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Leading forest scientists call for a freeze on new logging in the Congo, urge governments to act
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
Roads to Ruin: The Emerging Impacts of Infrastructure Development in Congo Basin forests
A report by RFUK reveals the growing extent, and impact, of transport and energy infrastructure development in the Congo Basin – which is on its way to becoming a major driver of deforestation in the world’s second largest rainforest. The eight case studies featured in this report show that, while certain projects may bring some … Read more
New RFUK report reveals the growing extent, and impact, of transport and energy infrastructure development in the Congo Basin
A new study by RFUK has found that infrastructure development is causing huge destruction in world’s second largest rainforest – and international climate programmes are ignoring it. While REDD+ programmes in the Congo Basin have invariably targeted subsistence farming as the main driver of deforestation, they have almost completely overlooked the role of infrastructure development – … Read more
Map Story – Roads to Ruin: The emerging impacts of infrastructure development in the Congo Basin forests
While deforestation in the Congo Basin has typically been attributed to local farming practices and population growth, the broader impacts of industrial logging and large-scale development projects have received relatively little attention. A new report by RFUK reveals the growing extent, and impact, of transport and energy infrastructure development in the Congo Basin – which … Read more
Press Release: Open Letter on NbS to the COP26 Presidency
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
Open Letter to the COP26 Presidency and Parties to the UNFCCC and CBD on Nature-based Solutions
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 polluters on earth.
Exciting news as RFUK’s real-time forest monitoring technology is rolled out in Côte d’Ivoire
After a training last week with Ivory Coast partners Initiatives pour le Développement communautaire et la conservation de la Forêt (IDEF), RFUK’s bespoke community based real-time monitoring application Forestlink is now active in 7 countries across central and West Africa. The app – which allows forest-dependent communities to send alerts on illegalities and human rights … Read more
44 Congolese and international NGOs join call to stop lifting of the DRC logging moratorium
The DRC government has announced imminent plans to lift a near 20-year ban on new logging concessions operations in its Congo Basin rainforest – one of the last intact rainforests in the world. With less than six weeks to go before the crucial climate negotiations at COP26, Environmental and Human Rights NGOs are calling on … Read more
Community finally receives official documents to manage their traditional lands
This Thursday, September 2, the Bamasobha community of Lubero (North- Kivu), comprised of indigenous and Bantu groups, was officially handed the decree legally recognising their hard-won CFCL (local communities’ forest concession). This decree guarantees perpetual rights over Bamasobha’s customary lands, and thus opens the way to the management stage of the CFCL, an area rich … Read more
Press Release: NGOs warn about lifting DRC logging ban
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