DRC : Indicators

Article 24 sub-paragraph 1 of the constitution of the DRC of 18 February 2006 states that “All persons have the right to information''. However, there is no law on the right to information. Civil society stakeholders presented a bill to the Senate prior to the November 2011 elections but the process has not been taken forward by the government since then. Read more...

The priority agenda drawn up by the World Bank in 2007 serves as a forestry policy document while the one currently being prepared by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation of Nature and Tourism (MECNT) awaits adoption. The draft document is available to the public but the Ministry has not published it for consultation. The situation has evolved very little since 2011. Read more...

There is a Forest Code and 37 regulatory measures of the 45 initially envisaged, plus around 20 operational guides for forestry management, but the lack of measures to apply this framework at the provincial and local levels means that there are always gaps or even contradictions in its application at the different administrative levels. Read more...

The first round of negotiations on a Voluntary Partnership Agreement on forest law enforcement , governance and trade between the European Union and the Government of the DRC took place on 15 February 2011 in Kinshasa. The main activity of the responsible committee during the subsequent six months was the preparation of a legality grid. Negotiations were suspended because of the general election and lack of finance from Belgium, the main funder of the process. Activities were relaunched in 2012 with the appointment of a new focal point in MECNT. Read more...

The Forest Code does not contain clear provisions for transparency, although a decree in May 2011 made it compulsory to publish any contract relating to natural resources. Read more...

The Forest Code broadly recognises customary and traditional rights, mainly through the possibility of creating local community forests and through the usage rights of communities that live inside or outside the concession areas. However, the decree implementing the creation of community forests has still not been signed several years after it was drawn up, despite strong appeals from civil society stakeholders. Read more...

Some legal texts outline consultation procedures for certain activities specific to the forestry sector, for example regarding the classification of forests. Consultation has become increasingly established for the preparation of new norms, but there are no recognised procedures regarding the methods of consultation to be adopted. The points of view of forest communities are often not taken into account by the authorities during the decision-making process. Furthermore, communities do not always receive comprehensive information during the consultations. Read more...

The concept of free, prior and informed consent is not recognised in the Forest Code or the wider legal framework of the DRC that applies to the forest sector, even through it is increasingly cited as an essential element in the REDD+ process. Read more...

There is no national policy on land tenure in the DRC. The Land Code has not been reviewed since 1980 and there are contradictions and conflicts between the subsequent legislation applied to different sectors such as forests, mining, and oil and gas. There were some initial proposals in 2012 to review the Land Code, but it is too early to anticipate their results. Read more...

The Forest Code and its implementing decrees refer to prior consultation, especially in the case of the classification of forests and the preparation of forest management plans. Concession contracts are also meant to only be signed after the negotiation of social agreements with the communities. In practice, the government has signed contracts that do not fulfil all the required conditions, and relaxed the regulations relating to the management plans. Artisanal logging permits have also increased spectacularly in number without being subject to any consultation. Read more...

The Forest Code mentions environmental services as a guiding factor for management of the sector, but there are no further details or supporting regulations. The REDD+ process, which could value the carbon stored provided by the forests, has not made real progress in terms of the clarifying key legal questions such as the ownership of carbon. Read more...

Environmental impact studies have been written into the law since July 2011, although there are still no texts to implement them. A process of strategic environmental assessment has not been applied to the forest sector to date. Read more...

Only general maps on forest concession areas are publicly available, whereas specific maps remain in the hands of the concessionaires. A map of the forest estate including concession areas has also been produced by the World Resources Institute. Maps of artisanal logging permits are not publicly available. Although lacking in detail, the available information shows that there are overlaps in land uses, such as conservation, logging and mining. Read more...

A list of forest concession contracts that have been converted and signed was made available on the MECNT website in February 2012. This represents a major advance in terms of transparency, but it remains incomplete. Details of artisanal logging permits were also published in the third quarter of 2011, but they did not reflect the real situation in terms of permits granted by different authorities. Central, provincial and local administrations each issue their own logging permits, which has contributed to the proliferation of the illegal and artisanal exploitation of timber throughout the country. Read more...

An inter-ministerial committee published the results in 2008 of the legal review to convert old forest titles into new concession contracts. However, no due diligence process applies to artisanal logging permits, which have exploited in large numbers. Read more...

Forestry management plans are available on request, and some have been published on the internet, which represents an improvement since 2011. In practice, local communities often still do not have access to plans that affect them. Read more...

Resource Extraction Monitoring (REM) was appointed as the Independent Observer in the DRC to contribute to the application of principles of good governance in the forestry sector. REM has published its first report covering the priod December 2010–November 2011 and another report on infringements of forest law, but it has not published its mission reports due to difficulties in setting up a review committee. Read more...

Since early 2011 the government has started to put quarterly reports on line, indicating the taxes collected from the mining, forestry and oil sectors. These reports have been very succint and do not provide information on the redistribution of tax revenue. Furthermore, this initiative has ended in 2012, which represents another step backwards in terms of transparency. Read more...

The Forest Inspections Unit under of the Department of Supervision and Verification in MECNT is the charged with detecting forest infractions and communicating its finding to the appropriate ministry official. However, this service is under-equipped and no information on infractions and the sanctions applied is published. Read more...

Annual reports on the forest sector are not published by the authorities, nor are they required. This does not appear to be a priority for the government. Read more...