10/10/2011
A major Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment
of the DRC by the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
underlines the global significance and extraordinary
potential of the country's natural and mineral
resources.
However, the study warns
of alarming trends including increased deforestation,
species depletion, heavy metal pollution
and land degradation from mining, as well
as an acute drinking water crisis which
has left an estimated 51 million Congolese
without access to potable water.
The outcomes of the
two-year assessment have been released today
in Kinshasa, by UNEP's Executive Director,
Mr Achim Steiner, and the DRC's Environment
Minister, Mr José Endundo.
Conducted in conjunction
with the DRC's Ministry of Environment,
Nature Conservation and Tourism, the assessment
highlights successful initiatives and identifies
strategic opportunities to restore livelihoods,
promote good governance and support the
sustainability of the DRC's post-conflict
economic reconstruction, and reinforce ongoing
peace consolidation.
The study's good news
is that most of the DRC's environmental
degradation is not irreversible and there
has been substantial progress in strengthening
environmental governance.
For example, through
steps such as regular anti-poaching patrols,
the Congolese Wildlife Authority has secured
the Virunga National Park, which at the
peak of the DRC's crisis was losing the
equivalent of 89 hectares of forest each
day due to illegal fuelwood harvesting.
However, the country's
rapidly growing population of nearly 70
million people - most of whom directly depend
on natural resources for their survival
- and intense international competition
for raw materials are adding to the multiple
pressures on the DRC's natural resource
base.
Key findings include:
The DRC has the highest
level of biodiversity in Africa, yet 190
species are classified as critically endangered,
endangered or vulnerable on the IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species. Elephants and
mountain gorillas are among the species
under threat.
Up to 1.7 million tonnes
of bushmeat (mainly antelope, duiker, monkey
and wild boar) are harvested annually from
unregulated hunting and poaching, contributing
to species depletion.
The DRC's tropical rainforests
extend over 1.55 million km2 and account
for more than half of Africa's forest resources
- making them a critical global ecosystem
service provider and a potential source
of up to US$900 million in annual revenue
up to 2030 through REDD+.
The DRC has the largest
artisanal mining workforce in the world
- around two million people - but a lack
of controls have led to land degradation
and pollution. Its untapped mineral reserves
are of global importance and are estimated
to be worth US$24 trillion.
Around 15 tonnes of
mercury are used annually in the DRC's artisanal
gold mining operations, making it the second
largest source of mercury emissions in Africa.
The Congo basin supports
Africa's largest inland fisheries with an
estimated production potential of 520,000
tonnes per year. While at the national level
this resource is under-exploited, there
are many instances of serious over-fishing
pressures at the local level.
The most alarming climate
change-related issue is the vulnerability
of rain-fed small-scale agriculture. For
example, as of 2020, the duration of the
rainy season in the drought-prone region
of Katanga is expected to reduce from seven
months to five months.
There is a remarkable
rise of 'people-based' social enterprises,
most of which rely on natural resources.
Yet with a fragile banking system and limited
incentives to formalize transactions, the
informal sector's growth has become a critical
structural problem as businesses can operate
beyond environmental and labour laws.
As it is still emerging
from a long period of State decline and
protracted crisis, the provision of basic
services, including energy and water supply,
and environmental problems in urban centres
remain key challenges for the DRC.
To support the DRC's
development challenges, a doubling of aid
is urgently needed, including an estimated
US$200 million per annum for the environment.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said
the assessment highlights strategic opportunities
that can support the sustainability of the
DRC's post-conflict economic reconstruction
and serve to accelerate peace consolidation
efforts.
"This assessment
confirms the DRC's unique endowment of natural
resources and how they can contribute to
sustainable economic growth, but also reveals
the legacy of using these resources in fuelling
much of the conflict and human tragedy that
has plagued its people for too long,"
he said.
"It is UNEP's hope
the assessment's outcomes will galvanize
action and greater support from the international
community and help set the nation on a more
sustainable course, capitalizing on the
opportunities offered by a green economy
in the DRC," the UNEP Executive Director
said.
The assessment aims
to support the creation of enabling conditions
for a transition to a 'green economy' in
the DRC and promote a fundamental rethinking
of the country's 'frontier' approach to
the use of its natural resources.
Speaking at the launch,
the Environment Minister, Mr José
Endundo, said the government welcomed the
assessment which sheds light on important
issues and opportunities, including the
potential of the carbon market and ecotourism
as sources of large-scale financing.
"We know from this
two-year joint study that the DRC's vast
mineral reserves are again the object of
intense foreign competition and that this
is placing great pressures on our forests,
wildlife and water resources," Minister
Endundo said.
"The REDD+ scheme
in which the DRC is already engaged could
potentially generate the necessary funding
to address a wide range of development and
environment challenges and we look to such
mechanisms to support a sustainable recovery
in the DRC," the Minister said.
Funded by the Government
of Norway, the UNEP post-conflict environmental
assessment covers all of DRC, not only conflict-affected
areas, and provides 70 recommendations covering
15 sectors and 13 environmental degradation
'hot spots'.
Key recommendations
include:
Engaging in a 'green
economy' transition whereby sustainable
reconstruction in the DRC includes capitalizing
on the DRC's emerging social economy to
generate 'green jobs' and other employment,
including for former combatants.
Diversifying energy
sources as a basis for restarting economic
activity. The DRC has a hydropower potential
of 100,000 megawatts - or 13% of the world's
hydropower potential - which could meet
domestic needs and generate export revenue
from the sale of electricity.
Overcoming the considerable
environmental liabilities of a century of
mining - with immediate action to remediate
mining pollution 'hotspots' in Katanga -
by introducing a new, modern mining approach
and formalizing the artisanal mining sector
to introduce better environmental and occupational
health standards.
Promote trans-boundary
collaboration for sustainable fisheries
management in the internationally shared
Great Rift Valley Lakes.
Strengthening institutional
capacities for disaster preparedness - such
as epidemics, volcanic eruptions, floods
and forest fires - including early warning
systems.
More detailed surveying
and mapping of natural resources and integrating
the economic valuation of ecosystem services
into all development planning.
UNEP's Post-Conflict
Environmental Assessment of the Democratic
Republic of Congo: Synthesis Report for
Policy Makers is available online at: www.unep.org/drcongo.
The study includes input from more than
50 partners including NGOs, universities
and the UN family.
Notes to Editors
The Synthesis Report
for Policy Makers summarizes the main findings
and recommended policy actions arising from
UNEP's two-year Post-conflict Environmental
Assessment. The synthesis publication and
a technical study on water (also part of
the assessment) are available in French
and English online at: www.unep.org/drcongo.
The assessment focuses
on the most urgent environmental and natural
resource management issues confronting the
DRC, including the links between conflict
and natural resources, the environmental
impacts of population displacement, forestry
resources, protected areas, water resources,
fisheries, climate change, mining and environmental
governance. The main assessment report is
due to be published in early 2012.
With this comprehensive
study, UNEP sets the stage for long-term
international assistance to support the
DRC in the sustainable use of its natural
resources. UNEP proposes to actively support
its main government partner, the Environment
Ministry, in leading this effort. A key
step will be to prioritize the assessment's
recommendations in a National Environmental
Action Plan.
