Although recent rates of deforestation have been relatively low, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s forests are now coming under growing pressure from the activities of industrial logging companies.
Following decades of despotic rule by Mobutu Sese Seko, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) descended into civil conflict that, directly and indirectly, has claimed the lives of more then three million people. After a shaky and still conflict-ridden transition period, multi party elections were held in DRC in 2006, the first for forty years. The country is still not fully at peace and it faces huge challenges: entrenched corruption, continuing conflict in some areas, poorly trained and under-resourced staff at every level in government, extreme poverty: it is a country practically in ruins.
The war has been fuelled by competition for control over natural resources, including timber, minerals and ivory. Illegal and uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources have reportedly had devastating impacts in some localities. Forest people such as the Twa and Mbuti ‘Pygmies’ of eastern DRC have suffered traumatic impacts during the conflict. As well as brutal treatment – including cases of cannibalism and reported ‘genocide’ – at the hands of one faction or another. Pygmy people have also suffered from a depletion of wild food resources, which have been exploited by armies and militias.
Although recent rates of deforestation have been relatively low, DRC's forests are now coming under growing pressure from the activities of industrial logging companies. The last great expanse of forest in Africa is under threat – but it is not yet too late. There is still time to do something to save these forests from being lost and the millions of people who depend upon them being further impoverished.
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