very start, the terms of reference used in the review process were flawed and easily manipulated by companies with vested interests in logging the Congo. For example, the review's own Technical Working Group said that there was not enough information on previous permit boundaries to judge whether companies have been operating outside of them.
Even if the terms were followed properly, however, the review would still be woefully inadequate. Social conflicts are ever-present in the areas of the Congo being logged -- violations of human rights are the rule rather than the exception. However, the review did not measure or even acknowledge this aspect of logging.
Without social and environmental criteria, the process ignores both local people's livelihoods and the global significance of tropical forests in stabilising climate change and protecting biodiversity.
Desperate need for good governance
The Swiss-German SIFORCO (owned by Danzer Group) and all the subsidiaries of the Portuguese NST Group have seen the majority of their titles approved. In our report Conning the Congo, we exposed how companies like Danzer are cheating local people out of large amounts of tax revenue. These companies are now promoting themselves as ready for "sustainable certification" for European markets. In fact, they are logging in intact forests, near biodiversity hotspots, and are exporting masses of internationally protected tree species.
Can we really expect them to do the right thing?
Without basic regulation, it is impossible to enforce the law or trace the origin of logs, making a mockery of international efforts to cut demand for illegal forest timber.
Now that the Environmental Minister has committed to extending the current moratorium, we urge the DRC government to turn this commitment into a reality with a legally binding Presidential decree. We also urge those nations who are active supporters of the DRC to help ensure that this decree can be properly implemented and monitored while the country works to improve governance in the forest sector.
It is also time for alternatives, given the scientific evidence of the vital role forests play in stablising global climate change. To protect the remaining Congo forests, we call for a participatory land-use plan, based on the needs and rights of forest-dependent communities.
Says Michelle Madeiros, Africa Forest Coordinator for Greenpeace International: "[This] moratorium is only the first step. Without additional efforts to establish law enforcement and control on the ground, it will do little to improve forest governance, which is desperately needed given the current state of the logging sector and the narrow scope of the recent legal review."