You never know who you are going to run into on the train. This morning (12/7/09), on the train ride over to Copenhagen for the first day of the U.N. Convention on Climate Change COP-15, Alex Sheker just happened to be seated beside three ministers of the environment from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We then proceeded to discuss with the ministers what they were fighting for in these negotiations, including funding, technology, building capacity, and reducing poverty.
The ministers of the environment from the Congo stated that their main objective was to not sacrifice the Congo’s development, while still maintaining sustainable agriculture. The ministers said, “To adapt we need technology, and that is our fight. And we fight poverty as well.” They emphasized the complexity of deforestation and recognized that “the forest is not the only issue. Water, animals, people [are all at stake].” They said they were responsible for “the interest of the forest, and the interest of the whole world.” Well-managed, sustainable, and protected areas are what are needed. Currently, the Congo has seven protected areas, larger than in any other country.
The Congolese ministers of the environment were primarily looking for funding, “to bring schools for our children. To reduce poverty, you have to learn how to teach the population, like how to do agriculture in a sustainable world—new seeds, new materials. By doing this, you reduce poverty and human pressure on the forests.” Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report by Nicholas Stern on the economics of climate change, in October 2006.
When asked about the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), the ministers said, “CDMs are not working…REDD is better for us. Our fight is that the REDD mechanism must be part of the final agreement. Natural forest must be taken into account to reduce global emissions….Forest is part of the problem, but we must make it part of the solution, as well.”
One of the most difficult challenges to implement sustainable practices in the Congo is money. “Money is like conversation. You just talk, but you can’t do anything without money,” one of the ministers said. There must be opportunity to replace the financial activities that sustained people’s livelihoods in the rainforests before.
