Award Winner RENÉ NGONGO (Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC)

Posted on by October 13, 2009 by Karin Styrenius

René Ngongo (Democratic Republic of Congo), the 2009 Right Livelihood Award Winner “…for his courage in confronting the forces that are destroying the
Congo’s rainforests and building political support for their
conservation and sustainable use”.

The Congo rainforest, in global importance second only to that of the Amazon, is
under grave threat from the aftermath of war, population pressure and corporate
exploitation. Since 1994, including through the civil war from 1996-2002, René
Ngongo has engaged, at great personal risk, in popular campaigning, political
advocacy and practical initiatives to confront the destroyers of the rainforest and
help create the political conditions that could halt its destruction and bring about its
conservation and sustainable use.

Life and career
René Ngongo was born in Goma in 1961, and took a Bachelor in biology from the
University of Kisangani in 1987. It soon became clear to him that the Congo rainforest,
the second largest tropical forest in the world, is under very grave threat – both because
of the poverty of local people who cut the forest to satisfy their need for food and
fuelwood and because of commercial logging and mining.

In 1994 Ngongo founded, and became the national coordinator of, OCEAN (Organisation
Concertée des Ecologistes et Amis de la Nature). OCEAN started as an environmental
NGO in Kisangani, but has managed to reach out to the entire country through the work
of volunteers. OCEAN’s main activities are agroforestry, urban tree-planting,
reforestation nurseries for the most threatened species, distribution of improved cooking
stoves, monitoring of the exploitation of natural resources, education, especially through
radio and TV broadcasts, and the advocacy and lobbying on local, national and
international level.

Ngongo has also worked both for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Since 2008, Ngongo has been
working for Greenpeace to build up the new Greenpeace DRC office. He handed over the
leadership of OCEAN to a younger colleague and became a member of its Administrative
Council instead.

Promoting sustainable land use
The first focus of Ngongo’s work was to promote sustainable land use models that would
allow the local population to satisfy their need for food and fuelwood, and to receive a
better income, without destroying the forest. From 1992 to 2000, Ngongo had a weekly
radio programme on nature protection and the impact of deforestation called “L’Homme
et son Environnement – MAZINGIRA”. At the same time, Ngongo developed
pedagogical tools and provided trainings for farmers to learn about alternatives to the
destructive “slash and burn” agriculture. He created in Kisangani demonstration fields for
sustainable agricultural techniques like agroforestry (growing food in the forest without
destroying it) and taught locals how to save on fuelwood through improved cooking
stoves.

Ngongo also coordinated the creation of a seedling plantation with 20,000 seedlings of
the most exploited tree species in the Eastern province. This plantation provided trees for
several events such as ‘green city’ (Ville Verte) during which tree planting took place in
abandoned parks, along avenues and in schools. Children were actively involved in these
events to ensure widespread dissemination of the environmental messages.
Exposing destructive mining and logging
Throughout the wartime years of 1996-2002 Ngongo was actively monitoring the
exploitation of natural resources by the different warring parties. Many international
organisations and research institutes recognised OCEAN as a key source of information.
For instance, Ngongo’s research on illegal mining operations (diamonds and other
minerals) contributed to the UN Security Council expert panel report on the illegal
exploitation of natural resources in the DRC. Ngongo is convinced that the struggle for
the control over natural resources was the main driving force of the conflicts in the DRC
that left millions of people dead.

Since the civil war ended, the destruction of the Congo rainforest has accelerated even
more, because the DRC is now safe terrain for the big forestry multinationals to operate.
OCEAN became the key organisation exposing irresponsible logging practices as well as
weak governance and a lack of transparency in the forest and mining sectors. Not
surprisingly, Ngongo has experienced a considerable amount of threats, manipulation and
intimidation.

Today, the rainforests of the DRC are at a crossroads. In January 2009, the government
finished a legal review of 156 forest concessions (on 20 million hectares) and concluded
that 91 of them had been illegal. However, in September 2009, several companies whose
contracts had been declared illegal by the joint ministerial commission in January
continued their activities in total impunity. Thus, it is one of Ngongo’s priorities to
campaign for the implementation of the government’s decision and for respecting the
moratorium on new logging activities in the forests of the DRC. He is arguing that the
further destruction of the Congo rainforest would put local communities, who depend on
the forest for their livelihoods, at great risk. It would also further accelerate global
warming and make the DRC more vulnerable to its effects.

Capacity building
Much of Ngongo’s work is dedicated to strengthening the knowledge and capabilities of
NGOs, politicians and local authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to
effectively protect the forest. He has coordinated training sessions for national and
provincial politicians on the forest code. OCEAN is working with local communities
affected by road construction projects to make sure that their voices are heard. In
addition, Ngongo’s ongoing support of grassroots initiatives provided a strong basis for
the development of the ‘Réseau des Ressources Naturelles’, a Congolese umbrella
organisation for civil society groups working on mining and forestry issues. Ngongo has
also organised many consultations with politicians, donors and industry representatives to
promote sustainable forestry practices.

Quote
“The forests of the DR Congo and the Congo Basin, the planet’s second ‘lung’, are a
precious heritage that should be preserved. Those forests should not be considered merely
as raw material to be exported and should neither only be seen as a carbon reservoir.
Before anything else, it is a living environment, a grocery store, a pharmacy, a spiritual
landmark for millions of forest communities and aboriginal peoples, those who are our
forest’s main guardians. Destroying the forest means destroying lifestyles that are worth
as much as others…”
“Those extraordinary forests, with a unique biodiversity, also represent a major asset for
the DRC and the entire planet when it comes to the fight against climate change.
Valorising them as standing forests brings about a quarter of the answer on how to defuse
the threat of climate change. But unfortunately, with 13 million hectares disappearing
each year, what future are we handing over to future generations? And in the meantime,
so many meetings, speeches, good intentions… It is time to act and mobilise the
necessary resources in order to guarantee an ecologically responsible and socially
balanced future for our forests…”