{"id":49409,"date":"2021-10-26T13:33:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T13:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=49409"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:36:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:36:41","slug":"green-gold-the-billion-dollar-question-for-the-congo-rainforest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/49409\/green-gold-the-billion-dollar-question-for-the-congo-rainforest\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Gold: the Billion Dollar Question for the Congo Rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST RENEWED LOGGING<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

On the brink of an unprecedented environmental emergency, EU ambassadors to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) gathered<\/a> earlier this month for a luxury river cruise<\/a> hosted by the country\u2019s Environment Minister, Eve Bazaiba. Many of them represent donor countries from the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI<\/a>), in the final stretch of negotiating an estimated $1 billion ten-year DRC forest protection program. The Minister is wining and dining them to push her top priority: the lifting of a 2002 ban on the awarding of new logging concessions.<\/p>\n\n

The decision to lift the ban was approved this July by the Council of Ministers, presided by Pr\u00e9sident F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, but an implementation decree is yet to be signed. In April, at Joe Biden\u2019s Leaders Summit on Climate, Congo\u2019s president had pledged<\/a> to stop deforestation and increase forest cover by 8%.<\/p>\n\n

Minister Bazaiba has responded to a letter<\/a> from local and international environmental and human rights groups by saying<\/a> she has no lessons to learn from NGOs. She calls criticism of the lifting of the moratorium \u201cbeyond daring for the 21st century\u201d; the Ministry labels critics \u201cthe beneficiaries of imperialists<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The lifting of the moratorium could open some 70 million hectares to logging<\/a> \u2013 an area roughly the size of France \u2013 and its impacts would be catastrophic. With or without a \u201csustainability<\/a>\u201d label, the logging of the Congo Basin is a nightmare for the rule of law and a constant threat to local people. <\/p>\n\n

For millions of people who depend on the forest for their livelihoods, including Indigenous Peoples, selling it off to multinationals has meant land grabs, displacement<\/a> and destitution<\/a>. And bulldozing the rainforest will likely mean less rain. The Congo Basin forest is estimated<\/a> to contribute more than half of the annual precipitation in Sub-Saharan Africa, an area already facing<\/a> a plethora of droughts and extreme heat waves.<\/p>\n\n

One of the things the EU ambassadors the Minister is schmoozing ought to remind her is that no one appears to know exactly who these multinationals are. Nearly six months after the launch of an EU-funded legal review of logging titles, the lead auditor reported this month that his team still hasn\u2019t been able to pull together a list of titles\u2026 He hasn\u2019t yet glimpsed a \u201cso-called existing\u201d list; what there is is \u201cvery incomplete.\u201d \u00c8ve Bazaiba took her time to sign the team\u2019s mission order, until two months after <\/em>an intervention by the EU ambassador.<\/p>\n\n

Over 40 Congolese and international NGOs are still waiting for a reply to their 23 September letter<\/a> to donors, warning of the impending catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n

In the letter they were told that lifting the moratorium in DRC, home to about 60 per cent of the Congo Basin forest, would remove the last shreds of credibility from COP15 on biodiversity in Kunming<\/a> and from COP26 on climate in Glasgow<\/a>. The Congo Basin forest has more than 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species<\/a>, including forest elephants, lowland gorillas, bonobos, and okapi. Its vegetation is estimated<\/a> to contain between 25-30 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to about four years of global anthropogenic emissions of CO2. Increased logging might mean greater risk of yet another pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Just how out of it are the donors? Do they really have any clue what the current logging scene is in Congo?<\/p>\n\n

Over the years, one Minister after another has violated the moratorium, gratifying senior military \u2013 including an army general under EU and US sanctions for human rights abuses \u2013 and other makeshift \u201clogging\u201d firms.<\/p>\n\n

Ms. Bazaiba\u2019s predecessor, Claude Nyamugabo, is facing a legal challenge<\/a> from Congolese civil society organisations for transferring<\/a> two million hectares of illegally allocated concessions to Chinese front companies. <\/p>\n\n

But by far the most surreal example of what the lifting of the moratorium would mean is last year\u2019s award of six so-called \u201cconservation\u201d concessions<\/a>, covering an area half the size of Belgium, to a company called Tradelink. <\/p>\n\n

The only shareholder of the firm that a Greenpeace Africa investigation has been able to identify is Aleksandar Voukovitch, a Belgian expat who\u2019s made his career in mining, oil and timber. He would appear to have no experience in conservation, and even less in the area of forest-rights protection. In September, the Minister missed the legal deadline to respond to an administrative complaint seeking the cancellation of his contracts. The national Institute for Nature Conservation, ICCN, has confirmed<\/a> they were awarded illegally, without its knowledge. The governor of Tshuapa province has also demanded their cancellation.<\/p>\n\n

The same Ministry that\u2019s accusing national and international NGOs of being imperialist stooges has remained silent about what\u2019s probably the biggest handover of territory to Belgian interests since independence. <\/p>\n\n

Finally, over a year after the award of the Tradelink contracts \u2013 and, by sheer coincidence, two weeks before COP26 — President Tshisekedi ordered<\/a> their suspension, as well as that of all other \u201cdubious\u201d forest concessions. Better late than never, but it would appear that the sudden interest in good \u201cforest governance\u201d may simply be meant to reassure donors that the moratorium can now be safely jettisoned. No sign yet of the opening of a legal investigation to determine the responsibility of the various parties.<\/p>\n\n

Are donors in the process of green lighting the lifting of the moratorium even as we speak? Will the EU taxpayer be financing a free-for-all for EU and Chinese multinationals? Now\u2019s the time for the weekend river cruisers to take a position \u2013 a public one.<\/p>\n\n

But the one billion dollar question isn\u2019t whether foreign governments will tacitly support all of the above or simply walk away. There\u2019s a far better path for investment<\/a> for CAFI and other donors too. <\/p>\n\n

The most effective and just form of forest protection is supporting the land rights of Indigenous People and local communities. In areas designated as community forest concessions<\/a>, the rate of deforestation is significantly lower<\/a> than the national average and almost 50 per cent lower than in logging concessions. Community forest concessions also provide a structure that is inclusive and democratic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The health of our planet requires ending, rather than endlessly recycling, the colonial concession system so beautifully incarnated by Tradelink. The DRC government and CAFI must extend the moratorium on new logging and invest in the protection of forest rights. They must finally decide to leave the rainforest to its rightful indigenous owners. <\/p>\n\n

WC: 1050<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Remy Zahiga<\/strong> is a Congolese climate activist. <\/em>
Jennifer Morgan<\/strong> is the Executive Director of Greenpeace International. <\/em>
Martin Kaiser<\/strong> is the Executive Director of Greenpeace Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST RENEWED LOGGING<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCongo Basin Forest\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n Get Involved\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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