All articles
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DRC government reinstates illegal logging concessions in breach of its own moratorium
Kinshasa, 20 February 2018: The Congolese Minister of Environment, Amy Ambatobe, has reinstated 6,500 km² of logging concessions that were cancelled in August 2016 by the then Environment Minister Robert Bopolo following instructions from then Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo. The three concessions reinstated on 1 February 2018 were awarded to the Chinese-owned logging companies…
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Let the Moratorium be!
With the recent confirmation that the Congo Basin forest hosts the world’s biggest tropical peatland, the importance of this forest is now drawing global attention. It has a huge role to play in the protection of our global climate.
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Statement on the announcement that the government of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has started a process to lift its moratorium on the allocation of new logging concessions
Bonn, 12 November 2017: We are alarmed that, as it speaks at COP23 on behalf of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations on the importance of protecting its forests, the government of DRC has held a meeting in Kinshasa on 10 November to start a process that would lead to the destruction of large areas of…
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The Congo Basin forests made us dance
My name is Hermann Fondjo and I am an environmentalist activist and a volunteer for Greenpeace Africa. As the journey of the Greenpeace ship the Esperanza takes it along the…
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Give the Congo Basin forest a chance
Approaching the forest in the Congo, I am met with an overwhelming wall of green. Flying over it, I see the meandering rivers merging together. I see animals drinking from the rivers, frolicking with joy in the water. Walking into the forest, I hear a chorus of teeming life – birds, lowland and mountain gorillas,…
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Our land should unite, not antagonize us!
On August 5, 2017, four days before the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, I was deeply troubled by news of deadly confrontations between Bantu[1] and indigenous (Pygmy) communities in Tanganyika province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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Norway and France threaten DRC’s forests
An area of rainforest the size of Italy is at risk of being cut down by loggers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), if the Norwegian government approves a French Development Agency (AFD) proposal to expand industrial logging there starting 2018.
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The Urgency of Now: The fate of the lungs of Africa hangs in a balance
As the plane from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), makes its descent towards Mbandaka airport, the capital of Equateur province, I am impressed by a beautiful canopy of greenery painting the landscape below my window; I was looking at the Congo Basin Forest. A casual observer sees a forest, robust,…
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Greenpeace condemns deportation of French filmmaker and cancellation of employee’s visa in the DRC
Kinshasa, 1 March 2017 - Greenpeace Africa is shocked by the deportation of a French filmmaker and the cancellation of the visa of a Greenpeace employee by the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo following a filming trip in the Equateur Province.