Congolese groups denounce disinformation campaign by industrial logging industry
30 May 2008
During the French environment minister's recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congolese civil society organizations released a statement drawing attention to the alarming situation in the Congo forests and the destructive activities of logging companies.
"The French Minister is misinformed" - "Civil society sounds the alarm bells" - "Pygmy communities denounce industrial logging of the Congolese forests." These were some of the headlines in the Congolese press following the French Environment Minister F. Borloo's visit last week to Kinshasa.
Congolese civil society organizations released a statement, drawing attention to the alarming situation of the Congo forests and the destructive activities of logging companies. The NGOs assert that the World Bank-inspired moratorium on new logging titles is being violated "on a daily basis" and that logging companies are cutting down the forest "at a dizzying speed" ever since the legality review of existing titles has started. They point to the desperate situation of forest dependent communities and indigenous peoples who are increasingly suffering from forest exploitation and call on the French government to promote alternatives to industrial logging. The groups also denounce the disinformation campaign launched by the logging industry and its advocates "to make the French minister believe that all is well with industrial timber production in the DRC".
The so-called "conversion process" of logging titles, initiated and financed by the World Bank, will come to a close this year, after an inter-ministerial commission appointed by the government will review all 156 titles submitted by the companies. The process has been widely criticized as inherently flawed, and Congolese groups have expressed particular disappointment with the fact that social and environmental criteria have been excluded from the review. Over a hundred titles covering 15 million hectares of forest have been handed out to logging companies in breach of the moratorium.
In April 2008, Congolese and International NGOs sent a letter to the DRC Minister of Environment, recommending that the government maintain and extend the May 2002 moratorium on new logging titles to include a full moratorium on all industrial-scale logging. This moratorium should be maintained until full governance capacity is in place to effectively monitor and control the logging industry, and until a participatory land use plan has been developed.
The legality review is seen as a litmus test for the DRC government and the international donor community to determine whether they are ready to follow through on cracking down on destructive logging and to develop socially and environmentally sound alternatives to lift people out of poverty, while protecting the second largest rainforest of the world.
The letter can be viewed here:
Press Release from Congolese Civil Society on the Occasion of the Visit of the French Environment Minister in DR Congo
Congolese civil society is interested in the French Environment Minister Mr. Jean-Louis Borloo’s visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Everyone is aware of the Congo Basin forests’ role in protecting the global climate: they are the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon.
Everyone is also aware of the alarming rate of deforestation of DRC forests since 2001 until now. The logging companies are caught in a blind race, taking advantage of the Congolese forest administration’s weaknesses, looting the Congolese forests without free, prior and informed consent of local communities and indigenous Pygmies and without taking into account the development imperatives of communities living in abject poverty. They do not care about economic sustainability, and even less about ecological and social sustainability, without which sustainable forest management is impossible.
Without complacency, Congolese civil society denounces all the members of international organizations and the private sector who strive to give false and truncated information to the French Minister to have him believe that the industrial timber production in the DRC is done in a sustainable manner and reconciles all users’ divergent interests.
Congolese civil society asserts, without wavering, that since the announcement of the legal review, the forests of the DRC are being savagely cut at a dizzying speed. Industrial timber production has grown to such alarming proportions that the survival of communities living in and of the forest, and global climate protection are already greatly suffering. The moratorium on the allocation of new logging concessions is violated on a daily basis, leaving the legal concession review on a slippery slope, with the potential to become a de facto forest zoning process despite the launch of the national workshop on forest land use planning on May 8 to 10 2008.
Congolese civil society denounces the statements of some international organizations who falsely assert that all is well with industrial timber production in the DRC and that the rights of local communities and indigenous Pygmies are respected.
Congolese civil society also denounces with verve all the delaying tactics designed to hide the reality and ignore the suffering of millions of Congolese people affected by savage exploitation of the forests, which local communities and indigenous pygmies, who are constantly requesting compensation, depend upon.
Congolese civil society denounced the marginalization tactics it was subjected to during the meeting with the French Minister in Kinshasa on May 23 2008: it only had a single representative to the meeting while the Congolese administration, International organizations and the private sector were widely represented.
In light of this situation, Congolese Civil Society asks the French government to:
- Insist on respecting the moratorium on the allocation of new logging concessions to avoid it becoming de facto land use planning;
- Accompany the legal review of forest titles to ensure it effectively takes into consideration the rights of forest-dwelling communities;
- Accompany the land use planning process in the DRC launched by the national workshop, last held from May 8 to 10 in Kinshasa;
- Strengthen the capacity of the forestry administration at central, provincial and civil society levels.
- Promote alternatives to industrial timber production by contributing to innovative financing mechanisms.
Kinshasa, May 24, 2008.
For Congolese civil society,
1. Réseau Ressources Naturelles (RRN)
2. Coalition des Réseaux des ONGs de l’Environnement (CRON)
3. Organisation Concertée des Ecologistes et Amis de la Nature (OCEAN)
4. Ligue Nationale des Associations Autochtones Pygmées au Congo (LINAPYCO)
5. Centre International pour la Défense des Droits des Peuples de la Forêt Batswa (CIDB)
6. Maniema Libertés (MALI)
7. Réseau des Associations Autochtones Pygmées (RAPY)
8. Dynamique des Groupes Autochtones en RDC (DGA)
9. Dignité Pygmée (DIPY)
10. Organisation d’Accompagnement et d’Appui aux Pygmées (OSAPY)
11. Great Apeace of Congo Center (GACC)
More information about logging in the DRC