Arctic Sunrise arriving at the DRC port of Matadi
Today we're celebrating the opening of a new Greenpeace office in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hurrah! We marked the occasion by inviting Congolese officials aboard the Arctic Sunrise, which is currently docked in Matadi, the country's principal port for timber exports.
This is a crucial time for the Congo rainforest, the world's second largest, as the DRC's government is the final stages of reviewing over 150 land titles, which cover millions of hectares of forest. While a number of titles were recently rejected by the government, the current 'appeals process' could see many of them returned to their former owners, the logging companies. The logging industry is using the present economic downturn to pressurise the govrnment to allow them to keep hold of (and exploit) what effectively amounts to millions of hectares of forest, and carry on business as usual.
As Greenpeace Africa policy advisor René Ngongo says, "the Congolese government must not give into pressure from the logging industry, which is currently doing all it can to highjack the legality process. Clearly what the industry wants is to keep control of some 10 million additional hectares of illegally acquired forest... those who exploit the forests are expecting the legality review to approve the greatest number of logging concessions possible."
With over 60 per cent of the DRC's population directly or indirectly dependent on the country's forests for subsistence, it's critical that the government protects them.
The next UN climate talks, due to take place in Posnan, Poland from December 1 – 12 could play a vital role in this. One of the meeting's principal goals will be to discuss ways to create a mechanism to finance the fight against greenhouse gas emissions caused by the deforestation and degradation of tropical forests. At that meeting we will be promoting our 'Forests for Climate' financing mechanism, which is designed to generate substantial sums of money to protect rainforests while also protecting the rights of their populations, protecting biodiversity and fighting climate change.
