{"id":549,"date":"2018-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/uncategorized\/549\/180000-people-call-on-the-president-of-cameroon-to-end-sgsoc-palm-oil-plantation\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:22:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:22:45","slug":"democratic-republic-of-congo-government-must-halt-plans-to-open-up-the-worlds-second-largest-rainforest-to-loggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/549\/democratic-republic-of-congo-government-must-halt-plans-to-open-up-the-worlds-second-largest-rainforest-to-loggers\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Republic of Congo government must halt plans to open up the world\u2019s second largest rainforest to loggers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Over 50 environmental, conservation and human rights organisations are calling on the international community urgently to intervene to help protect the vast rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), following announcements by the country\u2019s Environment Ministry that they intend to lift a legal moratorium on the allocation of new areas of forest for large-scale logging.<\/div>\n
\n

DRC\u2019s Environment Ministry stated this week that plans were underway for lifting of the 16-year\u00a0long moratorium on the allocation of new logging concessions in the world\u2019s second largest tropical\u00a0rainforest. Simultaneously, a revision of the country\u2019s Forest Code, understood to now be at an\u00a0advanced stage, has been secretly underway without the involvement of key stakeholders including\u00a0NGOs, and is likely to see weakening of the controls over future logging activities. Up to 75 million\u00a0hectares of pristine rainforest could be at risk, an area larger than the size of France. This is the\u00a0latest in a series of threats by DRC\u2019s government to open its forests to large scale logging.<\/p>\n

Environmental organisations have told key donor governments and agencies such as Norway, UK,\u00a0France, the US, Germany and the World Bank that their respective programmes aimed at protecting\u00a0DRC\u2019s forests would be threatened by the lifting of the moratorium, which \u201cwill have catastrophic\u00a0environmental, social and climatic impacts\u201d and will likely promote corruption and conflict [1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jo Blackman, Campaign Leader at Global Witness, said, \u201cAny moves to lift the moratorium before \u00a0elections could see forests become the next victim of a scramble for DRC\u2019s natural resources.\u00a0Impunity is rife in the forest sector and DRC is facing increasing insecurity and political instability.\u00a0Any expansion of industrial logging would have irreversible damage on the forest, its communities\u00a0and the global climate.<\/p>\n

The international NGOs have called on international donors immediately to suspend their funding to\u00a0the DRC government for the forest sector until they receive guarantees that the moratorium will\u00a0remain in place and that the concessions awarded in breach of the moratorium are cancelled and\u00a0sanctions are taken against those involved in allocations in breach of the moratorium.<\/p>\n

Simon Counsell, Executive Director the Rainforest Foundation UK said: \u201cThe lifting of the logging\u00a0moratorium in DRC would drive a coach and horses through the country\u2019s apparent commitments to\u00a0reducing its carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation. Carbon emissions from forests\u00a0are likely to soar, and the international community must look closely at whether funding REDD\u00a0programmes is now viable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Victorine Che Thoener, Project Leader Congo Basin Forests at Greenpeace added, \u201cAwarding large-scale industrial logging concessions now means selling off among the world\u2019s most environmentally\u00a0rich areas for short-sighted economic interests of a few individuals. Before the government can\u00a0credibly demonstrate that they have the well-being of the Congolese people and the forest in mind,\u00a0lifting this moratorium is both morally and economically unjustifiable. \u201d<\/p>\n

Media contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

jblackman@globalwitness.org