The struggle to protect the Congo basin rainforest

The Congo Basin in central Africa - this region near the city of Bumba is also called our planet's second lung. It is the second largest contiguous rainforest in the world behind the Amazonian rainforest in South America. That is despite large swaths of the forest already having been clear-felled.

This is why people are acting to protect these forests. One of these activists is René Ngongo, he has even been awarded the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize for his work. He says that today no more birds, and hardly any other animal life, remain in the rainforest. They have all fled from the loggers, with their deafening machinery. The forest provides for the livelihood of locals too, offering them protection and sustenance.

Lumbar companies practice selective logging. Although they cut down only a small share of trees per hectare, their network of logging roads criss-crosses the entire forest. And agricultural practices are causing even more damage than logging companies. People here live off the soil, which is depleted after only a year or two of cultivation, so they clear more land to plant new fields and set up new villages. René Ngongo wants to change this. Today he is holding a seminar on rainforest protection. To gain a broader reach, he has joined forces with Greenpeace. Most of those present have never heard of climate change or sustainable agriculture.

René Ngongo also travels to local villages. Within a few minutes all the village's have gathered to meet him. He warns them of the folly of destroying the forest for farmland, yet he knows that viable alternatives are lacking. It is a difficult situation. But one thing is certain, in the long term logging companies and locals cannot afford to continue destroying the rainforest.