DR Congo
A beacon of hope for Congo’s rainforests: DRC government adopts national strategy on community forests
A mother and child in Nzondo community, Equateur, DRC. Nzondo is one of several communities applying for a Community Forest Concession | Photo credit: Claire Parfondry, RFUK In a landmark decision, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Environment Ministry has adopted the country’s first National Strategy on community forestry, marking the launch of a five-year … Read more
A National Strategy for Community Forestry in Democratic Republic of Congo
This briefing note outlines the key elements of the new National Strategy on Community Forestry in DRC, and gives a concise overview of the Roundtable process that has led to the creation of this landmark document, as well as recommendations on next steps.
Environmental charities call on DRC government to halt plans to open up the world’s second largest rainforest to loggers
Over 50 environmental, conservation and human rights organisations are calling on the international community urgently to intervene to help protect the vast rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), following announcements by the country’s Environment Ministry that they intend to lift a legal moratorium on the allocation of new areas of forest for large-scale logging. DRC’s … Read more
DRC government reinstates illegal logging concessions, breaching its own moratorium
Photo: Minister Ambatobe (center) attends the COP23 climate summit. Photo: Nounou Ngoie/Radio Okapi The Congolese Minister of Environment, Amy Ambatobe, has reinstated 6,500 km² of logging concessions that were cancelled in August 2016 by the then Environment Minister Robert Bopolo following instructions from then Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo. The revelations are brought to light in … Read more
A Critical Analysis of the Safeguards Framework of the Mai Ndombe PIREDD Project
The safeguard plans as they currently stand are seriously flawed, inadequate to ensure proper protection against harm, and need substantial re-working, clarification and improvement.
Government of Norway gives green light to continuing massive illegalities in Congo’s rainforests
The government of Norway is today accused by RFUK of encouraging impunity for serious wrong-doing, by failing to insist that illegal logging concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo are immediately terminated. Responding to recent requests from Rainforest Foundation UK that it should refuse funding to a huge expansion of logging in the DRC, and … Read more
Logging in Congo’s Rainforests: A ‘Carbon Bomb’ About to be Primed by the Government of Norway?
In 2017, the government of Norway, through its ‘Central African Forests Initiative’ (CAFI), was considering providing financial support to a programme being developed by the French Development Agency (AFD) to greatly expand large-scale commercial logging in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This briefing outlines the potential impacts this proposal would have … Read more
Inongo Sector, DRC: An Atlas of Traditional Community Life
This community ‘atlas’ provides information on the realities and traditional livelihoods of the communities of Inongo sector, in the Inongo territory, Mai-Ndombe province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Community Forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo
This brochure provides information about a three-year project implemented by the Rainforest Foundation UK and its partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The project will implement an experimental approach to community-based natural resource management in order to secure forest-dwellers’ rights to land and natural resources and to ensure that forests in DRC are … Read more
FORESTLINK: The Future of Rainforest Protection
This short film documents the early stages of the Rainforest Foundation UK’s real-time forest monitoring project in Central Africa and the Peruvian Amazon. RFUK works in the world’s two largest rainforests: the Congo Basin and the Amazon. Spread over billions of acres, these forests are under threat from illegal activities like logging and mining. These … Read more