Africa: International 'summit' to determine fate of last great rainforest

Global financial institutions, governments, environmental experts, human rights campaigners and local people will today (February 15) discuss ways to protect the rainforests of the Congo (DRC) in a major conference taking place in Kinshasa. 30 international non-governmental organisations, including the Rainforest Foundation, the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF), Greenpeace and CARE-International will call on the government of Congo to:
- rigorously respect a moratorium on the issuing of new logging concessions that was approved by Congo's President, Joseph Kabila, in 2005;
- carefully map the country's vast area of forest to show where people are already living and depending on the forest for their survival;
- urgently undertake research into the ways that the forest can be managed in an environmentally sensitive way that brings real development to Congo's many poor people.