Are logging concessions a threat to the peatlands in DRC?

Abstract

In a letter jointly signed by 30 researchers and addressed publically to the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, Professor Simon Lewis (University of Leeds) and his colleagues denounced the potentially negative impact of logging in the vast swamplands of the Congolese Cuvette, which partly comprises peatlands. The letter requested that Norway refuse to fund a programme for sustainable forest management in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) submitted by Agence Française de Dévelop- pement (AFD) in 2017. The purpose of this programme is to revive legal logging, which is in sharp decline in the country, and to back better management of forest resources by provi- ding support to the national and provincial forestry boards, and by improving governance.

In DRC, as in the Republic of Congo, the law authorizes the inclusion of these swamplands in the concessions granted to logging companies. While quite rare in the Republic of Congo, in DRC around 4.5 million hectares, i.e. 26% of the swamplands in the country, are entirely or partially covered by thirty or so concessions.

The main criticism made against AFD is that it has  not considered the potential damage that logging in these concessions could cause in the peatlands. That criticism was justified by explicitly referring to the damage caused by this type of operation in the peatlands of Indonesia.

As scientists, we recognize the quality of the work done by Pr. Lewis and his colleagues and we are aware of the need to protect the peatlands of the Congolese Cuvette. However, we do question, in both substance and form, the arguments put forward by the team of researchers in its let- ter on how to achieve it... (continue in the pdf file, in English version)