The Congo Basin is second only in size to the forests of the Amazon and unique because of its diverse eco-systems and wildlife. The forest conservation movement is striving to reconcile the demands of certified forestry and wilderness protection. My take is as follows. This ensures that sustainable management occurs within an intact ecological context. Placing certified logging within such a natural context is a prerequisite for rigorous ecological sustainability of natural forest landscapes.
Local peoples desire to manage their forests to meet their legitimate needs.
Failure to maintain these ecological systems would be a planetary catastrophe. The battle against poaching and illegal logging in the Congo Basin received a significant boost Thursday as three Central African nations agreed to share management of a 28,000 square kilometer stretch of forest. The Congo Basin is second only in size to the forests of the Amazon and unique because of its diverse eco-systems and wildlife. But these forests are under threat. Four million hectares of African forests are destroyed each year due to growing human population, illegal logging, poaching and conversion of forest land to other uses.