FEATURE-Congo's rainforest faces danger as loggers return
29 Oct 2004 01:03:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By David Lewis
|
Table of Contents
Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [citation]
News [updates]
Rainforests absorb 20% of emissions annually
(02/19/2009)
Undisturbed tropical forests are absorbing nearly a fifth of carbon dioxide released annually by the burning of fossil fuels, according to an analysis of 40 years of data from rainforests in the Central African country of Gabon. Writing in the journal Nature, Simon Lewis and colleagues report that natural forests are an immense carbon sink, helping slow the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels.
Mountain gorilla population in DR Congo increases 12.5%
(01/27/2009)
The population of critically endangered mountain gorillas in Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park increased 12.5 percent in the past 16 months according to a census conducted by the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN). 81 gorillas now live permanently in the park, up from 72 in August 2007.
Congo cancels logging contracts covering 13M hectares
(01/21/2009)
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) canceled nearly 60 percent of the country's timber contracts following a review of 156 logging concessions granted in recent years, reports Reuters. The anti-corruption probe found that 91 deals covering nearly 13 million of hectares of forest were granted under questionable circumstances or during a moratorium on logging contracts following the 1998-2003 civil war.
Commercial bushmeat trade is devastating wildlife
(09/15/2008)
Commercial killing of rainforest wildlife is putting biodiversity at risk and reducing sources of protein for rural populations, warns a new report from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB).
Markets could save rainforests: an interview with Andrew Mitchell
(08/17/2008)
Markets may soon value rainforests as living entities rather than for just the commodities produced when they are cut down, said a tropical forest researcher speaking in June at a conservation biology conference in the South American country of Suriname. Andrew Mitchell, founder and director of the London-based Global Canopy Program (GCP), said he is encouraged by signs that investors are beginning to look at the value of services afforded by healthy forests.
Britain, Norway commit $210 million towards Congo rainforest conservation
(06/24/2008)
The governments of Britain and Norway last week announced a $211 million (108 million) initiative to conserve rainforests in the Congo Basin. The plan calls for the use of an advanced satellite camera to monitor deforestation in the region and funding for community-based conservation projects.
Does logging contribute to AIDS deaths in Africa?
(06/14/2008)
Logging activities in tropical Africa may pose hidden health risks to wildlife and humans according to a veterinary pathobiologist speaking at a scientific conference in Paramaribo, Suriname.
Congo pygmies use GPS to map eco-certified timber concession
(05/29/2008)
Loggers have teamed with indigenous Pygmies to establish the largest ever eco-certified logging scheme.
Forest carbon credits could guide development in Congo
(05/28/2008)
An initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by offering carbon credits to countries that reduce deforestation may be one of the best mechanisms for promoting sustainable development in Central Africa says a remote sensing expert from the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC). Dr. Nadine Laporte, an associate scientist with WHRC who uses remote sensing to analyze land use change in Africa, says that REDD could protect forests, safeguard biodiversity, and improve rural livelihoods in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other Central African nations.
Indigenous peoples of Congo map their forests with GPS in an effort to save them
(04/13/2008)
This week over five hundred villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo's rainforest will employ GPS technology to map their forests in an effort to preserve their territory from logging companies.
Biochar fund to fight hunger, energy poverty, deforestation, and global warming
(03/10/2008)
Biopact, a leading bioenergy web site, has announced the creation of a "Biochar Fund" to help poor farmers improve their quality of life without hurting the environment.
Returns from carbon offsets could beat palm oil in Congo DRC
(12/04/2007)
A proposal to pay the Democratic of Congo (DRC) for reducing deforestation could add 15-50 percent to the amount of international aid given to the warn-torn country, reports a new study published by scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC). The funds would help alleviate rural poverty while cutting emissions of greenhouse gases and protecting threatened biodiversity.
Logging roads rapidly expanding in Congo rainforest
(06/07/2007)
Logging roads are rapidly expanding in the Congo rainforest, report researchers who have constructed the first satellite-based maps of road construction in Central Africa. The authors say the work will help conservation agencies, governments, and scientists better understand how the expansion of logging is impacting the forest, its inhabitants, and global climate.
Illegal logging threatens Congo's forests, global climate
(04/11/2007)
Despite government and World Bank assurances to the contrary. a new report from Greenpeace finds that illegal logging is rampant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The report, Carving up the Congo, reveals that in spite of a 2002 moratorium on new logging, over 15 million hectares of rainforest have been concessioned to loggers with little regard to the environmental impact or compensation to affected communities.
Recommended Reading
+ Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo by Kate Jackson
+ 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
|
|
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."
CONTENT COPYRIGHT Reuters. THIS CONTENT IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.
mongabay.com users agree to the following as a condition for use of this material:
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made
available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental issues. This constitutes a
'fair use' of any such copyrighted
material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107
.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your
own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
|
