Experts discuss industrial logging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and potential solutions like the 'Forest Stewardship Council' certification.

After many years of war and instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) competing claims are asserted on the rainforest of the Congo Basin: Environmental organizations stress the importance of protected areas and accuse logging companies - many of them foreign-owned - of violating a logging moratorium. Multinational companies claim that sustainable forestry is possible and highlight that they bring work and development to Africa.

 

What is the situation on the ground where more than 40 million people depend on the forest for their livelihood? And are there ways to manage the forest in a sustainable way? These are questions oikos Bayreuth sought to answer with its panel discussion.

 

Among the panelists was Dominic Johnson, a well-known German journalist who is familiar with the DRC and published a book on its history recently. Marion Karmann, who works for the “Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) International”, Klaus Schenck, who is campaigner for “Rettet den Regenwald” (Save the rainforests), a German environmental organization, and Dieter Neubert, professor for development sociology in Bayreuth, completed the panel.

 

Despite the unexpected absence of a Congolese human rights expert the audience showed great interest in the panelists’ presentations and a vivid discussion arose afterwards. It became clear that Johnson, Karmann, Schenck and Neubert agree on the importance of consulting local communities – which is not a standard procedure at the moment. Serious human rights violations have been reported by several organizations and the Congolese state is not able to implement  comprehensive forestry legislation.

Congolese communities themselves are logging considerably large areas of forest because they need a source of energy for cooking, a Congolese ethnologist and lecturer who was among the audience brought into the discussion.

 

Although FSC-certification is not yet possible in the DRC, Karmann was optimistic that the FSC label, which is given out to companies who comply with ecological and social standards, could help to protect the world’s second largest tropical forest. Schenck from “Rettet den Regenwald” expressed concerns that mistakes when giving out the label and the incentives for certifying organizations to label companies too early might cause problems.

When someone from the audience asked what to buy and what to avoid the clear message from the panelists to the consumers was: Avoid buying tropical wood – or buy FSC certified.
 

More information about the event that has been supported by the oikos Project Development Fund is available in German.