Greenpeace releases new report critical of World Bank's role in DRC's forest sector
11 April 2007
Report entitled "Carving up the Congo" reveals that the world's second largest rainforest is under threat.
Greenpeace International today launched its new report, two years in the making, documenting the extreme social and environmental damage wrought by international logging companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In its report, Greenpeace criticizes the failing efforts of the World Bank to bring the DRC's logging industry under control "while the rainforest is being sold off under the illusion that logging alleviates poverty."
Some of the key issues presented in the report include the negligible payments made to community leaders in return for lucrative logging rights worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; the destruction of habitats critical to the survival of the Congo's indigenous forest communities; the rampant corruption in the issuance of logging contracts; and the tremendous release of greenhouse gases caused by deforestation and its implications for climate change.
In a press release published today, Greenpeace campaigner Belinda Fletcher said, "It's crunch time for the DRC's rainforest. The international logging industry operating in the country is out of control. Unless the World Bank helps the DRC to stop the sell-off of these rainforests, they'll soon be under the chainsaws."
In its appeal, Greenpeace calls for the cancellation of logging titles issued since May 2002, which were signed in spite of a national moratorium on new concessions.
The report was released in advance of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank to be held in Washington, DC this weekend, where the future of the DRC's forests will be discussed.
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