Congo’s Pygmies to trade forests for salt, soap

More political leverage
There are other reasons for loggers to protest.

The new code gives government officials the power to revoke logging concessions at any time, leaving businesses at their continual mercy.

In the past, a large one-time payment to officials was sufficient to obtain a multiyear concession. Under the new law, loggers will have to constantly grease politicians' palms, even after committing heavy machinery and large investments to the forests.

Proponents of the code insist the government will protect poor people and is making amends for years of misuse of Congo's wood.

President Joseph Kabila ordered all forest concessions to be renewed in October 2005, a measure Environment Ministry officials claim is an attempt to weed out illegal dealings that led to large swaths of forest handed out to fraudulent businesses.

"The people will now have authority over their forests. If they say, 'We don't want logging,' it will be respected," senior Environment Ministry official Joseph Sudi told The Associated Press.

Pressure for profits
Sudi, though, also hinted at other pressures on the government, saying that "Congo needs its forests to start paying up." He said international donors and Congo's government are eyeing the Central African nation's timber to pay off over billions in foreign debt, accumulated mostly over three decades of dictatorial rule and a decade of war.

An initiative to protect the forests was launched in 2002 when the Congo Basin Forest Partnership was created at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in South Africa.

U.S. President Bush's administration is helping to fund that partnership, a move some say is aimed at countering criticism for his refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming in 2001.

The heaviest carbon emitter in the world could earn "carbon credits" for conservation work in Congo without having to cut emissions back home.

Sudi said Congo was negotiating measures to earn carbon credits itself: "If we choose to conserve the world's forests, we should be paid for it."

Meanwhile, a long way from the international debate, Congo's Pygmies are preparing to relinquish centuries-old sacred forests preserved by their ancestors.

"I will tell the spirit of the forest that his trees must be cut down," said Bokenu, the chief. "It is so his people can survive."

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