NAIROBI, Kenya, January 7, 2009 (ENS) – The headquarters of Garamba National Park in the village of Nagero, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was attacked Friday by the Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Despite resistance by park rangers together with elements from the Congolese Armed Forces, numerous casualties and material damages occurred.

A first report says eight people were killed, including two park rangers and two wives of wardens, and 13 people were injured, most by bullets. The attack uprooted 3,500 local residents, according to United Nations sources.

Ten rebels were also killed in the battle that lasted four hours, Garamba Park authorities report via WildlifeDirect, a nonprofit conservation organization based in Kenya.

It will take several days before these figures are confirmed, once the management team has completed the final assessment.

Several essential headquarters buildings were destroyed, along with many items of transport and communications equipment, and stocks of fuel and food.

“The headquarters in Nagero are in a state of havoc,” said Garamba Chief Warden Bernard Iyomi, who directed the resistance during the attack and who narrowly escaped death. “The heroic behavior of our rangers and wardens has prevented an even heavier death toll.”

Rangers train in Garamba National Park (Photo courtesy African Parks Network)

This attack was part of the three week old multinational assault on LRA strongholds in northeastern Congo, which by some accounts has gone wrong. The multinational military offensive against the LRA, which is sanctioned by the United Nations, has not been executed well, according to local media and sources on the ground.

Military and humanitarian assistance are being deployed to secure the area and to help the people displaced by the attack.

“We strongly condemn this attack launched by the LRA, and request the military authorities of the region and the international community to continue their involvement in solving this problem caused by the rebel group for so many years,” said Cosma Wilungula, the head of the DRC government agency Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation. The ICCN is in charge of management and conservation of the country’s protected areas.

“Our immediate concern is for the safety and wellbeing of our people, particularly those that are injured. Thereafter we will immediately begin rebuilding the administrative base and staff morale, both of which are essential for the continued management of this important park,” said Peter Fearnhead, the executive director of African Parks Network, which manages Garamba National Park.

A private foundation based in Johannesburg, South Africa, African Parks officially assumed the management mandate for Garamba National Park on November 12, 2005, in partnership with ICCN.

Garamba National Park is located in Orientale Province, along the DRC’s border with Sudan. The park was established in 1938 by Belgian royal decree as one of the first national parks in Africa and it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. In 1996, Garamba was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Garamba National Park is surrounded by three game hunting reserves – Azande to the west, Gangala na Bodio to the south, and Mondo Missa to the east. The total area of the Garamba complex is 1,2427 square kilometers, which includes 4,900 sq. km. covered by the park itself.

Critically endangered white rhinos in Garamba National Park (Photo by The Friar and Me)

The park’s expanses of savannahs, grasslands and woodlands, interspersed with gallery forests along the river banks and the swampy depressions, are inhabited by elephants, giraffes, and hippopotamus. The park also has a small population of critically endangered white rhinos, of which only about 30 animals remain.

Forces led by Uganda and including Congolese and South Sudanese soldiers began bombing LRA bases in the park on December 14, 2008 after the rebel leader Joseph Kony again failed to sign a deal to end his rebellion against Uganda’s government.

Although Ugandan and Congolese officials have said the offensive is going well, coalition forces have so far failed to locate Kony, who along with two deputies is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In response to the coalition attacks, Kony’s rebellion is now waging a campaign against local villagers. One person has described the outcome of the coalition’s military offensive against the LRA as the equivalent of “stirring up a hornets nest.”

To date, between 400 and 500 civilians have been killed in attacks in towns of Doruma and Faradje, which had been left undefended by coalition forces.

On Tuesday, the United Nations refugee agency reached the towns of Tadu and Faradje in Orientale Province.

Faradje, which lies 100 kilometers west of the DRC’s border with Sudan and Uganda, was attacked on December 25-26, leaving over 70 people dead and displacing nearly 40,000 others. Those who fled the town and local organizations told the UN High Commission for Refugees that more than 80 women were raped during the two-day period.

UNHCR said that people in the district are shocked and traumatized by the attacks. “Our mission found Faradje pillaged and destroyed by fire,” agency spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.

Displaced people in the DRC village of Tadu, following deadly attacks by the LRA (Photo courtesy UN)

According to UN estimates, more than 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since mid-December, on top of 50,000 others in the region who were displaced by an earlier escalation of clashes between September and November, 2008.

Redmond said the agency has received a preliminary report of another attack Monday on the village of Napapo which claimed up to eight lives. “An unknown number of people were reportedly kidnapped,” he said, adding that there are reports that this incident has uprooted even more people.

The UNHCR team has met with local nongovernmental organizations and the newly displaced are currently being registered in Tadu, Faradje and neighboring villages.

Key needs include food, shelter and medicine, Redmond said. “However, the area remains highly volatile and insecurity is a key obstacle for access by us and other agencies.”

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{Editor’s note: As fighting between the Congolese national army and rebel soldiers intensifies in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the staff of the London-based Gorilla Organization in and around Goma city fear for their lives and the lives of the estimated 380 endangered mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. Henry Cirhuza is DR Congo program manager with The Gorilla Organization}

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, November 4, 2008 (ENS) – I am writing to you from Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where once again the horror of war threatens to destroy our country and the conservation efforts that we have established to protect some of the world’s last remaining gorillas.

I am proud to be Congolese and I am proud of my country, but it breaks my heart to see war engulfing our lives and all that we have worked hard to achieve.

The situation in Goma deteriorated suddenly on Wednesday evening. Soldiers from the Congolese national army, who had been fighting rebels on the road to Kibumba, just north of the city, arrived in Goma and began firing bullets everywhere.

The soldiers were out of control, and mass panic broke out among the population of Goma who did not know what to do. After nightfall, the city remained at the mercy of uninhibited soldiers who began to loot homes and rape women throughout the city. It was a terrifying situation. All we could do was lock ourselves in our houses and hope for the best. I felt completely helpless.

UNICEF distributes clean water to Goma
people displaced by the fighting (Photo
by Julien Harneis of UNICEF)

On Thursday morning, we awoke with great reluctance. We did not know the extent of the damage done over night, nor who controlled the city. But we were at least thankful that we had made it through the hours of darkness without being harmed.

I later managed to speak with a neighbor, who has connections with the military. He reported that at the last minute, when the city was about to fall into the hands of rebels, negotiations were made and Laurent Nkunda, the rebel leader, had been forced to call a cease-fire.

Despite the supposed cease-fire, we continued to hide in our homes. We were still too terrified to leave the house in case the gunfire started again, and we listened to the radio in the hope of gaining information.

I contacted family, friends and colleagues to make sure that no one had suffered from the attacks. The day before we had lost contact with some of our colleagues in Rutshuru, a town in the middle of rebel held territory. We feared the worst – and felt helpless to do anything, but thankfully they were all OK; after spending a fearful night in the forest they had returned to their homes.

My two cousins sadly did not fare so well. Armed robbers had visited their homes, all their personal belongings were looted and their families were petrified – they lost everything.

The situation in Goma has turned in to a major humanitarian crisis. There are hundreds of thousands of people without homes, and the lack of food and water is becoming a major problem.

All the markets and shops are deserted and since many of the roads surrounding Goma are controlled by rebels there is no way for food to get to the city. It will not be long at all before people start dying of hunger. My family only have enough food for one more day and then we too will start to get desperate.

Up until now we have been reluctant to leave Goma. For all of us the memories of the Nyirangogo volcano eruption, which destroyed much of Goma in 2002, is still fresh in our minds. During this time we became refugees and suffered theft, abuse, hunger and cold, and we are scared that if we leave we will be in this situation again. But as we run out of food I have realized that we can no longer stay here.

Myself and the rest of the Gorilla Organization team are also becoming increasingly concerned about the gorillas.

As food runs out and soldiers make life in the city hell, people are fleeing to the only place they can – to the gorillas’ forest. They will be searching for food, but my fear is that they will not find enough food in the national park either – the forest cannot support hundreds of thousands of people – and instead they will unintentionally be destroying the gorilla habitat.

We can only hope that the gorillas will be wise enough to move deep into the forest, or maybe cross the border in to Rwanda. Having said that, as the forest becomes populated with refugees and soldiers there will be little place for them to hide.

Endangered mountain gorilla with infant in
Virunga National Park, DRC (Photo by Ben Haylock)

The gorillas are now completely unprotected. Rebels raided the Congolese wildlife authority (ICCN’s) headquarters at Rumangabo earlier in the week, and the rangers were forced to flee.

Many rangers are now suffering in squalid refugee camps, but some remain missing and we fear these guardians of the gorillas may not make it.

While we believe that the gorillas are not a target of the unrest, it is surely only time before they get caught up in the conflict – and without ranger protection they are in serious danger.

If we can make it safely over the border to Rwanda, our colleagues there will be able to help us find food, water and shelter and we will be able to get back to our work of saving the gorillas. The Gorilla Organization is perfectly placed to help ease the pressure on the national park and support the rangers in protecting the gorillas. But for this we need your help.

Congo is in crisis. This is an emergency situation. We need funds to evacuate the Gorilla Organization’s staff and partners from eastern DR Congo and to help them survive away from home until it is safe for them to return. And we need funds to ensure that as soon as the area is safe we have the resources in place to protect the gorillas and their habitat as well as we possibly can. Please help us and give whatever you can today.

{Editor’s note: The Gorilla Organization works internationally to save the world’s last remaining gorillas in the wild, by funding small grass-roots projects, run by local African partners, that tackle threats to the gorilla’s long term survival.}

By Henry Cirhuza

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NEW YORK, New York, September 25, 2008 (ENS) – The first Kids Gorilla Summit, which is happening on Friday in New York City will enlist young people to make a commitment to help endangered mountain gorillas and the people of Africa. The summit will explore the connection between the urgency of wildlife preservation and inter-related humanitarian issues.

This event and the gorilla conservation campaign it spearheads were born out of a commitment to action made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative shortly after last summer’s massacre of 10 of the world’s remaining 720 mountain gorillas, of which, 380 live in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park.

A project of the William J. Clinton Foundation established by the former U.S. president, the Clinton Global Initiative convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as the planet’s dwindling biodiversity.

An endangered mountain gorilla in the
DRC. (Photo by Paul Taggart courtesy
Wildlife Direct)

The gorilla conservation campaign brings together some of the world’s most respected names such as Kenyan conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey, founder of Wildlife Direct, and South African Anglican Archbishop, activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu.

Turtle Pond Publications and Scholastic, in association with Dr. Richard Leakey’s Wildlife Direct and the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation through the catalyst of the Clinton Global Initiative, are the partners in this effort to protect the mountain gorillas.

Dr. Leakey started Wildlife Direct in 2005 to raise awareness and funds for conservation in some of the worlds most endangered and dangerous places. Operating deep in the jungles of eastern Congo, blogs written by rangers last year alerted the world to the crisis facing mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Funds raised through the blogs have enabled the Congolese wildlife authority, the Congolese Nature Conservation Institute to continue wildlife conservation activities on the ground despite the ongoing crisis that pits rebels and government troops against each other for control of the area inhabited by the gorillas.

“Wildlife Direct was conceived as a way of facilitating exchanges between the front lines of conservation and the rest of the world, to create a community of people concerned about conservation and to allow for direct interaction with and support to the conservationists on the ground,” Dr. Leakey says on his blog.

The Kids Gorilla Summit will now be part of that community. Participants will discuss the new children’s book, “Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own, published by Scholastic Press. It was written by the best-selling team of Craig, Isabella and Juliana Hatkoff, photographer Peter Greste, and ecologist Dr. Paula Kahumbu who is in charge of conservation, policy and partnerships at Wildlife Direct.

Some 180 students in grades five to seven will view short videos of the gorillas, as well as special animated “Gorillasodes” that were created by students from the United States and Rwanda to help spread the word about the gorillas’ plight.

The young people will discuss the issues with Leakey, Kahumbu and Hatkoff, and they will meet four reporters who are members of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, reporting from Africa.

After learning about the gorillas and the region, the students will develop their own ideas for solutions with the help of educational, web-based technological tools.

At the end of the summit, participants will be asked to sign the Kids Global Act Pact, which will declare their commitment to taking action to make a difference.

Students nationwide can participate via a live national webcast at http://www.scholastic.com/miza and will be able to email questions to participants.

In addition, http://www.scholastic.com/miza and http://www.miza.com, created jointly by Turtle Pond and Scholastic, will offer students up-to-date information on the gorillas brought from Wildlife Direct’s field-based blogs written by the Mountain Rangers and other activities and resources.

The new curriculum and online portal will be distributed to a million students to teach them about the gorillas, their habitat and the Mountain Rangers, and is intended to empower them to become advocates for change.

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KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 24, 2008 (ENS) – The Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe area in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the world’s largest Wetland of International Importance, officially recognized by the Ramsar Convention, a treaty protecting designated wetlands.

A ceremony to announce the recognition of Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe as a Ramsar wetland is set for today at the Cercle de Kinshasa in the DRC capital. The announcement is to be made in the presence of high-level government politicians as well as representatives of Ramsar, the global conservation organization WWF and other partners.

Residents of the newly protected area
carry fish traps into shallow
Lake Tumba. (Photo courtesy
WWF Lac Tumba)

More than twice the size of Belgium, the 65,696 square kilometer site is situated around the Lake Tumba region in the Central Western Basin of the DRC and contains the largest freshwater body in Africa.

Its rivers and lakes constitute a major sink for the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

Until now the world’s largest Ramsar site was Queen Maud Gulf in Canada at 62,782 square kilometers, designated in 1982.

Support for the DRC government in its effort to win recognition for the Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe site began in 2004 and was provided jointly by the Central African Regional Program for the Environment, a USAID initiative, as well as the Ramsar Convention, and WWF, which was responsible for the technical aspects of the project.

“WWF is delighted that Ramsar has recognized the importance of this extraordinary wetland and the efforts of the Democratic Republic of Congo to protect it,” said James Leape, director general of WWF International.

“This is a significant step forward for the welfare of communities who depend on this wetland for their livelihoods and for the wildlife that lives there,” said Leape.

Cassava, sweet potatoes, sugarcane and bananas are all grown in the Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe site while oil palm plantations, groundnuts and rice are the principal commercial products.

Fish from the area also helps to stimulate the economies of big cities such as Kinshasa, Brazzaville and Mbandaka.

Vegetation cover at the flood basin acts as a buffer zone against floods for towns all along the Congo River and provides fish with breeding sites, while different forest types help filter water and maintain its quality.

“The Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe area contributes to the regulation of flooding and regional climate and ensures that the quality of the water remains good enough for millions of people who depend upon it,” said WWF Project Manager Bila-Isia Inogwabini.

Lake Tumba (Photo by Judith Rose)

“Waters of this zone need to be managed appropriately and the classification of the site will help with a coherent planning process and mobilize all stakeholders to abide by the rules,” said Inogwabini.

The Lake Tumba landscape, encompassing some 80,000 square kilometers in total, has one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity anywhere in the world.

It contains species of conservation concern such as forest elephants, forest buffalo and leopards. There are an estimated 150 species of fish, a wide variety of birds, and three types of crocodile as well as hippopotamus.

Near the center of the site is Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province with a population of some 750,000 people, and there are several smaller towns within the site populated by tribes of the Mongo people.

Threats to the area’s natural resources include illegal logging, fishing and poaching. WWF says an observed decline in Lake Tumba water levels is most probably linked to climate change.

Recognition of the site by the Ramsar Convention and the proper management that is expected to result from the area’s new status will offer protection from unsustainable activities in future and should ensure the longevity of the water supply.

The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971, provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands. There are presently 158 governments that are Parties to the Convention, with 1,757 wetland sites, totaling 161 million hectares, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.

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GLAND, Switzerland, June 17, 2008 (ENS) – Populations of most African rhinos are increasing as a result of conservation efforts, but one sub-species, the Northern white rhino, may already be extinct, the world’s most expert rhino specialists said today. Just four animals were counted in 2006, but none of these could be found during the most recent fieldwork in the Congolese park where they lived.

There are now more than 21,000 rhinos across Africa, according to figures complied by the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, based in Gland.

Southern white rhino with calf (Photo by
Martin Harvey © WWF-Canon)

The group of rhino experts are part of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, a network of conservation experts brought together to work against the species extinction crisis.

Numbers of the white rhino, Ceratotherium simum, have increased from 14,540 animals counted in 2005 to 17,480 animals found in 2007, the specialists say.

Living in protected areas and private game reserves, the white rhino is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but one of its two subspecies, the Northern white rhino, Ceratotherium simum cottoni, is listed as Critically Endangered and is on the brink of extinction.

Once found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara desert, the wild population of Northern white rhino numbered about 500 animals in the 1970s.

Now, the Northern white rhino is restricted in the wild to Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the only remaining population was reduced by poaching from 30 in April 2003 to only four confirmed animals by August 2006.

“Worryingly, recent fieldwork has so far failed to find any presence of these four remaining rhinos,” says Dr. Martin Brooks, chair of the African Rhino Specialist Group.

“Unless animals are found during the intensive surveys that are planned under the direction of the African Parks Foundation, the subspecies may be doomed to extinction,” he said.

By contrast, the other subspecies, the Southern white rhino, Ceratotherium simum simum, continues to increase in numbers and range.

Southern white rhinos are listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, which means that they are not presently classed as Endangered or Vulnerable to extinction, but may qualify for a threatened category in the near future.

Northern white rhinoceros in Garamba National
Park (Photo by Kes & Fraser Smith ©
WWF-Canon)

The southern white rhino is considered one of conservation’s greatest success stories. Thought to be extinct in the late 19th century, in 1895 a small population of less than 100 animals was discovered in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. After more than a century of protection and management, the southern white rhinos are now the only non-endangered rhinos.

Numbers of the African black rhino, Diceros bicornis, have increased from 3,730 animals found in 2005 to 4,180 counted in 2007, although this species still remains Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

In the last two years alone, numbers of black rhinos have risen by about 450 animals, with several new populations being founded or enhanced through translocation, such as in North Luangwa National Park, Zambia.

“This is fantastic news for the African black rhino,” says Dr. Richard Emslie, scientific officer of the African Rhino Specialist Group. “However, these magnificent creatures are not out of the woods yet. They are still classed as Critically Endangered and face increasing threats of poaching and civil unrest. There is no room for complacency.”

African black rhino with calf (Photo by
Andrew Gell courtesy International
Rhino Foundation)

The majority of African black rhino can be found in four countries – Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Kenya – and there are increasing numbers in a number of other range states. All countries with breeding populations have recorded increases, except Zimbabwe, whose numbers are slightly down.

Poaching for rhino horn remains the main threat to rhino survival, and while under control in many countries it has been responsible for losses in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

“Even though protection from poaching is critical, effective rhino conservation must also include intensive monitoring and biological management to ensure annual growth rates of at least five percent per year so that surplus rhinos are made available to create new populations,” says Brooks.

At a recent meeting of African rhino specialists at Lake Manyara, opened by Tanzania’s Minister for National Resources and Tourism Shamsa Mwangunga, and sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, WWF’s African Rhino Programme, and the Tanzanian government, delegates from 14 countries were exposed to a variety of management strategies, programs and techniques designed to improve rhino management.

“One of the highlights,” says Dr. Brooks, “was the first ever introduction of a significant founder population of black rhino to community land in South Africa, made possible through the WWF/Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s range expansion project, and hopefully this approach can be applied elsewhere to enhance rhino ownership by rural communities.”

Workshops were also held to identify conservation priorities and to address challenges relating to legal and illegal trade.

The Northern white rhino is not the only subspecies that is on the brink of extinction. The West African black rhino, D. bicornis longipes, is classified as Probably Extinct, according to the WWF African Rhino Programme.

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BONN, Germany, May 27, 2008 (ENS) – The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today announced plans to designate at least 50,190 square miles of the Earth’s second largest rainforest region as new protected areas. At present, nine percent of country, corresponding to 8,494 square miles, is conserved in various categories of protected areas.

“I was deeply impressed by the decision of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to conserve its forest resources by establishing new protected areas, while at the same time ensuring sustainable use by the inhabitants,” German Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told his Congolese counterpart José Endundo Bononge.

“This will benefit not only the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also the international community, for protecting the country’s vast forests with their enormous carbon stocks helps to mitigate climate change and conserve the wealth of this forest biodiversity,” said Gabriel.

The German minister suggested to Minister Bononge that the new protected areas be incorporated into the new global LifeWeb Initiative. This funding initiative for protected areas was introduced by Germany at the ongoing Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD, now underway in Bonn.

The Life Web Initiative aims to support the implementation of the CBD Program of Work on Protected Areas through enhancing partnerships at a global level.

The initiative will match voluntary commitments for the designation of new protected areas and the improved management of existing areas with commitments for dedicated financing of these areas.

Forest on the banks of the Congo river system,
Equatorial Province, Democratic Republic
of Congo (Photo by Filip Verbelen
courtesy Greenpeace)

The Congo Basin in Central Africa is a 700,000 square mile tropical forest that extends across six countries and is the world’s largest tropical forest outside of the Amazon.

The largest part of the Congo Basin forest lies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC.

Often referred to as DR Congo or DRC, and formerly known as Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo-Léopoldville, Congo-Kinshasa, and Zaire, this is the third largest country by area on the African continent.

It is not to be confused with Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, a separate country that lies to the north and west of the adjacent DRC.

The entire forested area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including dry forests, covers around 386,000 square miles (one million square kilometers) – an area larger than France and Germany combined.

The rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo contain many rare and endemic species, such as chimpanzees and their smaller cousins, the bonobos, mountain gorillas, okapi and white rhinos.

Five of the country’s national parks are listed as World Heritage Sites – the Garumba, Kahuzi-Biega, Salonga and Virunga National Parks, and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. All five sites are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage In Danger.

Map showing the Democratic Republic of the
Congo in white and Republic of the Congo
in beige. (Map courtesy CIA)

From 1998 to 2003, the country suffered from the devastating Second Congo War, the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Related fighting still continues in the east of the country.

The civil war and resulting poor economic conditions have endangered much of this biodiversity. Most park wardens were either killed or could not afford to continue their work.

Besides combating illegal logging, for the conservation of the Congo Basin forest and its abundant biodiversity it is essential to introduce principles of sustainable management and a protected area regime for these forests and the diverse animals and plants that inhabit them.

The conservation of the Congo Basin forests is the focus of the international Congo Basin Forest Partnership, currently being coordinated by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Germany is providing the Congo Basin region with a total of over 53 million euro for the protection of the tropical forests.

Elsewhere in the Congo Basin today, the timber company Congolaise Industrielle des Bois and the Tropical Forest Trust announced that the company has more than doubled the amount of certified rainforest it operates in the Congo Basin, creating the world’s largest tract of contiguous certified tropical forest.

Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, a subsidiary of the Danish DLH group, was awarded its most recent Forest Stewardship Council certificate for lands the company operates in the Pokola rainforest in Congo-Brazzaville.

This region represents the second of the company’s four forest areas to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which first recognized the timber company in 2006, when it certified 297,000 hectares of its land in the Kabo rainforest.

A wild Western lowland gorilla in the Congo
Basin. (Photo by Richard Parnell
courtesy WCS)

The certified area now covers a total of 2,895 square miles of natural tropical forest managed by Congolaise Industrielle des Bois in the northern part of Congo-Brazzaville, a region that is home to thousands of indigenous peoples, and is inhabited by forest elephants, gorillas and chimpanzees.

To meet the standards for obtaining the approval from the Forest Stewardship Council, the timber company drew on the expertise of staff of the nonprofit Tropical Forest Trust, TFT, based in Geneva.

Tropical Forest Trust was instrumental in helping the timber company meet the needs of the Pygmy communities in the Congo Basin, said Robert Hunink, executive vice president of the DLH Group, and president of the Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, CIB, Supervisory Board.

“The TFT, along with other partners, provided us with technical guidance and access to new technologies, including a handheld mapping device that has made it possible for the Pygmy communities to communicate to us the specific forest resources that they hold sacred,” Hunink said.

One of the innovative techniques developed during this partnership is participatory mapping. Using icon-based Global Positioning System, or GPS, units designed for non-literate people, the semi-nomadic Pygmies living within the forest concession walk through their forest and locate resources or areas of significance.

For instance, at a large tree prized for its edible caterpillars, or an important collecting area for medicinal plants, the Pygmies select the appropriate icon and the GPS records the location.

This data forms the basis for resource maps, which bridge the communication gap between the people in the forest and the forest company and enable a fair negotiation.

Indigenous cartographers and community
members walk between the forest
sites to be protected in CIB logging
plans. December 2005. (Photo
by John Nelson courtesy Forest
Peoples Programme)

“Such activities, backed by the commitment and dedication of CIB’s management and staff, have been essential in our efforts to obtain certification,” said Hunink. “Under often challenging circumstances, our CIB colleagues and their partners, have achieved what many in the industry have long thought impossible, while maintaining the exceptionally high Forest Stewardship Council standard throughout a series of robust audits.”

“I think the CIB approach is a living, breathing example that timber production does not have to be synonymous with the destruction of tropical forests,” said Scott Poynton, TFT’s executive director. “What we hope to demonstrate with our work in the Congo and elsewhere is that there are rewards for companies that do things the right way.

The partnership with Congolaise Industrielle des Bois is just the start, Poynton said. “Forest destruction in the Congo Basin continues at an alarming rate and we need to find new mechanisms for scaling up.”

To accomplish this, the Trust is launching the Centre of Social Excellence for the Forests of the Congo Basin. This new project will focus on improving the understanding and linkages between forestry companies and indigenous communities.

It will encourage dialogue and sustainability by offering recent graduates of central African universities opportunities to become experts in forest management. The 1.6 million euro project has been granted key support from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

Tropical Forest Trust members are based in Europe, North America, South East Asia, Africa and New Zealand. They include more than 50 multi-national retail giants and small retailers committed to purchasing only legally harvested timber. TFT has forged partnerships with governments, timber companies, and international organizations to expand the forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Poynton said, “Now it is up to consumer markets to respond to this increase in availability of Forest Stewardship Council products and chose sustainably produced wood product over those from dubious origins.”

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