28 October 2005
The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo reissued a ban on any further logging allocations in the country and is calling for a review of ongoing projects.
In a move that should curtail an increase in illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo's forests, the President imposed a ban on any new logging operations. The ban was supposed to have taken effect in 2002 when the forestry code was originally conceived.
The reissuing of a pledge to halt accelerated deforestation comes at a critical juncture. As the world's second largest rainforest, the Congo Basin, which stretches across nearly 1 million square miles, is both a curse and a blessing. With proper regulation and management the natural resources could provide a solution to the poverty that has engulfed the country for decades. With a GNI per capita income of less than $700 the population is struggling to survive. Unfortunately, recent natural resource operations in the DRC have not translated into assistance for affected communities or those in need. In regards to the original forestry code, there was an apparent lack of enforcement. A failure to involve civil society organizations and local communities in the process, which was promised by the government earlier in the formulation of the forestry code, financial inconsistencies relating to profits derived from the logging operations and the illegal allocation of logging areas have been reoccurring themes.
President Kabila's pledge to uphold the logging ban could potentially signal the beginning of a complete review of not only logging allocations but also of all the currently active and prospective extractive industry projects.