07/08/01 -- African Rainforest "Eden" to Be Spared

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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

African Rainforest "Eden" to Be Spared

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07/08/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

A German logging company has spared a 100 square mile African

rainforest from logging. This globally significant rainforest, where

wildlife are not familiar with humans, has been called an "African

Eden", and will be added to the adjacent Nouabal-Ndoki National Park

in the Congo Republic. It is time for other rainforest logging

companies to live up to their responsibilities to humanity and the

global ecosystem, and refrain from any further logging in the World's

remaining large rainforest wildlands. Forests.org calls upon

rainforest logging companies to follow this important precedent, and

voluntarily give up all rights to log any old-growth rainforest

wildernesses. This once off gesture must not be allowed to justify

continued industrial logging of the World's last great old-growth

forests. The assertion stated below by the World Resources Institute

that logging companies are "here to stay in central Africa" must be

rejected - in Africa and the World's other major rainforests.

Industrial logging of rainforest wildlands is an endangered business.

It will be stopped.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: German Loggers to Leave 'African Eden' Untouched

Date: July 7, 2001

Byline: ANDREW C. REVKIN

In a move that wildlife biologists say has spared an African Eden, a

German logging company said yesterday that it had given up its lease

on a tract of swamp-fringed rain forest in the Congo Republic. The

Congo government said the land, the 100-square-mile Goualogo

Triangle, would be added to the adjacent Nouabal,-Ndoki National

Park.

Biologists at a news conference at the Bronx Zoo, where the deal was

announced, called the tract an untouched ecosystem set in a fast-

deteriorating landscape. They said it was one of the few places left

in central Africa where animals showed no fear of humans, because few

humans have ever set foot there. African conservation experts said

this was the first time a logging company had voluntarily given up

land rights without some tradeoff.

The agreement was announced by officials from the company and the

Congo government and scientists from the zoo's parent organization,

the Wildlife Conservation Society, which worked with the company to

survey the region's wildlife.

The Goualogo tract, in the remote north, is bordered by two unbridged

rivers and flooded forests. People who venture in "feel like you're

violating a place, like you don't belong," said Paul Elkan, a

biologist who spent two years surveying the holdings of the logging

company for the conservation society.

Mr. Elkan described the moment last year when he realized there was

something special about this place.

In Central Africa, when chimpanzees spot humans, the chimps'

reaction, honed by long experience with meat-hunting crews, is to

shriek and vanish.

After crossing the Ndoki River, establishing a camp and then cutting

a trail, Mr. Elkan and the other surveyors heard chimps nearby, he

said. A storm swept in and the surveyors raced back toward camp. But

the sound of the chimps did not fade. "They were following me," he

said. "I went back and met them."

As the team explored the area, which is about four times the size of

Manhattan, they found that many chimpanzees, gorillas, forest

antelope, red colobus monkeys and other animals showed little fear

and in many cases showed almost as much curiosity as the human

interlopers. Mr. Elkan described trails created by herds of forest

elephants as "boulevards."

Preservation of the tract was the fruit of a new relationship between

African loggers and conservationists, who until now have tended to

battle each other.

"Logging companies are here to stay in central Africa," said Jean-

Gael Collomb, a biologist who maps logging leases for the World

Resources Institute, a private group in Washington. "At some point

you have to give up and realize that to reach your objectives you

have to be a bit more creative, including working with some of them."

Giuseppe Topa, the chief forestry specialist for the World Bank,

said, "The big news here for me is simply that there is a place in

Congo that had never seen a man."

Officials of the German-owned company, Congolaise Industrielle des

Bois, or C.I.B., said that once the biological riches in this

particular tract were evident, it was clear the land had to be set

aside, even though they estimated the timber was worth $40 million.

Hinrich L. Stoll, the president of the company, said: "Therewas no

compensation to us for this. This decision came from a mutual

understanding to give up part of a forest with great value." The

company, the largest employer in Congo, with 1,200 workers, is

privately held and does not release its earnings.

Mr. Stoll said the decision was part of an intensifying effort to

shed the longstanding image of tropical loggers as despoilers of

fragile ecosystems. Like most logging companies in Africa, C.I.B. has

long been the target of boycotts and criticism, particularly by

European environmental groups.

The company retains leases on more than 5,000 square miles of forest

land in Northern Congo, but in 1999 reached agreement with the

government and the Wildlife Conservation Society to limit hunting by

its cutting crews and to plan its harvest in ways that would limit

environmental damage.

The decision to set aside the Goualogo tract came after a four-month

survey last year of its wood and wildlife by scientists and experts

from the conservation group, the company and the Congo Forestry

Ministry.

At the news conference, Henri Djombo, the forestry minister, said his

country was hoping for assistance from wealthy countries in return

for protecting this tract and many others. Eleven percent of Congo's

land is set aside as parks.

Mr. Topa, of the World Bank, said the Congo government was doing a

good job of trying to build respect in a region where most

governments are either shattered or riddled with corruption.

"We've been bashing African governments because they don't do enough

for conservation," he said. "We should recognize such efforts when

they occur."

Some private environmental groups were not as quick to hail the

announcement.

The partnership between C.I.B. and the Wildlife Conservation Society

has long been criticized by some groups, particularly in Europe, that

see the efforts as a possible attempt by the company to polish its

image without changing its practices.

Yesterday Simon Counsell, the director of the Rainforest Foundation

in Britain, said, "It's very hard to know whether C.I.B. should be

deserving of any green plaudits because apart from selected people

from W.C.S., the company has refused to allow independent

environmental observers into their logging areas."

Dr. John G. Robinson, the Wildlife Conservation Society's vice

president for international conservation, said other outside groups,

including a television crew from the BBC, had recently toured the

region.

"The company has been a constructive partner," he said. "The net

result for conservation has been good, and the Goualogo Triangle by

itself is an amazing step."

ITEM #2

Title: Logging Co. Returns Rainforest Land

Date: July 6, 2001

Byline: JUDIE GLAVE, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - A pristine Central African rainforest dense with

gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants will be left wild after a

logging company said Friday it would return the land to the Republic

of Congo.

The 100-square-mile Goualogo Triangle contains mahogany and other

valuable hardwoods that, if harvested, could bring $1.5 million a

year to the country's fragile economy.

Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, a private timber company, announced

the deal Friday with Republic of Congo leaders and representatives of

the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Timber company President Hinrich Stoll said the sacrifice was

economically difficult, but protecting the forest was the right

decision. The logging company received nothing for the land.

``We're giving up one of the richest places on earth,'' he said. ``We

all realize that this is worth the sacrifice.''

Logging is the Republic of Congo's largest industry. Minister of

Forestry Economy Henri Djombo said although his country is still

putting itself together after a civil war and could use the money, it

is committed to conserving valuable forest land.

``The Republic of Congo depends on forest resources for use for

economic development but it is also deeply committed to biodiversity,

conservation, forest management,'' Djombo said.

John Robinson, senior vice president of the Wildlife Conservation

Society, said the company's willingness to give back forest that it

has a legal right to cut was unprecedented and proves that

government, industry and conservationists can work together.

The Goualogo Triangle is on the southern end of Nouabale-Ndoki

National Park, which was created in 1993. It was left out of the park

then, but conservation leaders pushed to protect it because of its

environmental riches.

The Republic of Congo, which designates 11 percent of its land as

protected, will fold the tract of rainforest into the park

boundaries.

The Goualogo Triangle is largely untouched because it lies between

the Ndoki and Goualogo rivers in forest swampland. National

Geographic magazine called it ``The Last Place on Earth'' and Time

referred to it as the ``Last Eden.''

Conservationist Paul Elkan, who spent four months in the rainforest,

on Friday described magnificent boulevards of century-old elephant

trails and chimps and gorillas that are so unaccustomed to humans

that they approach without fear.

``When you go there, you feel like you're violating the place,''

Elkan said. ``You feel like you don't belong.''

The announcement was made at the Bronx Zoo's gorilla exhibit. All

profits from the exhibition are sent to conservation efforts in

Africa. About $2.5 million has been raised since the exhibit opened

in 1999.

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