APEM

Petrol Non-Merci ! Civil society organisations push presidential candidates on their environmental commitments in the run up to DRC presidential elections

6 November 2023

Kinshasa Last week, Congolese civil society organisations knocked at the door of several candidates running for the upcoming DRC presidential elections to ask them to prioritize pressing environmental issues in their electoral campaigns and manifestos. Activists from Extinction Rebellion Movement of the University of Goma (XR), in partnership with North Kivu-based civil society network Reseau … Read more

African Civil Society Decries Corporate Capture of the Africa Climate Summit

4 September 2023

African Civil Society Decries Capture of the Africa Climate Summit by Corporate Interests   As African leaders gather for the Africa Climate Summit, hundreds of African organisations have expressed concerns about the corporate capture of the event.  The inaugural summit – held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 4 to 6 September – is billed as a crucial … Read more

A Step in the Right Direction: Publication of ICCN’s Guidelines for Grievance Mechanisms in DRC

25 August 2023

In Kinshasa recently, an important step was taken towards securing the rights of the millions of people who live in the vicinity of national parks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After a lengthy process involving consultation with local communities and civil society, ICCN (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature – Congolese Institute … Read more

A Make Or Break Moment: Fossil Fuel Expansion In The Amazon And Congo Basins Is An Existential Threat To Climate And Communities

6 June 2023

Financial system decisions now pivotal to ending fossil fuel expansion in the world’s largest tropical rainforests Recent reports spotlight plans for fossil fuel expansion in some of the world’s most important ecosystems, and follow financial flows from major banks Banks, financial institutions, and their regulatory bodies have a key role to play in reducing threats … Read more

Congolese civil society releases position paper calling into question the legality of DRC oil and gas auction

28 October 2022

A group of environmental civil society organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo have just released a position paper detailing the multitude of issues with the government’s auction of oil and gas blocks covering the country’s forests, threatening its carbon-rich peatlands, several protected areas and millions of local livelihoods. The CSOs express concern not only … Read more

Leading scientists back Congolese civil society call to increase forest community land rights to combat climate change

29 September 2022

Ahead of crucial upcoming climate talks in Egypt this November, a gathering of international scientists has backed a Congolese civil society call to scale up recognition of indigenous peoples and other local communities’ rights as a key strategy in the fight against climate change. This month, RFUK’s community forest partners joined leading scientists from around … Read more

New alerts map shows vital role of forest communities in tackling illegal logging

4 July 2022

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

5 May 2022

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

29 April 2022

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

Press Release: Over 360 organisations say “No to Nature Based Solutions!”

15 March 2022

Ahead of a vital UN moment for biodiversity, “nature-based solutions” are once again being erroneously heralded as the solution – and NGOs are pushing back. As more and more corporations and governments tout “nature-based solutions” as the means to fight the climate and biodiversity crises, over 360 organisations have come together to launch a statement exposing … Read more