Raoul on board the Arctic Sunrise during the launch of the DRC office © Greenpeace
It has only been a few months since Greenpeace Africa set up its office in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but since then we have very busy. The Kinshasa office is only a small one and there are just two of us working there - myself and René Ngongo, the policy advisor. We are already making a name for Greenpeace and René is in demand - he is invited to multiple meetings and is much sought after for interviews on radio and TV.
Now Greenpeace has a permanent presence in the DRC, it means we can give even more support to the local organisations we work with who are developing initiatives for good management of their forests. For instance, we have been running workshops with them to explain how international funding could help protect the Congo's rainforests. We can also be a major weight on the government and the logging companies, pushing them hard to stop messing up the forest and keep the current moratorium in place.
And there is the challenge, no less. Knowing what the world of loggers is like, we can only expect harder debates and more intensive lobbying, and with such a small team in Kinshasa this will not be easy without the help of other Greenpeace offices around the world, particularly those in Belgium, France and Switzerland. The UK office is also providing assistance, and for the last few weeks I have been based in London to improve my English!
Our task is not easy because the links between the logging companies and the government are so tight. Ministers and civil servants make decisions in their favour, such as reducing their taxes, so they are clearly on the side of the loggers.
My own experience has clearly shown clear that the Congolese government is not strict with the loggers. In 2006, I visited a community which had been harassed and intimidated by police because they stood up to a logging company. The company in question, Siforco, had promised to build a school and a medical centre but had not honoured its promise so the people set up a road block to stop Siforco trucks coming and going. The police were called in and later I met people with injuries they had received.
This is why the struggle will be so hard.
Raoul Monsembula is a forest campaigner at the Greenpeace office in Kinshasa.
