Congo Government Publishes Scathing Report on Logging Industry
- Audit says ministry gave illegal permits, didn’t collect taxes
- Publication is step to unlocking $500 million in climate funds
Kahuzi-Biega National Park, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Photographer: Alexis Huguet/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Democratic Republic of Congo published a scathing government audit report on the state of its forest and logging concessions, a first step in unlocking as much as $500 million in funding to support its climate-change commitments under the Central African Forest Initiative.
The Inspector General report, which is dated May 2021, alleges that between 2014 and 2020 Congo’s environmental ministry illegally allocated logging permits and defied a moratorium on new concessions in place since 2002. Millions of dollars in fees, taxes, and royalties related to the permits have either not been paid or not made it to the public treasury, the report says.