Feb 12, 2024
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Rainforest Politics in Brazil and Congo
My colleague Dionne Searcey went on a journey along the Congo River that revealed the sprawling, haphazard timber industry, much of it illegal, behind the destruction of a rainforest that is crucial to efforts to curb global warming.
The article described problems that are very similar to the ones I have seen in my reporting in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil: rampant deforestation, a community dependent on an illegal industry and a history of corrupt leadership.
There is one key difference, though.
While Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, refuses to recognize the problem and has actively weakened environmental protection policies, President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo wants his country to be a climate leader.
Congo and Brazil are home to the two largest parcels of rainforest in the world. Their governmental policies will shape these forests’ ability to remain powerful carbon sinks and shelters to almost half of the world’s species.
I talked to Dionne to understand the similarities and differences between the two countries.
Continue reading.
Oil exploration in the Congo rainforest would be a pollution disaster for communities that depend on it and for wildlife.
Excerpt from this Op-Ed from the New York Times:
A vast rainforest stretches for 1,500 miles across central Africa. The mighty Congo River and its tributaries are the main highways into this hard-to-reach region.
This land of towering trees is home to forest elephants, bonobos and millions of people; it helps regulate our climate and slows climate change by removing 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo speculates that up to 16 billion barrels of oil may lie under the rainforest. In addition to accelerating the climate crisis, oil exploration here would be a pollution disaster for communities that depend on it and for wildlife. It could also become a major new source of civil unrest in an already unstable country. Given that the 1998-2003 Congo War and its aftermath killed more people than any conflict since World War II, everything possible should be done to avoid conflict in Congo.
The Congo government is reportedly auctioning exploratory oil drilling rights across an immense area on July 28 and 29. Of the 16 blocks on sale, nine are in the “central basin” rainforest region, covering roughly 59 million acres of land. That’s more land than the states of New York and Maine combined. This is a hastily arranged sale, probably driven by Congo’s coming presidential election and a hope of attracting oil companies with windfall profits driven by the Ukraine war.
Four of the rainforest blocks, by my estimate, include about 2.5 million acres of peat swamp forest. This waterlogged ecosystem was first identified, by a team I led, as the world’s largest tropical peatland in 2017. The peat stores colossal amounts of carbon, equivalent to three years’ worth of the world’s carbon emissions from fossil fuel use.
Commercial hunters find reaching the waterlogged swamps difficult, so these peat swamp forests remain havens for wildlife. But oil prospecting requires the systematic cutting of thousands of miles of corridors to transport seismic survey equipment. If cut, these corridors will open up every part of the forest, with hunters and then illegal loggers following, dooming this natural sanctuary for wildlife.
Video Credit: xXx
The Baka, or Bayaka people live in the central African rainforests, mainly situated in the southeast of Cameroon but also in the Congo basin and in Gabon. Experts in forest life, they are well known for their use of water as a drum instrument or water drumming.
Their musical talents have been well documented and studied for many generations at this point, their cultural practices turning everyday items and elements gleaned from nature into musical instruments.
Water drumming is a popular tribal practice among women and children during the long days of arduous jungle heat and daily chores to both have fun and keep cool throughout. It is a kinetic and playful ritual among many in their culture that invites the doer to interact with their surroundings on an intimate and unserious level.
To help fund and sponsor Bayaka indigenous communities, visit these links below:
https://gbine.com/ https://globalmusicexchange.org/
The 23-years-old climate activist from Uganda spoke to us about climate change in Uganda, the Congo Rainforest, and being a black organizer
The 23-years-old climate activist from Uganda spoke to us about climate change in Uganda, the Congo Rainforest, and being a black organizer of climate strikes. You can follow her on twitter and Instagram.
Ecosia: Does the climate crisis affect people in Uganda already?
Vanessa Nakate: I've seen people being affected by the climate crisis in Uganda. We are facing extreme weather conditions – torrential rains – which have caused flooding and landslides in vast parts of the country. It's affecting the availability of food and clean water. People are devastated by the losses they've encountered – they've lost property, farms, and loved ones. It's heartbreaking to realize that they are already looking climate change in the face. Only the privileged can escape this problem, and I believe it's going to get worse.