Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Democratic Republic of Congo.) The estimates for the percentage of bonobo range designated as
logging concessions are taken from Miles, Caldecott, and Nellemann, “Challenges to Great Ape
Survival,” in Miles and Caldecott,
World Atlas of Great Apes and Their Conservation
, 223-24.
243
The project would provide
The concessions would provide income to the national government,
paying them in the same way that a logging company would. Furthermore, the concession project
would provide “
cahiers de charge
” similar to what logging companies are supposed to provide.
This is a benefit package that would most likely include health clinics, infrastructure, schools, and
sustainable livelihood programs and assistance. The government normally should receive conces-
sion fees annually, to offset the loss from not having the land be logged.
An explanatory footnote from CIFOR, The World Bank, and CIRAD,
Forests in Post-conflict
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Analysis of a Priority Agenda
(Indonesia: Center for Interna-
tional Forestry Research, 2007) explains conservation concessions:
Although many of the details for implementing this approach have yet to be worked out, the
general idea of a conservation concession as provided for in the Forest Code is clear: by provid-
ing compensation, a conservation concession agreement would make the absence of logging
economically attractive to the government and to the local communities. It would offer reli-
able and steady compensation calibrated to offset the economic impact of foregone timber in-
dustry, in exchange for the right to manage the area as a protected site. This would be a legally
binding agreement. The specific commitments of the parties would be negotiated between the
biodiversity investors, local communities and the government. In essence, such an agreement
would stipulate that the government will not open the forest for logging as long as payments,
support to local development, and conservation activities are delivered, and vice versa, based
on agreed-upon indicators and performance standards.
Conservation concessions would come in addition to the country's commitment to establish
formal protected areas such as parks and reserves. They would be established in areas that
could otherwise be allocated for logging. At the time this study was being finalized, conser-
vation groups had expressed an interest in establishing such a conservation concession in the
DRC. This would be a pilot project for the Congo Basin. It should be noted however that, since
2000, the Government of Cameroon has set aside about 800,000 hectares of production forests
with a view to establishing such conservation concessions, but has not received any concrete
proposals so far. (76)
Epilogue: The Red Queen
251
If Zaire was one of
In
Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa
, Michael Schatzberg writes:
A decade later, during Mobutu's partial liberalization, the CNS set up a Committee on Stolen
Property. The committee's final report noted that although Zaïre was one of the poorest states
in sub-Saharan Africa, it was also one of the continent's largest importers of luxury automo-
biles. In addition, the report also noted that in 1989 the budgetary rubric “purchase of vehicles”
represented 10 percent of the total national budget and that the sums expended on the health
and education sectors did not even receive 3 percent of the total. (170-71)
Schatzberg cites Lambert Mende Omalanga (rapporteur) and Tshilengi wa Kabamba (président)
et al., “Rapport de la Commission des Biens Mal Acquis” (République du Zaïre, Conférence Na-
tionale Souveraine, Commission des Biens Mal Acquis, Palais du Peuple, September 1992), 118
(CEDAF, Brussels, 2492—III).