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 Barry Gardiner, Member of Parliament for Brent North and Gordon
Brown’s Special Envoy for Forestry visited the DRC between 21-24 January
at special invitation of the DRC’s Environment Minister, José Endundo.
Mr Gardiner came to see first hand the immense pressures on the DRC’s
forests – the second largest intact tropical rainforest in the world
with huge significance in the fight against global warming – from land
conversion, demographic changes and commercial logging.
His second main objective was to explore how the
£50 million Congo
Basin Fund, established by the British Prime Minister to fight
deforestation in the region, could best be deployed for the dual
objective of poverty reduction and sustainable forest management.
Mr Gardiner met with a wide range of forestry stakeholders from government,
civil society (including pygmies) and the private sector. He also spent
two days in Equateur Province, home to two thirds of the DRC's tropical
rainforest, where he met with the provincial governor and several
members of his cabinet to discuss the challenges facing the forests in
the province.
At a press conference before leaving Kinshasa for Brazzaville, Mr
Gardiner
highlighted that the sustainable management of the DRC's forests is in
the strong interest of the people of the DRC as well as the global
community.
What is DFID doing on forestry?
DFID is funding a Roundtable process involving DRC and international
stakeholders to identify economic alternatives to industrial-scale
logging. The £50 million UK contribution to the Congo Basin forestry
Fund could be an important way to support the implementation of
alternatives identified.
DFID is also contributing to a joint fund managed by the World Bank
to help the DRC Ministry of Environment improve the way DRC’s forests
are managed.
Related Links
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Quick Facts about the DRC |
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- There are around 60 million people in the DRC and most of them live
on less than one dollar a day.
- More boys than girls get a primary
school education. Only 52% of primary age children are enrolled in
school, compared to 100% in the UK
- The average life expectancy is 43,
compared to 78 in the UK. (WBDD)
- 1,289 women die in childbirth per
100,000. The UK figure is 11.
- Less than 46% of the population has
access to safe and clean water, 29% in rural areas, compared to 100% in
UK
- The average annual economic growth rate over the past 4 years is
5.5%.
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