Meeting with Mr Benn

Following on from the release yesterday of our major new report about the con in the Congo, our campaigners met with Hilary Benn to ask what he intends to do about it. As the UK governor of the World Bank, he is extremely well-placed to make a big noise about it at the bank's spring meeting this weekend.

He's clearly concerned, and has agreed to talk directly with Paul Wolfowitz, Head of the World Bank, about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He's also visiting the country later this month, and so he'll also talk to representatives from the government while he's there. But concern just isn't enough, and real action has to be taken on the ground to prevent the wholesale ransacking of the rainforest by the big logging companies.

We'll let you know what transpires at the World Bank meeting, but in the interim we need you to keep emailing Benn, pointing out to him that a crate of beer for vast tracts of valuable rainforest is a bum deal of the highest order - write to him now.