FEATURE-Congo's rainforest faces danger as loggers return
29 Oct 2004 01:03:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By David Lewis
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Table of Contents
Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [citation]
News [updates]
Congo guerillas agree to protect rare gorillas -- 1/24/2007
Rebels in eastern Congo have agreed to stop hunting mountain gorillas according to a report from the Associated Press.
Ebola kills thousands of gorillas in African park -- 12/7/2006
The Ebola virus, a nasty hemorrhagic fever that causes massive organ failure and bleeding, is killing thousands of endangered gorillas across Central African forests according to new research published in the journal Science. While the findings suggests that even in strictly protected wildlife sanctuaries gorillas are not safe, the research provides insight on how to control Ebola outbreaks among wild gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
War-torn Congo Announces Two New Parks -- 9/18/2006
The Minister of Forestry Economy of the Republic of Congo announced today plans to create two new protected areas that together could be larger than Yellowstone National Park, spanning nearly one million hectares (3,800 square miles). Instead of bison and elk, these new protected areas contain elephants, chimpanzees, hippos, crocodiles, and some of the highest densities of gorillas on earth. The announcement was made by Minister Henri Djombo and officials from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at the United Nations.
When elephants attack. Surviving an elephant charge in the Congo rainforest of Gabon -- 6/26/2006
The elephant charges. The ground trembles. Hearts racing, we are now sprinting through the forest dodging vegetation as the elephant plows right through it. The problem with being chased by an elephant, aside from their obvious size advantage, is they can run faster than you. While wild elephants can be dangerous animals under the right circumstances, other creatures are responsible for more deaths in Africa. Topping the list is the hippo, whose penchant for capsizing canoes that come too close results in the dumping of passengers who often can't swim. Buffalo, crocodiles, and lions are directly responsible for more deaths and injuries.
Mammals in war-torn Virunga National Park recovering finds WCS survey -- 6/20/2006
A recent wildlife census conducted in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revealed that several species of large mammal are now recovering from a decade of civil war and rampant poaching.
Roads tied to bushmeat hunting in Africa -- 5/9/2006
A new study ties the presence of roads to bushmeat hunting in the Congo rainforest and also raises important questions on global conservation approaches. The research suggests that even moderate hunting pressure can significantly affect the structure of mammal communities in central Africa. The researchers, lead by William F. Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, raise an interesting point with considerably wider implications for global conservation efforts, arguing that multinational corporations can be particularly sensitive to criticism on their environmental policy and, as a result, can actually serve as competent stewards of the environment is some cases. Thus pressure exerted by green groups on large corporations may be an effective means for achieving conservation goals.
Bonobo chimp population in Congo falls 95% since 1984 -- 3/6/2006
Scientists are struggling to save the fast-disappearing bonobo, the gentle "hippie chimp" known for resolving squabbles through sex rather than violence.
Congo Pygmies Losing Fight for Their Forests -- 3/6/2006
Pygmy chief Mbomba Bokenu says he may soon let loggers cut his people's forests, and all he expects in return are soap and a few bags of salt.
Congo's forests get some relief from World Bank grant -- 12/15/2005
Last week the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) received a $90-million grant from the World Bank to support the central African country's transition from instability and civil war. The grant addresses key areas in DRC's forestry sector and alleviates some of the concerns expressed by environmentalists shortly before the resolution was passed.
Congo rainforest - 600,000 sq km slated for logging -- 12/5/2005
The World Bank will meet Thursday to decide whether it will fund large-scale logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo's rainforests. The country, home to the second largest rainforest in the world after Brazil, is emerging from years of civil strife which resulted in the deaths of some 3.8 million people from violence and disease.
US ranks #7 in global forest loss, Cambodia has worst deforestation rate -- 11/16/2005
Cambodia has the world's highest deforestation rate, Brazil loses the largest area of forest annually, and Congo consumes more bushmeat than any other tropical country. These are among the findings from mongabay.com's analysis of new deforestation figures from the United Nations.
Hunting ban threatens Congo forest dwellers -- 10/31/2005
A blanket ban on hunting in the Republic of Congo has made life even more difficult for the Baka community, an indigenous hunter-gatherer group living in the rain forests near the timber-concession areas in the north of the country.
Congo's Kabila calls for rainforest protection -- 10/30/2005
The world's second largest rainforest stands a greater chance of being protected after Congo's president finally backed a largely ignored ban on new logging, conservation group Greenpeace said on Friday.
Congo gorillas survive war, survey finds higher count than expected -- 9/30/2005
New scientific surveys by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have revealed some encouraging news about the status of the "eastern lowland" gorilla, known more properly as Grauer's gorilla.
Recommended Reading
+ In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michela Wrong
+ The Last Hero by Peter Forbath
+ The River Congo by Peter Forbath
+ Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
+ Facing the Congo by Jeffrey Tayler
+ The Troubled Heart of Africa by Robert B. Edgerton
+ The Forest People by Colin Turnbull
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YAYOLO, Congo, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Parked neatly side by side in a quiet clearing in the heart of Africa's largest rainforest, the two bright yellow bulldozers look absurdly out of place.
Yet they do not attract the slightest attention. They have been there for more than five years, abandoned since the latest in a string of wars broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and are ignored by dozens of tiny, barefoot, half-naked children.
A mechanic in blue overalls tinkers with the unused engines in the evening light, making local village head Bwenge La fear the return of the loggers who left them behind.
"The loggers brought these here to start work but before they could go anywhere, there was the war, so they have not moved. But the people have come to repair the machines so they will soon cut the trees," he said.
"I've seen what they have done elsewhere, so I wonder what we will really get out of this. They haven't even paid me to protect these machines during the war," said La, head of Yayolo in Congo's northwestern Equateur province.
As Congo tries to consolidate peace after a five-year war, the government, private companies and foreign donors are all keen to find ways of tapping into the vast resources of timber in Africa's third-largest country.
With nearly 90 million hectares (222 million acres) of woodland, it has the world's second largest rainforest, half of Africa's total.
A new forestry code aimed at regulating the timber business to the benefit of Congo's government and people rather than just the businesses involved is in the process of being implemented.
NEW CODE, OLD CONCERNS
In theory, the code passed in 2002 should ensure that civil society and local populations have a say in how Congo's forests are carved up.
Logging concessions will be distributed by public auctions and 40 percent of the revenue earned by the government must be returned to the communities whose trees were felled.
The code also calls on companies to respect the rights of communities living in the forests, primarily by signing agreements on what benefits they will provide and compensating groups adversely affected by their work.
Experts who have seen forests opened up elsewhere in Africa are sceptical that the code will be followed in a country where corruption is rife and the government still has little control over its own natural resources.
"From our experiences in places like Cameroon, we have clearly proved that these things are not robust enough to beat the corrupt system," said Filip Verbelen, a forestry campaigner for the international environmental group Greenpeace.
Activists say Cameroon has been unable to police its forestry laws. Timber companies have cut down areas of forest meant to be set aside for local communities and removing more timber than agreed from their own concessions.
Verbelen believes that promises of social, environmental and economic development are seldom fulfilled -- only a tiny fraction of the revenue reaches the state treasury and an even smaller amount gets back to the community.
"No one can deny the need for exploitation for development but we have to put some controls on," he said.
If controls are not imposed and strictly monitored in the next two or three years, Congo will have lost the chance to harvest its wood sustainably, he said.
Many Congolese villagers living in areas where logging companies already operate tend to agree, complaining about broken promises from the firms and corrupt local authorities.
"We have asked the loggers to build a school and a hospital. We have also asked for a mill to be put in place so our people can have some work," said Pierre Koleka, the head of the Bolongo-Busuwa community, also in Equateur province.
"But we get nothing. And the authorities don't help us. When we demonstrate, they just help the loggers. We have all this wood, but when our people die, we have to bury them in mats, rather than coffins."
RUSH TO THE RAINFOREST
Those pushing for the forestry sector to be opened up are also very aware of the challenges.
A draft World Bank commissioned report on the sector says that "forests have been the object of grabbing by national elites and international companies anxious to secure rents as the country's infrastructure and security improve".
It says that by 2002 over 65 percent of the country's forests had been divided into concessions that had been acquired at practically no cost by fake companies speculating on subcontracting to future investors.
The report credits the government with revoking some concessions and imposing a moratorium on new ones. But it also indicates the freeze was often ignored, with 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of new logging rights granted in the year after it was imposed.
The government insists its detractors are too pessimistic and should give the new system time.
"Rather than make comparisons, we can learn lessons from places like Cameroon," said Richard Tambwe, the Environment Ministry's head of forest management. "If there are corrupt people, we will root them out. We need to go step by stepso everyone trusts the new system."
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