Reply #53: The Congo rainforest, the second largest tropical forest in the world,

[Hannah Bell]

The Congo rainforest, the second largest tropical forest in the world, has been handed a temporary lifeline after two-thirds of timber concessions were cancelled this week.

Congo's immense tropical forest, second only to the Amazon in size and importance, has come under increasing pressure from loggers, farmers and mining operations in recent years. Huge concessions covering tens of millions of hectares in the war-torn country have been parcelled out to international companies during the numerous conflicts that have beset the country. Most of these concessions adhere to no basic environmental standards and pay little or no tax to the central government, the review found.

Due to its remoteness, lack of roads and regular conflicts Congo's rainforest had previously escaped the wanton destruction seen in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. However, in the last 15 years mature hard and softwoods from Congo have found their way into markets from the US to China and the EU, taking large bites out of the forest in the process.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congo-rainforest-given-hope-as-deals-cancelled-1482768.html


The concessions sector is still dominated by the Europeans, but with an increasing prominence of Asian companies, which are already dominant in Equatorial Guinea, CAR and South-Congo.

One can see an emerging new scene of the logging industry driven mainly by new policies implemented in the Congo Basin countries.

Very large foreign-owned companies seem to have the possibility to cope with new public regulations and export standards required by western markets; many national small-scale companies are positioned on local markets and use their ties with local administration and national governments to avoid costly changes that would be required under stringent law enforcement; medium and large companies are frequently cumulating the disadvantages of the “formality” – the social visibility which made law bypassing much difficult – and the increasing competition and requirements on export markets.

Concentration (of the export-oriented) on one hand, fragmentation (of the domestic-oriented) on the other, seem to be the current trend in logging industry of the Congo Basin.

Very large concessions combined with weak or “absent” governments result in “State within the State” situation which influences the design and the orientation of public policies against the collective interest, and leads sometimes to very debatable local situations.

half of congo's forests are currently under concession

II.6.
Congo-Brazzaville

This low-populated country (the population of which is concentrated in main towns such as Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire) shows two different faces: the Northern region, with vast landlocked landscape of dense forestland with a dominance of Entandrophragma species, and the Southern, mostly composed of smaller pieces of forest, frequently logged-over at least once. The southern part is rich in Okoumé (Aucoumea klaineana).

Large concessions owned mostly by Europeans dominated in the North, while in the South, Asian companies have taken over former European companies by 1999-2000 and the end of the civil war.

In the North, the timber is exported to Europe through the Douala port in Cameroon (around 1000 km far from logging areas), on trucks of with a combination truck-train. In the south, logging areas are not very far of the Pointe-Noire port, and the timber is exported mostly to Asia.

Company profiles

In the North, 3 prominent companies are operating. The largest is CIB (Congolaise Industrielle des Bois), which is a subsidiary of the former German-Swiss Tropical Timber (TT timber group), taken over by the Danish DLH-Nordisk in early 2006.

With almost 1.3 million ha (1 million productive), and a large concession FSC-Certified (UFA Kabo), CIB is politically influent and is known also for the importance of the local social actions it is committed to.

Another company with almost the same concession area (1.1 million, with 900,000 productive) is IFO (Industrielle Forestière de Ouesso), a subsidiary of the German Danzer group.

The third one is the Rougier group, which expanded in 2006 by buying back the CRISTAL concession, run previously by the Lebanese Hazim, well-known in Cameroon.

Some other companies own large concessions in the North:
-the Chinese VicWood, who bought back in 2003 the French Thanry-Congo (461,296 ha)
-the French ITBL (322,000 ha)
-the Italian Likouala Timber (Fuser family, from and still in Côte d'Ivoire): 525,500 ha
-the Lebanese SIFCO, a family company that took over the former SOCALIB concession (Libyan) : 471,219 ha
-The Lebanese BPL, also involved in logging in Ghana where the family (Bitar) is installed (200,000 ha).

In the South, the largest concession is run by a Portuguese family.

The Foralac company controls 765,000 ha, but with only 330,000 ha suitable for timber production.

The Malaysian Taman company owns a 413,000 ha concession (291,000 productive hectares), but controls also two other companies (SOFIL and CIBN), which bring the total controlled area to 1.28 million ha (773.000 productive).

The Chinese Man Fai Tai has been taken over by a Chinese-Malaysian company, SICOFOR, and owns a 313,000 ha concession.

Another Chinese, Asian Congo Industries, has bought back the concession and the industrial unit of the former Socobois (German). Asian Congo Industries controls several Congolese medium-scale forest companies de facto in the region.

The Italian Trabec owns a 140,000 ha concession (99,000 productive), and is focused on processing, unlike the Asian companies that prefer log export. Trabec is the only one, in the South, committed to management plan preparation, despite a key regulation.

Several Congolese companies are active in the South, but most of them are used to selling their timber to Asian companies.

II.8.
DRC

In DRC, the logging industry was running at slow pace until 2002-2003, as the country was split into militia-controlled areas. A new list of existing contracts was published in November 2005. It
reported 141 contracts totalling 20.4 million hectares, including 100 contracts dated after May 2002 covering 15 million hectares.

The prominent companies are:

-The Lichtenstein based Holding company of the Nordsudtimber (NST) Group. It is said to control the two large concession holders in DRC, the SODEFOR group and the SOFORMA-FORABOLA-CFT group11, which are led by two Portuguese brothers.

Altogether, the 2 groups control over 5 million ha in DRC. The Swiss Precious Wood company considered taking a 10 % participation in the NST holding. Due to the uncertainties, this participation has been reduced until a further contract price increase is decided in 2008 (exclusive option).

-The SODEFOR group controls up to 3 million hectares (2 million hectares of productive area)
-The de facto group SOFORMA-FORABOLA-CFT is led by Portuguese and Swiss interests (ARD, 2003). SOFORMA group controls around 2 million ha (around 1 million hectares are productive) (FRM website, November 200612)

The other major player is the Danzer group

-SIFORCO, subsidiary of the Danzer Group, controlled up to 3 million hectares before the 2004’s fiscal reform and the introduction of an area tax. In 2004, SIFORCO brought back to the government logged-over and non-timber productive areas, and came up with a concession area of around 1.8 million ha. SIFORCO runs an important sawmill and peeling unit in Maluku, in the vicinity of Kinshasa.
-SEDAF is a Congolese company with 668,033 ha, which is allegedly a contractor of SIFORCO, to which SEDAF sells its timber production (Kühne K., 2005).

Other major players are:
-TRANS-M, a newcomer Lebanese company subsidiary of Congo-Future, a group with various activities in DRC that has 3 concessions totalling 746.000 ha.

-SAFBOIS, a Belgian Company with also US interests (ARD, 2003), controls around 334,700 ha.

-SICOBOIS is another Belgian company with concessions over 395.000 ha.

-Parcafrique, an Italian wood processor with 235,432 ha.

-SCIBOIS, with 229,400 ha, is a French company owned by the same family that owns ITBL in Congo-Brazzaville.

-ITB, another Lebanese company, has concessions over 200,000 ha.

- is an 81,000 ha company operating in the East-Congo, close to Kivu, in an area with Entandrophragma species (sapelli, sipo…), but landlocked. Focusing only on high quality sawnwood, especially on flooring, this Belgian company exports through Tanzania.

-SEFOCO controls 414,000 ha.

-OLAM-Congo, an Indian company, is a newcomer with around 300,000 ha.

-Another newcomer is the Chinese Yang Shushan, with a 188,672 ha-concession.

It is estimated that 75 % of the current concessions can be contested and cancelled
on a legal basis for having being allocated after the 2002 moratorium.

The new elected government will have to make a statement on this delicate issue.

http://www.rightsandresources.org/documents/files/doc_131.pdf