The environment minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Thursday that the country plans to restrict all wood exports and take other measures to protect the country’s carbon-absorbing tropical rainforest, which is a significant barrier against climate change.
Congo, which contains the most of the world’s second-largest rainforests, is under pressure from the United Nations to improve rainforest management to reduce a high rate of deforestation that has doubled in the previous decade.
Environment Minister Eve Bazaiba announced the ban of log exports, but did not specify when it would take effect.
According to the Central African Forest Initiative, the Congo Basin rainforest, 60 percent of which is in Congo, absorbs about 4 percent of world carbon dioxide emissions each year.
Environmental groups and experts have expressed concern about the environment ministry’s decision to lift a 2002 moratorium on new industrial logging concessions, warning of catastrophic environmental, social and climatic consequences.
President Felix Tshisekedi ordered an assessment of all existing logging contracts earlier this month in an attempt to bring order to the poorly regulated sector.
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