DRC:
Threat to rainforests gain momentum
The Congo rainforests of central Africa
are, after the Amazon, the second largest rainforest on Earth
and a major biodiversity hotspot: Two-thirds of the forest lies
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) -- still divided by
a vicious civil war fuelled by competition for control over natural
resources, and that claimed 3.5 million lives. About
40 million people of DRC
depend on the rainforests for their very survival.
However, the World Bank -- by far the
largest creditor to the DRC -- is encouraging with its support
the government plans of a massive expansion of industrial logging.
Those plans will unleash a wave of destruction of DRC's rainforest
which are now allocated to the logging industry which is taking
advantage of continued legal uncertainty and a weak government.
The rainforest is being sold off under
the argument that it will alleviate poverty in one of the poorest
countries on Earth but it is tantamount to a death sentence for
the forest and forest dependent people. The Twa, Mbuti and Aka
'Pygmies', and the Bantu people have lived in the Congo's forests
for thousands of years surviving by hunting and gathering wild
foods. They know how to protect the plants, animals and ecosystems
of the rainforest. But they don’t know what big business has in
store for them.
In exchange for timber worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars, logging companies are giving communities
gifts such as crates of beer worth less than $100, and make promises
to build schools and hospitals. These promises rarely fulfilled
and there are reports that intimidation tactics are used against
people who try to protest.
The DRC Government introduced a moratorium
in 2002 forbidding the allocation, extension and renewal of logging
titles. But despite the original moratorium being reaffirmed by
Presidential decree, it has been widely ignored, including by
the World Bank and other credit institutions that support this
plan.
More than 150 contracts covering an
area of rainforest of around 21 million hectares (over 51 million
acres) have been signed with 20 companies over the past three
years. Many are believed to have been illegally allocated in 2002
by a transition government emerging from a decade of civil
wars and are in defiance of a World Bank moratorium.
The Rainforest Foundation has been warning
for the last three years that large-scale logging could spark
massive environmental problems, fuel conflict with people living
in the forest, and spread corruption as politicians, officials
and warlords cash in on a ‘timber bonanza’. Greenpeace recently
joined the Rainforest Foundation’s Stop the Carve-Up of the Congo
campaign and released a 100-page study. Compiled by Greenpeace
International working with Congolese ecological and human rights
groups “Carving Up the Congo” reports that the companies are mainly
from Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Singapore and the US, and they
will extract African teak which is widely used for flooring, furniture
and doors in Britain.
To gain access to the forests for the
next 25 years, the European companies have made agreements
with village chiefs, offering bags of salt, machetes and bicycles,
and in some cases promised to build rudimentary schools,
the report states.
International groups called for at least
a 10-year freeze on the allocation of new areas for timber cutting
in the Congo. The Rainforest Foundation is calling now for a G-8
declaration on the importance of the Congo rainforests and the
role they play in combating climate change. “We will keep up the
momentum at the G-8 meeting of the most wealthy nations in June
to maintain the focus on the world’s last great rainforest frontier,”
said Simon Counsell, from The Rainforest Foundation.
Article
based on: “Plight of Congo forests grabs world attention”, The
Rainforest Foundation,
http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-Plight%20o
f%20Congo%20forests%20grabs%20world%20attention; “Rainforest
destruction in Africa”, Greenpeace,
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/congo-report-110407;
“Selling off the rainforest - a modern-day scandal”, John Vidal
in Kisangani, April 11, 2007, The Guardian; “Report From The Congo
Rainforest”, Cath Long, The Rainforest Foundation,
http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-Report%20from%20the%20Congo%20Rainforest
