DRC natural resources press review of Thursday, July 4, 2013

The question of Virunga returns again appeared in the press this morning. The Phare newspaper believes that the "Virunga National Park is threatened by political issues." The tabloid began by recalling that the Congolese Nature Conservation Institute (ICCN) launched on 25 June 2013, a large-scale eviction of illegal occupants of the park in the area Kasindi Lubiriha and Kambo, North Kivu (...). in order not to surprise their good faith in applying the laws of the Republic and international conventions on the protection of the world heritage, he was granted a moratorium of two months, with an extension of two weeks after its expiration. In addition, an awareness campaign was conducted previously on the need to preserve rare plant and animal species that abound the Virunga National Park. The newspaper said that "to believe the information flow through the territory of Beni in general and sector Kasindi Lubiriha Kambo and particularly malicious politicians would like to serve farmers and invaders Virunga as background Commercial for future campaign on elections of provincial deputies, senators, governors of provinces, mayors and heads and sectors. Also for the purpose of pretending to be lawyers and protecting indigenous, they distilled the news that the ICCN rangers have driven Congolese citizens of Virunga National Park and forced them into exile in Uganda. The case caused a stir in political circles Beni and Kinshasa but after checking, it was found no native has crossed the Congo-Uganda border and everything is back to normal after the incident of June 26, 2013. "On another matter, the Okapi radio informs that "a cargo of timber species endangered in the DRC has been found in a processing plant in the Czech Republic," according to a statement released by Greenpeace on July 1. This wood would be shot in Equateur province with an industrial permit, deemed illegal by the independent monitoring of forests. According to investigations by Greenpeace International, it is an illegal cargo of wood Wenge, an endangered species. This wood come from the concession Bakri Wood Corporation (BBC), based in Equateur province. This wood has remained for more than a month at the port of Antwerp, before being sold and transferred to the Czech Republic. It is owned by the Swiss group Danzer, according to the same press Greenpeace. Greenpeace calls on the Czech authorities to seize timber and investigate practices Danzer.The same radio reports that "unknown persons set fire to more than forty acres of forest Tuesday, July 2 in groups and Bwegera Luvungi in the Ruzizi plain, center in Uvira (South Kivu)." According to the supervisor of the environment, nature conservation, water and forests, Herman Mushombe, the authors of these fires could be farmers, ranchers or members of armed groups. They light fires at night to avoid getting caught by the authorities, he said.Radio Okapi also announced that "elephants ravaged homes and fields in the territory of Bukama in Katanga province leaving people homeless and without a source of income." Last week, they ravaged the fields in three villages. Since the month of January 2013, more than 8,000 casualties were recorded in Bukama and 3775 hectares of fields were ravaged in four groups of chiefdom Kinkodja, said the head of department of Humanitarian Affairs Bukama, Chirac Monga Ngoy.