A great deal has been made of the fact that the community\u2019s contours can now be mapped from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
\nEven before commerce can lap far beyond either ocean\u2019s shores, F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2014the DRC\u2019s President\u2014has been quick to offer assurances that his country\u2019s nearly 94 million-strong population will not be a statistical rounding error.
\nAfter signing the EAC Treaty accession documents in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on April 8, Mr Tshisekedi made no secret that he was caught in a shiver of excitement.<\/p>\n
Let me reiterate the desire of the DRC to see the creation of a new organ in the EAC that is solely focused on mining, natural resources and energy that will be based in the DRC,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThe people of the DRC not only want to benefit from the community economically but also want commerce and trade to thrive in an environment of peace and security for everyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While the restive Great Lakes region has spent a disproportionate time putting out fires, Mr Tshisekedi talked up \u201crenew[ing a] historical attachment\u201d anyway. It\u2019s safe to say his opposite numbers were pleased by the tenor of the remarks. Kenya\u2019s Uhuru Kenyatta\u2014the EAC Heads of State Summit chair\u2014spared no praise for the DRC, noting that it swells the community\u2019s population to \u201cabout 300 million and our gross domestic product [to] $250 billion.\u201d Even Uganda\u2019s Yoweri Museveni outdid himself in his proclamation of a \u201ccommon social infrastructure.\u201d Rwanda\u2019s Paul Kagame was more circumspect in his urging \u201cto get down to do the work that is entailed in the statements we have made to our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carbon sink<\/strong><\/p>\n
The socio-ecological issues in the in-tray are dangerously full. Indeed, shifting weather patterns in the Great Lakes region mean the question of ecological footprint should be front and centre. Yet the Congo Basin\u2019s potential to act as a carbon sink has been consigned to a subordinate role. Instead, news that some of the DRC\u2019s vast minerals (lithium and cobalt) will steer the Fourth Industrial Revolution has met an enthusiastic audience.
\nFour days before President Tshisekedi signed the EAC deed of accession, the United Nations\u2019s (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the third volume of its assessment report.<\/p>\nThe report does not shy away from the fact that climate impacts on Africa will be brutally unforgiving even if the continent most probably emits the least greenhouse gases. It also highlights the role that forests can play in extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
\nStraddling 300m hectares, the Congo Basin could well be the lungs of\u2014if not Africa then certainly\u2014the Great Lakes region.<\/p>\nYet the carbon-rich peatland faces widespread deforestation, with the DRC\u2019s annual forest cover loss estimated at a dizzying one million hectares.
\nThe Inspection G\u00e9n\u00e9rale des Finances\u2019s 2021 report on the same made for grim reading. The DRC\u2019s ombudsman tore into the \u201cculpable laxity\u201d of state actors that has seen moratoriums on logging concessions in the world\u2019s second largest rainforest repeatedly violated.
\nAlong with illegal logging, the migratory practice of shifting cultivation has contributed to widespread deforestation in the Congo Basin. Slash-and-burn farming methods intended to add potash to the soil as cultivators abandon one plot for another are widely believed to contribute to climate change.
\nStudies by organisations such as the African Forest Forum have established that nearly 30 billion tonnes of carbon have been released as greenhouse gases due to forest encroachment in eastern and southern Africa. Deforestation has made holding forest-based carbon a tough needle for the Congo Basin to thread.<\/p>\nIllegal logging<\/h3>\n
Among the more than 10,000 plant species that dot the Congo Basin is the African teak\u2014popularly known as mvule in Uganda. Famed for building furniture and flooring, its seductiveness made plunder seem not just possible but perhaps inevitable during the Second Congo War. An inquiry into allegations around illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the DRC between May of 2001 and November of 2002 tore the lid off a Pandora\u2019s box.
\nOne of the sobering jolts the inquest unearthed was that the tragedy in question was one hardly launched by innocence and good intentions. It discovered that \u201ctimber extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its export\u2026characterised by unlawfulness and illegality\u201d unfolded with vivid, unsettling ease.
\nThe report further stated: \u201cAnalysis of satellite images over a period of time reveals the extent to which deforestation occurred in Orientale Province between 1998 and 2000.
\nThe most harvested forests in the areas were around Djugu, Mambassa, Beni, Komanda, Luna, Mont Moyo and Aboro. This logging activity was carried out without consideration of any of the minimum acceptable rules of timber harvesting for sustainable forest management or even sustainable logging.\u201d
\nIt added:<\/p>\nTimber harvested in this region, which is occupied by the Ugandan army and RCD-ML, has exclusively transited or remained in Uganda. Our own investigation in Kampala has shown that mahogany originating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is largely available in Kampala, at a lower price than Ugandan mahogany. This difference in price is simply due to the lower cost of acquisition of timber. Timber harvested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Uganda pays very little or none at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Reparations<\/h3>\n
In January, the UN\u2019s top court ordered Uganda to pay the DRC $325m in reparations following the Second Congo War that played out from 1998 to 2003. The International Court of Justice assessed $60m for damage to natural resources such as timber.
\nThough tenuous, there have also been attempts to adopt sustainable agroforestry systems in the DRC\u2019s degraded forest areas. It\u2014for one\u2014joined the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programme in 2008.
\nBut as a 2021 report by the country\u2019s ombudsman made clear, illegal logging takes place with impunity. Human-induced climate change threatens the Congo Basin\u2019s success in acting as a bulwark against global warming. The wilderness area\u2014home to some of the world\u2019s critically endangered animal species\u2014has also come to be seen as a petri dish for zoonoses. Animal agriculture continues to thread through its food culture with unintended sinister repercussions, with pathogens in wildlife spilling over to humans.
\nUnlike the minerals and nearly 94 million-strong population, a price tag cannot be attached to the Congo Basin\u2019s status as the lungs of the Great Lakes region. With the DRC now in its tent, the EAC is duty-bound to ensure that the tropical rainforest continues to draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. A collapsed lung should be out of the question.<\/p>\nKivuAvenir-Nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recent accession of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the East African Community (EAC) has been framed socio-economically while receiving comparatively little attention via the socio-ecological lens. A great deal has been made of the fact that the community\u2019s contours can now be mapped from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"0","type":"percentage","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[{"good_text":""}],"bad":[{"bad_text":""}],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[{"rating_text":"","rating_number":"10"}],"price":[{"shop":"","price":"","link":"","icon":""}],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16667,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16658\/revisions\/16667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}