Congo Awaits The Return Of Clearcutting Delayed By War - Reuters

[hatrack]

EDIT

"As Congo tries to consolidate peace after a five-year war, the government, private companies and foreign donors are all keen to find ways of tapping into the vast resources of timber in Africa's third-largest country. With nearly 222 million acres of woodland, it has the world's second largest rainforest, half of Africa's total.

A new forestry code aimed at regulating the timber business to the benefit of Congo's government and people rather than just the businesses involved is in the process of being implemented. In theory, the code passed in 2002 should ensure that civil society and local populations have a say in how Congo's forests are carved up.
EDIT

Experts who have seen forests opened up elsewhere in Africa are skeptical that the code will be followed in a country where corruption is rife and the government still has little control over its own natural resources. "From our experiences in places like Cameroon, we have clearly proved that these things are not robust enough to beat the corrupt system," said Filip Verbelen, a forestry campaigner for the international environmental group Greenpeace.

EDIT

A draft World Bank (news - web sites) commissioned report on the sector says that "forests have been the object of grabbing by national elites and international companies anxious to secure rents as the country's infrastructure and security improve." It says that by 2002 over 65 percent of the country's forests had been divided into concessions that had been acquired at practically no cost by fake companies speculating on subcontracting to future investors. The report credits the government with revoking some concessions and imposing a moratorium on new ones. But it also indicates the freeze was often ignored, with 7.4 million acres of new logging rights granted in the year after it was imposed."

EDIT

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041029/sc_nm/congo_democratic_logging_dc_1