Village resists forest sell-off

COMMUNITY: TAKE CONTROL OVER 11 000 HECTARES OF FOREST THEY CAN NOW PRESERVE

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The soft singing of workers rings out at daybreak in the Congolese village of Romee, whose wooded haven is threatened by a scramble for forest land that has sparked deadly violence.

In one of the world's biggest and most precious forests, these locals have so far escaped the clutches of investors seizing concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo's tropical wilderness - a vital "green lung" in the face of climate change.

Totalling approximately 150 million hectares, DRC's forests are prized by buyers of forest concessions - some for logging, others for contested carbon-offset programmes.

After four years of bureaucratic wrangling, villages making up the Yainyongo community, which includes Romee, in 2023 obtained two official concession titles, giving them control over 11 000 hectares of forest that they can now preserve in the northeastern Tshopo province.

Machete in hand, Romee resident Jean-Paul Bitilaongi rejoiced at their successful bid to keep the forest out of reach of the "rich people" he says are trying to plunder it.