- DRC holds a crucial space in the climate matrix of the great Lakes region, and is considered the lungs of Africa, given its expansive tree cover and the consistent rain it receives.
- But with the near marathon destruction of forests, the already worsening climate change pressures are only set to exacerbate.
While East African leaders scratch their heads to restore peace in Eastern DRC, the violent onslaught on the forests and water catchments in the country should add to their headache.
Charcoal business is booming in North Kivu province of Goma city.
Driving around the expansive rural areas of the town, motor bikes and chikudu, — a handcart bicycle made of wood — are a common sight ferrying sack loads of charcoal.
As war continues to claim lives in the mineral rich East African country, the impacts on environment is at an alarming pace, with logging normalised.
The vegetations that were dense forests have been floored, reduced into charcoals that are then dispersed for sale in various markets in the country.
Some find their way to neighbouring countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, or even Kenya.
Within 30 minutes of being in the Goma-Kibumba-Rumangabo road heading all the way to Bunagana area near Uganda border, you count in excess of 60 motorbikes overloaded with four or five sack loads of charcoal.
If the forest logging race continues at this pace unabated, then the country may turn ASAL in a few years, with impact that will spurn beyond its borders.
Young men in their mid to late teens or early 20s, are the ones ridding the motorbikes with charcoal to market while also being the loggers and burners of the commodity.
Due to poor roads, sight of most of the overloaded bikes crashing is common place along this route, exposing the young men to injuries and even deaths.
Coincidentally, the involvement of youth in the deforestation figuratively represent how the energetic youth in the country are used in the destabilising war efforts.
Democratic Republic of Congo holds a crucial space in the climate matrix of the great Lakes region, and is considered the lungs of Africa, given its expansive tree cover and the consistent rain it receives.
But with the near marathon destruction of forests, the already worsening climate change pressures are only set to exacerbate.
Kenya has been on the throes of the climate crisis for some time now, with prolonged droughts and depressed rains that has exposed millions to starvation and exacerbated inter-communal conflict over increasingly scarce resources and deaths.
President William Ruto has been a consistent voice in pushing for climate change-centred policy making, championing for interventions like mass tree planting and protection of forests.
It is, therefore, in Nairobi’s interest to have DRC not just peaceful and stable but also have integrity of it environment preserved.
Kenya’s retired president Uhuru Kenyatta is the lead facilitator of the Inter-Congolese dialogue bringing together the heads of the various armed groups in the country on one side and president Felix Tseshekedi-led government on the other.
The country is also the lead in the regional force EACRF that has been deployed to restore order in the Eastern part of the country.
Nyiragongo area chief Gatambara Kariwabo expressed his concern to the Star, lamenting that the war and sectarian clashes has left the people with no option but to turn to their environment to live.
“I understand the danger we are putting ourselves and the future generation into by this heightened trend of charcoal burning, but what do you tell people to do? We are hungry and poor,” he said.
The administrator, like other members of the public the Star spoke to, says that having been displaced from their farms and homes by the violence, most people, especially men have no where to turn to eke a living.
Besides crime, flattening the forests and turning them into charcoals for quick money is the quick fix.
The chief said if the young men are not enlisting in the militias, they are burning charcoals for a living.
The country has 120 armed groups with M23 being the most renown, giving the government sleepless nights.
Joseph Zubenga, a 55-year-old father of 10, said he lost seven of his children to M23 who joined it as soldiers.
He says most of them are the forefront loggers.
“Logging is a major issue here. Though we have rains here, the patterns are getting affected as most areas which used to be thick forests are turning to bare land. What is happening here is very sad.”
“It is even sad for me because my children have turned into deviants. I have lost my boys, and now losing the environment.”
-Edited by SKanyara