Cobalt crush undermines future of DRC’s community forests

The United Nations called it historic: a deal that granted legal documents to local communities and enabled them to benefit from their forest resources in Haut-Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The provincial government’s decision to hand more than 200,000 hectares of forest to local communities in 2021 was part of a community forest concession programme. At the time, this deal was seen as the solution for restoring degraded forest ecosystems.

It’s a “major breakthrough for community forests”, declared the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which implemented the project. “Due to the numerous pressures exerted on forests — mainly deforestation, which is one of the main drivers of climate change — the Community Management of the Miombo Forests in Southeastern Katanga project aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by the deforestation and degradation of Miombo forests.”

According to article 22 of the DRC’s Forest Code, “a local community can, upon request, obtain either a part or the entirety of the protected forests that it regularly owns according to custom”. Concessions are granted free of charge.

Under this arrangement, about 30 concession requests have been submitted to the Haut-Katanga provincial governor, with 20 resulting in the creation of community forests, said Stéphane Banza, an environmental activist.

“We have popularised the Forest Code among communities that live in and around forests.  We’ve shown them the required procedure for obtaining a forest concession. We’ve also provided environmental education for the community, and we’ve assisted them in drafting simple management plans for the forest concession,” Banza added. 

He is a member of an NGO called Action for the Protection of Nature and Indigenous Populations in Katanga and spokesperson for the Indigenous Peoples Groups’ Dynamic (DGPA).

Mining companies

The granting of the official documents to local communities three years ago appeared to be a guarantee that the forest concessions they manage wouldn’t be taken away in the future.

But these forests are now coveted by mining companies, with requests for exploration permits being made by some companies and for exploitation permissions by others. Local communities, impoverished and divided, are struggling to oppose this threat to their forests.

Mineral exploration and exploitation permits are issued by the Mining Registry Service in and around local community forest concessions. This is happening around the concessions of Kete-Kaisala, Mwase, Kalunda-Kisununu and Kibuye. Most of these forests are in the territory of Kipushi, about 70km from the city of Lubumbashi, the provincial capital of Haut-Katanga.

Obtaining an exploitation permit is the first administrative prerequisite for a company to start mining operations. Many permits indicate the companies want to mine cobalt, an energy transition mineral used in batteries and electric vehicles, and its derivatives.

Data from the Mining Registry shows some of these mining exploitation permits around the community concession areas have recently been revoked because they had expired, or the companies hadn’t paid their duties to the Congolese state. These include permits for STR Mining SPRL, Katanga Mega Mining, E29 Resources SARL, Samta Natural Resources Congo SAS and Virginika Mining.

On the other hand, some exploration permits still exist for these same areas, including those granted to Societe des Mines du Congo SAS, Palmeres SARL, Congo Mineral Resources Company SAS and Nehema Copper SARLU. In addition, some exploration permits are moving from exploration to exploitation permits.

Armed soldiers

The residents of Mwase village said they have previously seen land surveyors near their concession, but they don’t know which company they worked for.  “We didn’t want to ask where they were from, since they were accompanied by armed soldiers,” said Jean-Paul Kasongo, whose daily occupation involves cutting down wood for charcoal production around the concession.

According to Professor Jonathan Muledi, who teaches at the Faculty of Agronomy at Lubumbashi University and is a member of the Miombo Sparse Forests Observatory, mineral exploitation should not give the impression that the Mining Code supersedes the Forest Code.

“We mustn’t sacrifice forest ecosystems for the sake of a mining industry whose destructive effects have been clearly demonstrated in the Haut-Katanga and Lualaba provinces,” he declared.

Lack of unity

In the Kete-Kaisala community forest concession, inhabitants live off the cultivation of maize, sweet potatoes, beans and cassava, as well as hunting, charcoal production and collecting non-wood forest products such as caterpillars, fruit and mushrooms. To reach this village to the east of the city of Lubumbashi, one has to use a bicycle or a motorcycle, competing with pedestrians on the trails leading there.

There are no roads, sanitation, schools, water or mobile networks. The only school in this village deprived of infrastructure serves elementary-level students. This makes Kete-Kaisala one of the most isolated locations in the Kipushi territory of Haut-Katanga province.

Kete-Kaisala is the community forest concession with the largest surface area, covering more than 27,000 hectares. Located in the Bukanda sector of the Kasongo grouping, it comprises about 20 villages, each represented by a “land chief” who had agreed to be part of the forest concession at the outset.

Kaisala Mabwe Robert, chief of the village of Kete, is in charge of the Kete-Kaisala community forest concession. He said it is difficult for him to gather the various village chiefs who gave land for the creation of the local community forest concession and get them to work on a common project.

“Among the land chiefs who agreed to be part of the forest concession, some continue to sell forested land to forestry companies, although such decisions now fall under the mandate of the management committee. I summon them to meetings, but many don’t come, which makes it impossible to get decisions until more people come to the meetings,” he said.

“We’re supposed to have evaluation meetings twice a month, but no one shows up. It’s these same chronic absentees who continue to sell the forest, serving their own selfish interests instead of those of the entire community,” the village chief told Oxpeckers.

Forest management zones

It’s important to note that local community forest concessions have three different management zones: development, exploitation and conservation. The FAO wanted local communities to implement sustainable management systems in the forest concessions through the implementation of management plans, and at the same time to improve their living conditions by using the income that would be generated by the exploitation of their natural resources.

According to the management plans for these concessions, it is forbidden to fell trees or to carry out any other activity in the conservation zones.

To valorise its concession, the management committee of Kete-Kaisala has submitted several requests to the sectorial authorities to carry out timber exploitation in their development zone, without success. What’s shocking for the committee is that individuals operating with the approval of the authorities easily obtain such authorisations.

Additionally, there has been an official moratorium on the cutting of redwoods in Haut-Katanga province since 2017 because these trees are at risk of extinction. “This moratorium only applies to ordinary folk,” said the DGPA’s Banza. “Where does the redwood lumber that we see in Lubumbashi and that’s exported abroad all come from?”

Local environmental journalist Didier Makal said the moratorium on redwood harvesting has resulted in two circumvention practices: “First, many Chinese operators began working behind local ones native to Katanga. Next, other Congolese operators, some authorised by Kinshasa [the DRC capital] and others not, have entered the sector.” Among them are high-ranking officials, he said.

Negotiation process

In both Kete-Kaisala and Kulunda forest concession areas, some community members said they would not oppose the granting of mining permits, provided they are included in the entire negotiation process.

“If a mining company sets up in our area, it would enable us to break our isolation; we don’t have hospitals, schools, or potable water. However, the company must not settle in our community forest’s conservation zone,” said Robert Kaisala, a village chief in Kete-Kaisala.

Emails sent to the FAO communications department asking for comment on the situation remained unanswered at the time of publication, and attempts to contact the organisation’s office in Central Africa were unsuccessful.

A recent investigation by Oxpeckers exposed how mining companies cashing in on the global demand for cobalt are destroying protected nature reserves in the DRC (see ‘New energy’ rush is stripping DRC’s natural resources). The country holds an estimated 50% of the global cobalt reserves and supplies more than 70% of global demand for the mineral.

In response, American nonprofit C4ADS called on the DRC’s ministry of mines to enact stricter regulations for mines operated by foreign companies near protected areas and conservation zones, to protect the vital biodiversity they contain and to limit the propagation of illegal activities in neighbouring communities.

As for environmental activist Stéphane Banza, he suggested that community forest concessions must have clear boundary markers. They must also be taken into account in the region’s land use and management policies to avoid overlaps with mining concessions, he said.

Jonas Kiriko is an investigative journalist based in the DRC specialising in topics related to environment, agriculture and water. This investigation is part of the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker series titled ‘The human cost of energy in Africa’, and was produced in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS).
Find the #PowerTracker tool and more investigations here.