By Devyansh Atharv

Abstract

This article examines the deep interconnection between deforestation and the resulting social issues present in the Congo Basin. It highlights how relentless exploitation, originating from colonial times continues to drive civil unrest and terrorism. Additionally, it explores how rural-urban migration, a direct consequence of these issues, has greatly altered the social fabric of the Congolese people. Addressing these issues requires an approach that involves all the stakeholders and acknowledges the multi-dimensional nature of the issues present.

Introduction 

The Congo Basin, located in west-central Africa is often referred to as the ‘Lungs of Africa’– owing to its indispensable contribution towards mitigating global warming. The second largest tropical rainforest on the planet, this basin consists of 500 million acres of earth and is renowned for its sprawling diversity, being home to 10,000 species of tropical plants and several thousand species of mammals, fish, and birds. Recent decades have, however, witnessed unrelenting deforestation, reckless industrialization, and consequently unsustainable rural-urban migration and civil unrest – all of which pose a grave threat to the region’s stability and biodiversity. This article explores the inextricable link between relentless deforestation in the Congo Basin and the resulting societal instability, offering integrated solutions to address both environmental and social challenges.

Onset of destructive practices, and the persisting resultant violence

The roots of the current crisis can be traced back to when colonial powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries recognized the sheer volume of resources that were available in the Congo Basin. Belgium was one such notable power, which left behind a trail of blood and destruction in its pursuit of rubber production, which was dubbed the ‘rubber terror’ – a fitting term to encompass the brutalization of Congo’s population. Reckless disregard for locals continued across territories occupied by the Portuguese and French, where entire forests were razed down to extract timber, coffee, rubber, cocoa, etc. 

These colonial practices played a huge part in setting the stage for today’s environmental destruction. Between the year 2000 and 2014, the Congo Basin lost an area of rainforests larger than the size of the entire country of Bangladesh, and the planet will be faced with irreparable loss, if the Congo Basin continues to be plundered. These forests absorb nearly 370 million metric tons of the earth’s carbon emissions every year which is an indispensable amount when considering the world’s climate goals, containing 70% of the world’s cobalt, amongst other natural resources including timber, copper, oil, and gas. The scarcity of resources contributes to a weak economy and unstable governments, which is the breeding ground not only for capital-hungry MNCs but also for internal forces that seek to establish themselves through violence.

These internal forces are often found in the form of terrorist organizations, which recruit their members from disgruntled and impoverished youth in urban areas. Such people were forced away from their traditional livelihoods due to land exploitation, and found themselves in cities where they were further exploited. Their economic desperation makes the youth vulnerable to recruitment by extremist organisations, which often emerge as insurgents against the governments and use violence to advance their separatist and radical goals.  These groups then further exploit the land for their own purposes. In Cameroon, for instance, timber trafficking creates a loss of nearly 60 million USD, part of which finances terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. The ISIS-Democratic Republic of Congo (ISIS-DRC) is another such organisation that was created as an anti-government movement in Uganda, and now exists to extend ISIS’s caliphate in Africa. In this pursuit, they have killed over 4,000 civilians in the past decade, freed nearly 1,000 prisoners, and murdered multiple government officials. Forces such as these also greatly contribute to the unsustainable rural-urban migration, the challenges of which will be discussed in greater detail later.

Hopeless rural-urban migration

It is a recurrent theme in third-world countries for locals’ interests to be completely disregarded, with their lands ravaged for cheap labour and resources – and the Congo is no exception. Locals in the Basin are left  grappling with the aftermath of the destructive environmental plunder brought about by agribusinesses, mining corporations, and corrupt governments. Consider the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The primarily agriculture-based demographic of the DRC has been struggling to avail fertile lands, causing millions to migrate to urban lands in search of jobs.  Although the DRC has a median age of 18 which presents immense potential for a strong workforce, these citizens are faced with a glaring scarcity of formal and secure jobs, and end up working as street vendors, construction workers, etc. To worsen conditions, the DRC is plagued with infrastructural inadequacy, leading to very poor literacy amongst its citizens, and those who do attain formal education move abroad, further hampering their human capital. This migration strains urban resources and simultaneously harms rural agriculture by causing an acute shortage of farm workers. The damage due to this migration goes beyond employment and economic crises and affects the very social structure of Congolese society.

The immediate victims of massive deforestation and rural-urban migration are the indigenous communities of Sub-Saharan Africa. One such tribe is that of the Baka people who have ancestrally resided in the forests of Cameroon for centuries as hunter-gatherers, deeply connected to the land and its resources. The overwhelming outflow of younger members to cities has threatened the survival of their culture, as the elders cannot pass on their knowledge of medicine, forestry, and religion to their younger generations. Those who stay back in an attempt to preserve their lands and culture, have their rights blatantly violated and are displaced without consent or compensation. Those who migrate often do so to eastern Cameroonian cities, in search of employment in low-wage jobs which are often illegal, such as mining and logging. The informal economy, however, is not kind to these migrants and they face social ostracisation, unreliable pay, unsafe working conditions, and a lack of legal protections.

Interestingly, their problems do not come from reckless capitalist greed alone – some also stem from the state’s supposed nature ‘conservation efforts’. The Lobéké National Park is one such initiative that was meant to protect the ecosystem, but it did so at the expense of locals. The same was made in the year 2001 as a cross-border conservation initiative; however, it caused several Baka tribe members to be forced away from their lands. This led to a strong condemnation on part of the Baka community as they have historically protected the forests and have existed without killing animals or mindlessly tearing down trees. However, the construction of this ‘fortress’, and the criminalization of all locals under the guise of nature conservation has demonstrated how even government schemes that seem to be nature-centric are implemented truly really considering the needs of the true stakeholders. This brings out a troubling parallel to colonial times when the forests were yet again snatched from local tribes, with the only justification offered being that the ‘greater good’ of economic development and resource extraction was more simply more important than the sustenance of a traditional life in the forests.

Exacerbated exploitation of natural resources has also intensified the bloody competition over land and power in several corners of the Congo Basin, and this is only further worsened by political instability. The Ituri conflict between the Hema and Lendu people of the area has seen over 1,000 deaths and has left half a million refugees since its resumption in 2017. Uganda had occupied this region till its withdrawal in 2003, owing to the exceptionally rich minerals available. Its presence, like that of many other entities interested in extraction, left behind a trail of disaster, as the Ugandans supplied arms to ethnic groups from both the Hema and Lendu communities. This, coupled with other factors such as competition over land (the Hema are predominantly herders and the Lendu are sedentary farmers) led to the creation of several armed military groups on both sides which have perpetuated brutal human rights abuses against each other. Inhabitants also find it impossible to go back to traditional agriculture jobs due to illegal logging, illegal gold mining, and destructive slash-and-burn agriculture. People are unable to work due to fear of attacks, their children go to school surrounded by a constant threat of violence, and the peace camps set up for refugees are described by residents as “hell”.

The urban crisis – focus on the city of Kinshasa 

Deforestation and civil unrest have not only disrupted the lives of locals, but have also led to extensive migration to cities due to the dearth of stable jobs available elsewhere. In 2024 itself, DRC has recorded 738,000 internally displaced people. These migrants endure numerous hardships, and this is most evident in the city of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. Rapid urbanisation has brought along with it a huge spectrum of problems – one significant indicator being 75% of DRC’s population residing in slums, due to the severe lack of formal sector jobs for the unskilled migrants. Rape, robbery, and prostitution are commonplace in these slums, but Kinshasa continues to attract migrants from all over the country and beyond as well. The perpetual state of unemployment and struggle for resources has given rise to the formation of ambitious youth gangs popularly called “kulunas”, who will survive the city’s ruthless slums by any means possible. Medical care is at an all-time low, and it is worsened in provinces where armed fights are regular, with one in three people in Ituri suffering from food insecurity. These problems ultimately compound to further damage the environment, as seen from the pitiable condition of waste management in Kinshasa, which is drowning in its daily produce of 9,000 tons of garbage. A lot of this untreated waste gets dumped directly into tributaries of the Congo River, exacerbating the deterioration of this vital waterway.

Possible pathways to sustainability

The Congo Basin faces social and environmental problems that are difficult to understand in isolation, and must be tackled after acknowledging their interlinked nature. There is no shortage of reforestation programs in this area, with institutions such as the World Wildlife Fund, African Wildlife Foundation, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, and several others that regularly carry out programs to combat climate change and strengthen forest ecosystems. While their contributions certainly cannot be called negligible, they fail to make a larger impact on Congolese society, because the issues threatening their forests and peace run much deeper than deforestation. Social activism must be carried out in conjunction with climate activism, and vice versa.

An effective approach would be to undertake projects that work with and for the indigenous tribes that inhabit the basin, strengthening their land rights and also providing them with training for the jobs that they take up upon migration to cities. Increased awareness about their ownership over their lands will enable these previously helpless locals to make a stand against aggressive land exploitation driven by corporate interests. Educating them about their legal position and rights also grants them the ability to challenge capitalist conquest through legal channels. For those who wish to migrate to urban areas, vocational education will empower them to take up secure and steady jobs in cities, which will keep them out of the dreary slums and their subhuman living conditions. The idea of conditional funding could also be explored, wherein the global community can lend much-needed money to governments in this area, in turn for quantifiable results of better governance, fewer armed conflicts, reduced corruption, etc.

Conclusion

Empowering the judiciary, cracking down on the various armed groups, and promoting public participation in decision-making – all of these are solutions that have already been proposed. However, they must be undertaken on a larger scale and incorporate international powers so that an end can be put to the rapidly depleting richness of Africa’s forests and culture. To reverse the damage that has been done, change needs to be brought about at all levels of society, starting from the very grassroots strata of tribal communities, all the way to the bureaucrats. With coordinated and immediate action involving both global and local communities, we can ensure that the Congo Basin continues to be the Lungs of the Earth. 

Author’s Bio

Devyansh Atharv is a second-year law student at Jindal Global Law School, pursuing his B.A. LL.B. (Hons) degree. His area of academic interest revolves around environmental law, legal frameworks to mitigate social inequality, and international relations.

Image Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/11/12/to-save-the-congo-basin-rainforest-end-the-conflict-in-the-drc