in the Congo Basin, the fight to save a forest less known than the Amazon but vital for the planet

The Congo Basin forest has become, ahead of the Amazon forest, the largest carbon sink in the world. The extent of deforestation of this forest massif remains little known in Europe. Estelle Ewoule Lobe, Cameroonian activist, is fighting to raise awareness of this cause.

If you ask around you what is the second largest tropical forest after the Amazon rainforest, it’s a safe bet that few people will answer: the Congo Basin forest. However, this is the case and in recent years, according to the World Bank, the African forest has also become the leading carbon sink in the world, ahead of its big South American sister.

This massif of forests with an area of ​​3.7 million square kilometers, the equivalent of France and India combined, extends over six African countries, in the watershed of the Congo River: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Cameroon. With, according to Global Watch Forest, 650,000 hectares of forest disappearing in 2022, deforestation is accelerating sharply in this region. The relative lack of awareness of this issue by the general public certainly has something to do with it.

Estelle Ewoule Lobe, a 35-year-old Cameroonian, is one of the winners 2023 of the Marianne initiative for human rights defenders. She actively campaigns in her country to fight against deforestation in the Congo Basin. Present last weekend in Paris at the We Love Green festival during a round table on the climate, she knows that her fight begins with global awareness. “The Amazonian problem has been widely publicized and the problem of the Congo Basin forests has been relegated to the second level. It is up to us, the leaders of African civil society, to raise awareness of this issue. The real problem is the lack of information.” And to continue with this question: “If people are not aware of this environmental disaster, how can they be interested in it?”

Many causes explain this intensive deforestation in the Congo Basin: the timber industry in the first place, but also agriculture, mining very present in the DRC or even massive bush fires. Added to this is the trafficking of protected species and the illegal exploitation of resources. “We are witnessing a crime, a widespread crime, a global crime” denounces Estelle Ewoule Lobe. The parallel with organized crime is obvious to her: “It is an octopus that embraces financial crime, human trafficking, environmental crime. Corruption has infiltrated at all levels. It is urgent to unite all possible actors around this problem to cut the barriers. tentacles of this octopus.” The presence of China, increasingly important in these forests, is not without concern for the young activist.

Estelle Ewoule Lobe has high expectations from the upcoming French and European measures aimed at combating deforestation in Africa. These measures could show the way for the international community. The first of these directly concerns these “environmental crimes”. From July 2024, 100 observers responsible for documenting environmental crime will be deployed in Cameroon, Gabon and the DRC. A project partly financed by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with three civil society organizations engaged locally in the defense of the Congo Basin forest. Among them, theAction for the protection of internally displaced persons and environmental migrants in Africa (Apadime), in Cameroon, that Estelle Ewoule Lobe co-founded.

The other expectation of the Cameroonian activist is the entry into force in January 2025 of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) which aims to ban products that have contributed to the degradation of forests. “We are calling on French companies, European companies, to respect this commitment to help us at the local level to fight against deforestation. Because unfortunately for you, in Europe and fortunately for us Africans, our destiny is linked by the climate. Either we fall together or we escape together.”