Press Releases

Leading forest scientists call for a freeze on new logging in the Congo, urge governments to act

28 October 2021

Press Release Kinshasa, 28 October 2021 – Leading African and international scientists join today the growing call for the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to cancel its plans to lift a 20-year ban on new industrial logging concessions. Over 25 scientists sent a letter to international donors warning of social and environmental impacts of an … Read more

Press Release: Open Letter on NbS to the COP26 Presidency

11 October 2021

NATURE-BASED ’DISTRACTIONS’: IS THE UK ABOUT TO POUR BILLIONS INTO AN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY BACKED GREENWASH SCHEME? With just weeks to go before COP26 in Glasgow, a group of leading environmental and human rights NGOs have written to the UK Presidency of the crucial climate talks warning that one of its flagship policies, so-called ’nature-based solutions’ to climate change, risks greenwashing some of the biggest … Read more

Press Release: NGOs warn about lifting DRC logging ban

2 September 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LOOMING CLIMATE CATASTROPHE IF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY STAYS SILENT ON PLAN TO OPEN UP THE WORLD’S SECOND-LARGEST RAINFOREST TO INDUSTRIAL LOGGING, WARN NGOS In a letter to international climate funders, a group of leading environmental and human rights organisations warn of an impending climate and biodiversity catastrophe following a plan to lift a … Read more

First international counter-conference on conservation will denounce “world’s biggest land grab”

27 August 2021

The world’s first major international congress on decolonizing conservation, “Our Land, Our Nature”, will take place in Marseille, France, on September 2, 2021, immediately before the IUCN World Conservation Congress in the same city. At this congress indigenous representatives and speakers from around 18 countries will share evidence and first-hand testimonies of conservation atrocities and … Read more

UN plan to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 could displace hundreds of millions, NGOs and experts warn

2 September 2020

London, 02 Sept 2020 One hundred twenty eight environmental and human rights NGOs and experts today warn that a United Nations drive to increase global protected areas such as national parks could lead to severe human rights violations and cause irreversible social harm for some of the world’s poorest people. [1] In May 2021, the … Read more

UN 2030 conservation plan could dispossess 300 million people

20 July 2020

A new UN drive to increase global protected areas could lead to severe human rights violations and cause irreversible social harm if not backed by much stronger guarantees of the rights of indigenous people and other local communities, the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) warns today. In October, the Conference of Parties to the Convention on … Read more

Government of Norway gives green light to continuing massive illegalities in Congo’s rainforests

21 June 2017

The government of Norway is today accused by RFUK of encouraging impunity for serious wrong-doing, by failing to insist that illegal logging concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo are immediately terminated. Responding to recent requests from Rainforest Foundation UK that it should refuse funding to a huge expansion of logging in the DRC, and … Read more

PRESS RELEASE: Congo threatens to open world’s second largest rainforest to new industrial loggers

2 March 2016

A tropical rainforest more than twice the size of France is at risk of being cut down, following news from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that the government is considering re-opening its forest to new logging companies. This comes at a time when the governments of Norway, France, Germany, the UK, and the European … Read more

PRESS RELEASE: Tens of millions of hectares of Africa’s rainforests could benefit from local community control

17 February 2016

A new landmark regulation that could allow millions of forest-dependent people to protect and manage their local rainforest, and potentially help lift them out of poverty, has been adopted by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Until now, forest communities in DRC have had no legal right to claim forest lands they … Read more

Press release: A radical change of approach is needed in protected areas – Congo Basin, experts at the World Parks Congress say

19 November 2014

Speaking at an event at the World Parks Congress this afternoon, African and international experts said that protected areas in the Congo Basin are falling below expectations both in terms of conserving biodiversity and helping local people [1]. The event, organised by Rainforest Foundation UK, highlighted that in spite of the hundreds of millions of … Read more