DRC government, donors, civil society meet to discuss the future of Congo's rainforests
6 March 2007
Civil society releases declaration enumerating key demands concerning forest sector management in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last week, the Belgian government and the World Bank held a conference on the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is home to the world's second largest rainforest after the Amazon. Over 200 people attended the event, which took place in the Palais d'Egmont in central Brussels. The conference was billed as the third in a series of roundtable discussions on the management of DRC's forests. Many participants questioned the decision to hold the meeting in Brussels, and wondered whether the meeting's outcomes would be any more binding than those of the previous two dialogues, which had taken place in Kinshasa.
The DRC's new minister of environment and forests made his first international appearance at the conference. He was joined by numerous other representatives from the Congolese, Belgian, UK, and French governments, as well as the World Bank. International and Congolese civil society organizations were also represented, though participation by Congolese groups was limited given the event's location and difficulties in accessing visas to attend.
In addition to discussion of the ongoing forest sector reforms and capacity needs for management of the sector, there was a heavy focus on the link between forests and climate change, and the pursuit of alternative financing mechanisms to stimulate forest protection, conservation and avoided deforestation.
Civil society delegates at the conference released their own declaration, which emphasized their chief concerns with forest sector management in the DRC and with the limitations of the conference itself. Some of the key demands listed in the declaration include:
- The moratorium on the allocation of new forest concessions must be strictly maintained and extended, until a participatory land-use mapping process has taken place on the basis of free prior informed consent (FPIC) for local and indigenous communities, and until there is an effective, legal and transparent system of oversight and good governance in the forest sector
- A complete legal, political, administrative and executive framework for the sustainable management of the forest sector must be established, on the basis of a participatory national zoning plan and alternatives to industrial logging.
- The legal review of logging titles currently underway should be carried out scrupulously, in strict compliance with the October 2005 decree, ensuring that all titles allocated after the moratorium or in violation of tax laws are canceled, and in a transparent manner, allowing participation by affected communities and indigenous representatives.
- Land tenure rights (access to and use of forests) must be secured for indigenous and forest-dependent communities, and their participation in the national zoning process must be secured on the basis of FPIC. This is an important prerequisite not just to the lifting of the moratorium on the allocation of forest concessions and the ability of communities to obtain community forest rights, but also before any "avoided deforestation" or conservation concessions schemes become operational.
- Civil society groups repeatedly emphasized the importance of demonstrable improvements in the government's administrative, regulatory and monitoring capacity as a prerequisite to the allocation of any new forest concessions.
Meanwhile, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will visit the DRC next week, which some interpret as signaling the World Bank's heightened interest in the DRC following the recent elections and inauguration of the new government. The visit is also seen by some observers as a move to respond to recent controversy surrounding World Bank involvement in the forest and mining sectors.
Visit the International conference on the sustainable management of the forests in the DRC (ConForDRC) website for a list of speakers and copies of presentations.
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