DRC: Lost forests; lost livelihoods

SOURCE:

W R M B U L L E T I N 84
July 2004 - English edition
WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT
MOVIMIENTO MUNDIAL POR LOS BOSQUES

International Secretariat
Maldonado 1858; Montevideo, Uruguay
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy
Editor: Ricardo Carrere

Congo, Democratic Republic: Pygmies stand up to World Bank logging
development

Together with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO),
the World Bank is supporting the development of comprehensive new forestry
laws in the Congo, as well as the 'zoning' of the country's entire forest
area which would imply the logging of some 60 million hectares of tropical
forest. More than 100 environment, development and human rights groups had
challenged in February of this year those projects (see WRM Bulletin Nº
80).

This process has been debated for some time. In February and March 2003 we
had already published evidence disseminated by activist Karl Ammann, who
disclosed how an Aide Memoire of the World Bank was actually the World
Bank's advise on how to reactivate the forestry sector (see WRM Bulletins
Nº 67 and 68) in order for the DRC to become the first timber producer in
Africa. The World Bank has been thus laying the grounds for the
development of industrial logging in the country.

However, this wouldn't go without impacts. According to the Bank's own
estimates, as many as 35 million of the Congo's 50 million people depend
on the forests for their very survival. All those people could see their
livelihood undermined at the best, or even destroyed.

On last July 8, one of the potentially most affected groups --the 'Pygmy'
peoples-- put their case directly to World Bank President James Wolfensohn
requesting him to halt plans that could unleash a wave of destruction on
the rainforests where they live. This action took place during a video
conference organised by the Rainforest Foundation UK, which is also
challenging the Bank's plans for a massive increase in industrial logging
in the Congo.

This wouldn't be the first case for the World Bank disrupting the life of
'Pygmies': in Cameroon, the Bagyeli --one of the many different 'Pygmy'
peoples-- are threatened by a World Bank-sponsored oil pipeline which is
to be built through their land. The 'Pygmy' are forest dwellers, and know
the forest, its plants and its animals intimately. They live by hunting
animals such as antelopes, pigs and monkeys, fishing, and gathering honey,
wild yams, berries and other plants. They are seeing their rainforest
homes threatened by logging, and are being driven out by settlers. In some
places they have been evicted and their land has been designated as
national parks.

"You must not forget that the lives of indigenous peoples depend on the
forest," Adolphine Muley of the Congolese Union of Indigenous Women (UEFA)
told the World Bank President. "For a 'Pygmy' to talk of forest
exploitation is to talk of reinforcing misery and poverty. You must put
strategies in place so that the 'Pygmy' peoples are not damaged by the
system that you are developing."

Article based on information from: "Congo 'Pygmies' meet with World Bank
President", Press Release of the Rainforest Foundation, 8 July 2004,
www.rainforestfoundation.org.uk, sent by Simon Counsell, E-mail:
[email protected] ; "Tribes & People Groups. Pygmies", The Africa
Guide, http://www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/pygmies.htm
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