Illegal Loggers Mutilating Forests

Illegal Loggers Mutilating Forests



Feb 2007 - Delegates from 
the Congolese government, donor community and civil society 
will meet next week in Brussels to discuss the sustainable 
management of the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 
DRC. Millions of acres of the second largest rainforest in the 
world after the Amazon, are being illegally logged, 
nongovernmental organizations report. 
Greenpeace warns that more than 21 million hectares (81,080 
square miles) of rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo are now illegally logged, an area nearly seven times the 
size of Belgium. 
Based on violations of a 2002 government moratorium on 
allocation, extension and renewal of logging titles, local and 
international environmental groups are demanding revocation of 
all titles granted after the moratorium was imposed. 
"Logging companies promise us wonders: work, schools, 
hospitals, but actually, they seem to be only interested in 
their own short term profits," said Pasteur Matthieu Yela 
Bonketo, coordinator of CEDEN, a Congolese NGO in Equateur 
province who will attend the Brussels conference. 
Logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Timber companies 
carve into unlogged frontier forests seeking the few valuable 
trees scattered across the landscape. 
"What will happen when our forests have been emptied? They 
will leave and we'll be the ones left with damaged roads, 
schools with no roofs and hospitals without medicine," Bonketo 
said. 
The Congo rainforest is home to numerous communities of Twa 
"pygmies" and Bantus. 
"Industrial logging doesn't bring benefits," said Bonketo. 
"The 'pygmies' who totally depend on our forests and the local 
communities who live in them are suffering because of the 
presence of the industry." 
Prince Philip of Belgium will attend the Brussels conference, 
which features speeches by DRC Environment, Water and Forests 
Minister Didace Pembe Bokiaga, and Belgian Environment 
Minister Bruno Tobback. 
Speakers from the British, French, and Cameroon governments, 
the World Bank, and many Congolese and American NGOs will 
address conference delegates. 
Armand De Decker of the Belgian Ministry of Development 
Cooperation will open and close the conference. 
In introductory remarks De Decker tied the preservation of the 
rainforest to the eradication of poverty, saying, "Even though 
the Congolese rainforest must be saved in the first place for 
its own sake and because it is one of the last 'natural lungs' 
of our planet, it is also a source of wealth for the local 
population – a source of wealth that needs to be protected and 
developed." 
Armand De Decker represents the Belgian Ministry of 
Development Cooperation 
De Decker envisions "preferentially involving the villages in 
sensible forest area management" in zones allowing a variety 
of activities around the forest and, "in some cases, even 
within the forest." Nature conservation and tourism, 
agricultural production and agriculture operations might be 
encouraged, he said. 
Greenpeace is demanding that the DRC government, World Bank, 
and other stakeholders "take urgent action" to stop the 
expansion of the logging industry in Congo rainforests, and to 
fund alternatives to deforestation, "in the face of ongoing 
illegal forest operations and climate change." 
Greenpeace research released Friday exposes the activities of 
one company that has breached the 2002 moratorium. 
Industries de Transformation de Bois, ITB, is actively logging 
in the Tumba Lake region, with two logging permits covering 
726,489 acres (1,135 square miles) of forests, Greenpeace 
reports. Both permits were issued after the moratorium was 
enacted. 
"ITB logs with no forest management plan as it extracts high 
value species such as wenge for export to the European 
market," Greenpeace claims. 
The dark decorative wood of the wenge tree, Millettia 
laurentii, is in demand for flooring, paneling, countertops 
and chessboards. 
Greenpeace is demanding that all forest titles allocated in 
breach of the 2002 moratorium, including ITB's, be canceled 
through the ongoing legality review of all logging titles and 
an extension of the moratorium. 
"We now need new funding mechanisms from donors to stop 
deforestation in the Congo," said Stephan Van Praet, 
Greenpeace International Africa Forest Campaign co-ordinator. 
ITB, a subsidiary of Bois Tropicaux d’Afrique, was one of 
eight signatories of the Interafrican Forest Industries 
Association, IFIA, code of conduct at the Conference on Dense 
and Humid Central African Ecosystems held in the DRC in June 
2002. 
A representative of the IFIA will address delegates to the 
Brussels conference on the contribution of the private sector 
towards sustainable forest management in the DRC. 
"The signatory forest harvesting companies of this code share 
the rest of humanities concern for the protection of the 
forest ecosystem and are anxious to preserve it," they 
declared. 
The signatories express their concerns about the burning of 
the forest for agriculture and the poaching of wildlife for 
bushmeat. ITB and the other companies pledged to discourage 
their employees, subcontractors and haulers from "poaching and 
hunting for profit." 
But NGOs and government leaders say that logging is not being 
conducted sustainably. Until comprehensive land use planning 
and sufficient governance capacity is in place in DRC forest 
sector, they say consideration cannot be given to granting 
logging titles. 
In Cannes on February 15, French President Jacques Chirac told 
the 24th Africa-France summit that the moratorium on the 
development of primary forests in the Congo Basin should be 
extended, "until the Congolese government acquires the means 
to oversee and ensure a sustainable development of forests." 
At the Brussels conference, WWF, the global conservation 
organization, will present the case for forest certification 
in the DRC as one method of achieving a sustainable and 
diversified use of the country's forest resources. The group 
was instrumental in the creation of the Forest Stewardship 
Council, a worldwide certification organization. 
Two indigenous Congolese groups will present their views, and 
the National Federation of Timber Traders will express the 
interest of the Belgian private sector in sustainable timber. 
An endangered bonobo in a tree in the DRC, their only habitat. 
This great ape is said to be the closest relative to human 
beings. 
Belgian primatologist Jef Dupain of the African Wildlife 
Foundation will speak on conservation of the endangered 
bonobo, one of the great apes. Based in Kinshasa, Dupain 
starred in the film "The Last Great Ape," featured this month 
on the television program NOVA. The bonobo is only found in 
the DRC and lives mainly in the tall, dense tropical forest 
canopy. 
Critical habitat for the bonobo and other imperiled species 
such as forest elephants and hippopotamus, the Congo 
rainforest is considered to be a priority region for 
conservation. 
There are at least 11,000 identified plant species in the 
country, of which 3,200 are endemic to the DRC. 
The DRC contains 1,352,070 square kilometers (522,037 miles) 
of natural forests, representing six percent of the world’s 
tropical forests and more than 47 percent of Africa’s tropical 
forest areas. It is seen as an important sink for the 
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which is responsible for global 
warming. 

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