What is Entoku?

Entoku is a vast area of peatlands in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that locks in a monumental amount of carbon.

Peatlands are only 3 percent of all the land in the world, but they store two times the amount of carbon as ALL of the world's forests.

If we allow these West African peatlands, Entoku, to be destroyed and developed by loggers and developers, researchers say it will release the same amount of carbon as 20 years worth of the current fossil fuel emissions in the United States. This is a climate disaster we can't allow to happen!

How do we do it?

Sign this petition asking the Congolese state to: 

• give the people of Lokolama, Penzele, and other villages near the peatlands full, tenured, formal rights to all of Entoku;
• establish an avenue for the DIRECT funding of their conservation efforts;
• reinstate the moratorium on industrial logging in Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The people that live in Lokolama, Penzele, and other villages of Entoku, are doing all they can to be the caretakers of this important, 55,000 square mile area of natural carbon capture. These indigenous forest communities have lived in and around Entoku for several hundreds of years. Throughout that time they have welcomed journalists like New York Times West African bureau chief Ruth Maclean and researchers like Ovide Emba of the Université de Mbandaka to report and study the invaluable carbon store they live on.

These forest communities have persevered the exploitation of their lives, land, and labor through Belgian colonialism and modern industrialism. They limit the access of industrial logging to the very remote peatlands and help researchers discover more about how crucial the peatlands are to the survival of our entire planet.

Preservation of the peatlands benefits the entire world, but it is arduous for and costly to the people of Lokolama and Penzele. They give up their economic opportunity to keep the peatlands isolated and safe. We can support them by asking the Congolese state to give these indigenous peoples full, tenured, formal rights to all of Entoku and establish avenues for direct funding of their conservation efforts.

How does this work?

Because of research done by the European Union, the CGIAR Research Programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, the Centre for International Forestry Research, and others, we know that community forestry models like this are an effective solution for the problem of deforestation that decreases carbon capture.

If we partner with indigenous communities to leverage the power of natural carbon capture, we get closer to meeting the fossil fuel emissions targets set by governments throughout the world. That is to say, we push total climate disaster further into the future.

This petition is an easy, peaceful, cooperative way to get this process started. We will deliver the petition to the Congolese state, letting them know that there are people that care about the damaging effects of climate change, particularly deforestation in DRC. We might be able to speed up the land title application process for Entoku villages like Lokolama and Penzele. Sign this petition to take real action right now and make the voice of all people that care about the planet heard.

This isn't all up to the Congolese state. It's up to us and our governments, too.

We should put our money where our mouth is! Help us find ways to DIRECTLY fund the conservation of Entoku and pressure the governments of high fossil fuel emissions countries to do the same. The United States and the EU (particularly Belgium), should be at the top of this list. This petition should just be the start of wider, collaborative efforts of people all over the world.

 

Sources:

Cerutti, Paolo Omar. 2020. "Community forestry can work, but plans in the Democratic Republic of Congo show what’s missing." The Conversation. June 29. https://theconversation.com/ (accessed February 27, 2022).

Dargie, Greta C., Lewis, Simon, Lawson, Ian T., et al. 2017. "Age, extent and carbon storage of the central Congo Basin peatland complex." Nature. 542, 86–90. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21048 (accessed February 27, 2022).

Emba, Ovide. 2021. "Variation in GHG fluxes in relation to peat swamp forest types in the DRC." Mbandaka Higher Pedagogical Institute, DRC. May 29. https://congopeat.net/ (accessed February 27, 2022).

Frechette, Alain, Chole Ginsburg, and Wayne Walker. 2018. "A Global Baseline of Carbon Storage in Collective Lands: Indigenous and Local Community Contributions to Climate Change Mitigation." Rights and Resources Initiative. September 1. https://rightsandresources.org/ (accessed February 27, 2022).

Maclean, Ruth. 2022. "What Do the Protectors of Congo’s Peatlands Get in Return?" The New York Times. February 21. https://www.nytimes.com/ (accessed February 27, 2022).

 

Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 "20180102-FS-IP-RZ-011" by Forest Service Photography