Our work only serves to support the country in implementing the global biodiversity framework and the climate agenda by halting the erosion of biodiversity through the trafficking of timber.
Forest defenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have stepped up their battle against a jail sentence and a hefty fine given to a colleague, in a case they say has been corrupted by illegal loggers.
A court in Kasongo, in the country’s eastern province of Maniema, sentenced Yahya Mirambo Bin Lubangi to six months in jail and a fine equivalent to around US$4,000 in November.
The case was bought by a logger, who claimed that Lubangi issued death threats and damaged property during his campaigning, allegations Lubangi denies.
Suspended
Lubangi works for SOCEARUCO, a local environmental NGO. For several years, illegal loggers have been extracting a threatened species of rosewood in Maniema and South Kivu, the organisation says. In 2018, the country’s authorities prohibited the logging of mukula, the regional term for the species of rosewood threatened by the logging.
Environmental activists successfully campaigned for the species to be listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that a permit is needed to export it.
However, the DRC Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development lifted the ban in November 2023, according to local media outlet Desk Nature. SOCEARUCO believes that state-run border and environmental agencies are complicit with the network of loggers.
The administrator of Kabambare district, Albert Walubangi Katuta, suspended all logging activities in the region in September. According to Katuta, it is taking some time for people to get used to the change
Alerted
“People were used to their system… it takes time and that is how it creates tension between the operators and us who are taking measures so that this exploitation can no longer continue,” he said.
Katuta believed that the logging was often down to ignorance. “People do not know that the tree is the basis of human life and we must necessarily protect the forests, especially since we do not have the means to travel everywhere in order to raise awareness in the entire community, and logging operators coming from different places.”
He praised the provincial governor Mussa Kabwankubi Moïse, with whom he was working closely to prevent illegal logging.
Josué Aruna, president of environmental civil society and executive director of the ONG Congo Basin Conservation Society CBCS-Network said that it had first alerted the national authorities to the logging in 2020.
Our work only serves to support the country in implementing the global biodiversity framework and the climate agenda by halting the erosion of biodiversity through the trafficking of timber.
Sentencing
“The situation has only worsened as a result of the corruption used by the illegal loggers.
“This exploitation is taking on a new dimension, with a network involving certain provincial deputies, armed groups and logging companies, with the blessing of certain provincial authorities,“ he said.
The administrator of the Kabambare territory issued a letter suspending all forms of illegal logging of redwood in the area, but the logging has continued, he said. Aruna blamed this on the loggers’ network of politicians and armed groups.
At Bin Lumbangi’s trial in October, the president of the court refused to let his lawyer represent him despite the fact that he could not appear in person due to health problems, Aruna said.
“The judge took the case under advisement and rushed to hand down a judgment sentencing Yahaya to six months’ imprisonment and a fine equivalent to US$4,000,” he said.
Intimidation
The judge refused another request by SOCEARUCO to reopen the case, and handed down judgment on 4 November. “We saw suspicions of corruption in the handling of this case, and that our colleague did not receive a fair trial,” he said.
“We are no longer confident with this court and we want to oppose this judgment against our colleague and our work,” he added. SOCEARUCO’s appeal against Yahya’s sentence was heard at a court in Kisongo this week.
“We are calling for international solidarity to persuade the DRC authorities to protect environmental defenders, because our work only serves to support the country in implementing the global biodiversity framework and the climate agenda by halting the erosion of biodiversity through the trafficking of timber,” he said.
Staff of SOCEARUCO have been subject to death threats and intimidation, according to Aruna.
A lawyer acting for the loggers declined to comment on the case.
Spotlight
The case highlights the wider links between corruption and illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have beset the country and held back attempts to control deforestation for decades, according to investigative environmental organisation Global Witness.
The DRC is home to approximately 60 per cent of the Congo Basin rainforest, the second-largest tropical forest in the world and a vital carbon sink. Logging, including industrial logging, is a key driver and catalyst of forest degradation and deforestation in the country.
International demand for Congolese timber plays a key role in driving logging in the DRC, it says. In 2022, China imported more timber from DRC than any other country, although the scale of illegality and cross-border trade makes the total amount of timber exported difficult to calculate.
Though the DRC government introduced a moratorium on new logging concessions in 2002, new contracts have continued to be allocated. Similarly, a ban on the export of logs bought in the same year contains significant loopholes, and in any case has not been implemented.
A wide-ranging investigation by Actions pour la Promotion et Protection des Peuples et Espèces Menacés (APEM), Environmental Investigation Agency, and Rainforest Foundation UK published in October found that industrial logging in the DRC is plagued by illegalities, including violation of harvesting quotas, misdeclaration of species to enable overharvesting for Chinese clients, and routine payment of bribes.
Community
Analysis carried out for the investigation of 82 forest concessions managed by 29 companies and covering approximately 14.5 million hectares found that only six per cent of industrial logging concessions in the country met the criteria for legality according to the country’s own forest code.
More than 42 per cent of logging concessions had not paid tax they owe the DRC state, while only 15 per cent of companies are compliant with their socioeconomic obligations to local communities.
“The vast majority of forest concession holders in DRC are failing to meet even the most basic environmental, social and fiscal standards,” said Blaise Mudodosi, APEM national coordinator.
Though the DRC government suspended the contracts of 16 concessions operating illegally early last year, it did not go far enough, he added.
It should take similar actions with other illegal companies, shelve a plan to open up tens of millions of hectares of forests to the timber industry, and expand its support for scaling up community forest management in the country, he added.
Protest
Charlie Hammans, an investigator with Global Witness, said: “If you have money in the DRC, and you want to operate, it's very easy to do, so even if you don’t respect the laws locally.”
The danger faced by local people opposing the loggers was highlighted in 2022 when the Congo Sunflower Forestry Development company orchestrated physical violence against the villagers of Tokoma in the Tshuapa province of DRC after they seized some of the company’s equipment from a site illegally being operated on their lands.
The company called in military support instead of taking legal proceedings through civil channels. Two of the villagers were shot, with one having to have his leg amputated due to the severity of his injuries.
“It’s really quite a dangerous environment for communities to protest in,” Hammans said.
The DRC’s secretary general for the environment and sustainable development Benjamin Toirambe Bamoninga were approached for comment on this article, but had not responded at the time of publication.
This Author
Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. Find her on Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social.