–The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a forest giant. Its tropical forest, covering more than 130 million hectares, is the second largest in the world. But the DRC is also an economically vulnerable, politically unstable country and among the poorest in the world. Much of its population lives in abject poverty: 15.5 million people are food insecure, 2.3 million children are moderately malnourished and 1.1 million children are severely malnourished.

The DRC’s forest faces great challenges : the DRC is the third largest tropical country in the world in terms of forest loss after Brazil and Indonesia, with 14.6 million hectares lost between 2001 and 2019. But the reasons for this loss of forests are different: in the DRC, forest loss is due to poverty, to a local need for land and forest products (small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture and charcoal) exacerbated by strong population growth. In Brazil and Indonesia, by contrast, forest loss is mainly caused by clearing of forest lands to cultivate agricultural commodities (such as soy, beef, palm oil).

Any solution proposed to stem forest loss in the DRC must therefore also focus on reducing poverty. In concrete terms, this means finding answers together to questions such as: how can we ensure food security and substantially increase agricultural production without clearing forests, that are necessary to maintain the rains on which the crops depend? How to provide modern cooking solutions and electrify cities in a country where over 90% of the population does not have access to electricity and therefore depends on biomass? How to develop the country’s territory, over 60% of which is covered by forests, in a way that is socially equitable, ecologically sustainable and provides the infrastructure necessary for economic emergence?