race against time

DRC: Tshisekedi and the impossible clean-up of the Congolese forests

in depth

This article is part of the dossier:

Timber Trafficking

By Romain Gras

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Posted on July 15, 2022 13:59

The Congolese head of state has promised to bring order to the forestry sector, but given the anarchy that reigns there, does he have the means to reassure donors and potential investors?

This is part 6 of a 6-part series

The date had been ticked off the Congolese diplomatic agenda for several months. Ministers, advisors, diplomats … A vast delegation walked the aisles of the Scottish Event Campus of Glasgow alongside Felix Tshisekedi on 2 November 2021.

Was COP26 the highlight of the mandate of the Congolese president at the head of the African Union (AU)? In Kinshasa it was said that it would be the culmination of the DRC’s “return to the world stage”. The language had been worked on for weeks. “My country, with its massive forests, peat bogs, water resources and strategic minerals, presents itself as a solution to the climate crisis,” Tshisekedi said at the podium.

Biden, ABO and Johnson

This is an attractive proposition since DRC is home to the majority of the Congo Basin forest, the world’s second largest lung. However, the management of the Congolese forestry

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