SOURCE: World Rainforest Movement
International Secretariat
http://www.wrm.org.uy

- Congo, Republic: Deals and partnerships between loggers and
conservationists

Three years ago a deal between the authorities of Gabon and a French
logging company traded away 10,352 hectares of the Lope Reserve in return
for 5,200 hectares of a previously not protected area of remote upland
primary forests being added to the reserve (see WRM Bulletin Nº 38). The
highly controversial deal was arranged by officials of the US-based
organization Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

In 2001, the stage moved to Congo Brazzaville. Wildlife Conservation
Society announced a deal involving the Goualogo triangle, bordering the
Nouabale Ndoki Park, but this time the only reference to compensation for
the involved CIB logging company (Congolaise Industrielle des Bois) was in
form of strong statements to the effect that there was NO trade off
involved (maybe they have learnt).

There have been a lot of public relations around that. Dr. Stoll, the
Chief Executive Officer of CIB, stated the following: "CIB has shelved its
plans for exploitation of the Goualogo Triangle. There can be no question
regarding as this having been some kind of commercial transaction/trade
off!"

On August 27th 2002, John Robinson, Vice President at WCS, responded to an
inquiry regarding the triangle compensation by stating in an e-mail to
Dale Peterson, author of the book "Eating Apes": "The questions that you
pass along from Karl reflect his lack of understanding. ... this is the
first time I have heard any discussion of 'compensation' between CIB and
WCS on the Goualogo (the idea is in itself insulting)."

When questioning the then ITTO (International Tropical Timber
Organization) president in a telephone conversation on the deal in 2002,
Karl Amman was told: "The original proposal to cede the southern corner of
the park, so that CIB would not have to build expensive roads through
swamp, was rejected in a meeting in January 2002, and it was agreed to
compensate CIB with a piece of forest along the Central African Republic
border."

In December 2002, one of the few tourist visitors which managed to get
uninvited through to the concession and the WCS headquarters in Kabo told
that the new concession that was given lately in compensation of the
triangle is called Pikounda. The information that CIB received sixty
thousand hectares towards Pikounda was confirmed by the National
Reforestation Service (SNR).

The final conclusion is that a compensation deal has been completed and
that, as in the Lope transaction, the loggers won in terms of area gained.

As Karl Amman incisively puts it: "It is clear that a wide range of
players, having in one way or the other been sucked into this 'success'
story, had to now evaluate any response to any of the above questions and
had to do so within the context of a range of conflicting interests.
Deciding on how ecologically or economically important these areas are or
were and then to compare them, would most likely end in a never ending and
inconclusive debate. The question which arises is: Can conservationists
and NGOs afford to be painted with the same brush when it comes to basic
transparency? Are there any established policies and procedures in place
when negotiating such partnership deals. If not, why not? If there are,
what are they? Are we walking into a situation where, while logging is
green-washed, the timber industry successfully manages to further
"black-wash" the conservation establishment?"

All readers, listeners, watchers and consumers of mass media, all the paid
journalists and Public Relation companies should have some dignity left
and say: Enough is enough!

Adapted from: "Compensation or no compensation? - That seems to be the
question", by Karl Amman, 14 Oct. 2003 (full text at:
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Congo/question.html), sent by ECOTERRA
International, e-mail: [email protected]