2023-07-26 12:19:24
KINSHASA – With the support of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is organizing, from July 19 to 21, an “Economic Forum on the New Economy of the Climate” supposed to “accompany the Congolese private sector to take full advantage of the carbon market in a climate of high integrity”. However, it is important to stress that the current climate in which entrepreneurs in this market operate strictly lacks integrity, both in the DRC and elsewhere.
A recent forest audit, of which the Minister of the Environment, Eve Bazaiba, wanted to keep exclusive control, reveals the existence of 22 or 26 REDD+ concessions, the number depending on the version of the ministerial report consulted. Although the Bazaiba commission recommended numerous formal notices, it only recommended the termination of two of these contracts. In reality, it is land grabbing pure and simple.
A week ago, Ms. Bazaiba announced the implementation of six REDD+ projects “similar to that of the company ERA Congo” in the much maligned Mai-Ndombe.
“No details on the identity of the promoters of these new projects, scattered across five provinces – including that of the minister. No indication, either, of the current stage of the famous “negotiations” that these promoters are conducting – or not – with the beneficiary communities,” says Serge Sabin Ngwato, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.
“It is true that the Minister herself did not sign the recent REDD+ contract with a partly American consortium guaranteeing it, in Ecuador, no less than thirty “emissions management units” of 200,000 ha each. , almost the size of Norway. It was the Governor of Ecuador who took charge of this, in the most total discretion, on March 17,” he adds.
“Six million hectares of which the American embassy does not say a word? The donors of the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) are not campaigning for a climate of high integrity either, even though one of the “milestones” of the letter of intent they have signed with the DRC at COP26 in Glasgow stipulates that all conservation concession contracts should be published “on a publicly available website by [fin 2022]” » said Serge Sabin Ngwato.
“The problem isn’t just that it’s mid-2023 now and still not a shadow of such a website. It is also, above all, that last December the CAFI approved the transfer of 60.2 million dollars to the account of the National REDD+ Fund (FONAREDD), despite the failure to achieve the milestone in question, as well as many others” , he continues.
In a moving opening speech at the Carbon Forum, the British ambassador, whose country is a contributor to CAFI, did not mention it.
The Head of State’s special envoy for the New Climate Economy explains that “the Head of State’s vision” is to “create Congolese millionaires through a low-carbon business model”.
“Creating millionaires: a great program in a country where almost one in three people is hungry,” concludes Serge Sabin Ngwato.
Source: Greenpeace Africa press release, 20.07.23
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