DR Congo
Apem
APEM (Actions pour la Promotion et Protection des Peuples et Espèces Menacés) are courageous advocates of human rights and better forest governance, and pioneers in denouncing gender-based violence by conservation agents. In just a few years since their founding, they have become leaders among Congolese NGOs. With them, we aim to put human rights at … Read more
Press Release: Petition of 100,000 signatures handed to DRC President to stop new oil development
Kinshasa, 25 July 2022 – More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling on President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to end the development of new oil and gas fields in the country. The petition was launched earlier this month by Congolese and international NGOs and was handed over today … Read more
Trial begins of timber company accused of shooting and maiming locals
The Congo Sunflower Forestry Development company is currently on trial, accused of orchestrating a series of reprisals and physical violence against the villagers of Tokoma in the Tshuapa province of DRC, after they seized some of the company’s equipment from a site illegally being operated on their lands. According to Mr. Iyoko Elungu, an inhabitant of … Read more
Calls for President Felix Tshisekedi to cancel plans for oil drilling in DRC’s tropical rainforests
RFUK together with Rainforest Rescue, Greenpeace Africa, 350.org and other African civil society groups have launched a petition calling on President Felix Tschisekedi to cancel the upcoming July 28-29 auction of oil exploration rights to some of DRC’s most sensitive tropical forests. The planned auction of 16 oil blocks across the country is a deeply … Read more
New alerts map shows vital role of forest communities in tackling illegal logging
RFUK and its local partners in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Peru have launched a webmap that includes thousands of illegal alerts sent by local community monitors using the ForestLink system. While satellite forest monitoring has transformed our ability to detect forest loss, ForestLink … Read more
NGOs call on Congolese General Prosecutor to investigate the role of several former ministers in illegal logging operations
A group of Congolese and international NGOs have written to DRC’s General Prosecutor calling on him to investigate reports of widespread illegal logging, which implicate as many as six former ministers. On 1 April, the Environment ministry finally released a long-suppressed audit of the country’s logging industry by the Congolese General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), which found … Read more
Climate catastrophe looms as DRC oil plan poses new threat to Cuvette Centrale peatlands
The DRC government has adopted a plan to open up one of the world’s largest carbon sinks to oil drilling only months after it signed a $500 million forest protection agreement with the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) at COP26. Last week, the DRC Council of Ministers adopted a plan to tender 16 new oil blocks, several … Read more
DRC suspends twelve concessions following publication of IGF audit – Many more must now follow
The DRC Vice Prime Minister, Eve Bazaiba, this week suspended twelve logging concessions, covering nearly two million hectares, following a damning government report into the state of the industry. This welcome development comes after intense scrutiny from RFUK and other international and national organisations, but is likely to account for only a fraction of the … Read more
Protected Areas and Indigenous Rights: A submission to the UN Special Rapporteur
In response to a call for comments to inform the Special Rapporteur’s report to the UN General Assembly at its 77th session, RFUK has put together a brief highlighting how, despite much lip service to the contrary, conventional conservation and climate change programmes continue to wreak havoc on indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities.
Perspectives on Gender and Equality from our Community Forests Project
The ‘Community Forest’ model in DRC offers an unprecedented opportunity for communities there to legally secure, manage and protect their traditional forests. But to assure the delivery of equitable and sustainable outcomes, there is a need to ensure they are developed by the communities themselves, with actively inclusive processes to ensure the information obtained on … Read more