Pygmy activists challenge World Bank on logging

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In what may seem like a David-versus-Goliath contest, Pygmy forest-dwellers from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday challenged the World Bank over logging in the struggling African nation.

The Pygmy activists, supported by environmental groups, accused the World Bank of encouraging commercial logging at the expense of indigenous people who depend on the forest for food, medicine and other necessities.

The World Bank, which is holding its annual meeting this week in Washington, denied encouraging industrial logging but acknowledges that abuses of the Democratic Republic of Congo's forest management are possible, given the country's large size and developing government structure.

"For us this is an opportunity to remind the bank that we as indigenous people need to be considered as key partners in forest management," Adrien Sinafasi Makelo of the group DIPY, which means Pygmy Dignity, said in an interview.

"These forests of the Congo are important not only for Congolese people but for the planet," Sinafasi Makelo said through a translator. "The forest plays a role in regulating the climate."

The country's forests store up to 8 percent of the planet's carbon, according to the environmental group Greenpeace, which is supporting the Pygmies.

In an interview, Sinafasi said some 40 million Congolese, including 600,000 Pygmies, rely on the country's forests for their livelihood.

FORESTS KEY TO PYGMY EXISTENCE

The forests are an integral part of Pygmy culture and identity, according to Adolphine Muley of the group UESA, which translates to Union for the Emancipation of Indigenous Women.

"There is no difference between Pygmies and the forest," Muley said in an interview. "If you want to protect the Pygmies, you have to protect the forest."

The Pygmies want to meet with World Bank President Robert Zoellick. John Donaldson of the bank's Africa region said this would not be possible, but said the organization's vice president for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili, and vice president for Social Development Network, Katherine Sierra, would meet them.

Not officially published but widely leaked, a report by a World Bank inspection panel said the bank's support of logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo originally overestimated the export revenue to be gained from the process.

The policy discouraged pursuit of sustainable forestry and conservation, and mainly benefits foreign companies or local companies controlled by foreigners, the report said.

"The panel is concerned that the benefits from the industrial harvesting of trees ... are not going to the people living in and around the forest," the report said. "The panel found evidence that the promised benefits to the communities ... such as schools, clinics and other facilities, have not materialized."

The bank's Donaldson declined to comment on the report until the bank's management has put together an official response, probably sometime in December.

He denied any bank role in fostering industrial logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo but said the question of sustainable forest practices was a "legitimate concern."

"If you meet the test of sustainability, there is a role for reasonable, enforceable logging policy in the Congo," Donaldson said by telephone.