News
New RFUK executive director appointed
Joe Eisen has been appointed as the Rainforest Foundation UK’s (RFUK’s) new executive director as incumbent Simon Counsell prepares to leave the organisation after leading it for the last 23 years. Mr Eisen, who has led RFUK’s policy and research team for five years and worked at the organisation for over a decade, said that … Read more
The realisation of social development projects by logging companies in forest communities: a reality or a utopia?
Article provided by Eco-Dev – RFUK’s local partner in Cameroon A drilling pump in Metsing Village, Cameroon © EcoDev 2019 Rainforests are among the richest ecosystems in the world and have a vital importance for the populations who live within them. They are home to approximately 30 million people and provide livelihood subsistence to a … Read more
RFUK and Greenpeace Africa express alarm at agreement that could lead to more environmental damage in the Republic of Congo
Following the meeting of global leaders at the UN climate summit in New York this week, Rainforest Foundation UK and Greenpeace Africa have raised the alarm that an agreement between the governments of Norway and France and the Republic of Congo to protect its rainforest and peatlands gives a green light to oil exploitation in … Read more
Indigenous Amazonian cocoa producers awarded prestigious ‘Equator Prize’ at UN Climate Action Summit
Photo – Mike Goldwater A cooperative of indigenous cocoa producers based in a remote part of the Peruvian rainforest was awarded the biennial UN Development Programme’s Equator Prize in recognition of its “outstanding community effort to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity” at a ceremony in New York yesterday (Tuesday, 24th September). … Read more
Area of community forests in DRC passes one million hectares, as RFUK helps DR Congo’s government with new tools
Human rights and environmental charity, the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK), and its local partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are formally handing over to the country’s government an online ‘database‘, providing accurate maps and essential information on all community forests. RFUK’s local partners, APEM, CAGDFT, GASHE, PREPPYG and Réseau CREF have helped develop … Read more
Real-Time Monitoring hits the ground running in the Republic of Congo
RTM Congo Team THE REAL-TIME MONITORING (RTM) CONGO TEAM, TRAINED BY RFUK IN 2019, HAVE CAPITALISED ON THEIR TECHNICAL TRAINING BY RFUK TO DEPLOY THE SYSTEM IN TWO PILOT SITES Comptoir Juridique Junior (CJJ) is deploying “Real Time Monitoring” (RTM) and the ForestLink technology in the Republic of Congo following their technical training by RFUK … Read more
New cases of human rights abuses emerge as Buzzfeed exposé shows how WWF tried to cover up earlier reports of atrocities
Recent investigations by the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and Congolese group APEM have documented new violent crimes at the hands of park rangers supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Salonga National Park in Democratic of Congo (DRC). In 2017, a local school director was allegedly shot dead by Salonga’s eco-guards and … Read more
Voice of the communities: Why we need community forests in the Central African Republic
In a historic development, three communities in the Central African Republic (CAR) were recently given the legal right to protect almost 15,000 hectares of their local rainforest, in the country’s very first community forests [1]. The customary territories of the villages of Moalé, Lokombé and Moloukou had been allocated by the government some years ago … Read more
The Green Climate Fund in the Congo Basin Rainforests – Good Money After Bad?
A new report published today by the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) on the Green Climate Fund finds that one of the world’s largest climate adaptation and mitigation funds for developing countries may actually do more harm to tropical forests and people on the frontline of climate change unless it is reformed. The Green Climate Fund … Read more
Donors called on to address breakdown in forest governance in DR Congo as Chinese company accused of widespread illegal logging
London-based charity the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and Congolese civil society groups are calling on donors of forestry programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to address the breakdown in forest governance in DRC after a Chinese company, accused of illegally logging, was suddenly acquitted by a local court. Following reports by local communities … Read more