ABSTRACT
Our two African case study countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Africa, have about 4 per cent of the world’s forests. There is stark contrast between these countries, both generally and in the forestry context. The Congo Basin forests, of which the DRC has more than half, contain the second largest area of dense tropical rainforest in the world (CARPE, 2007). As a result, the DRC is tremendously forest-rich, but has suffered from a long, ongoing civil war that has – amongst other things – greatly damaged its capacity and infrastructure for sustainable forest management and kept its people poor. While the DRC is ranked seventh globally in forest area, it is the lowest ranked amongst our case study countries in terms of economic indicators such as per capita GDP and the value of forest products trade, and in human development.
