DR Congo’s vast ‘Green Corridor’ plan faces human rights and environmental concerns

Climate Rights International warns that oil exploration, mining and land disputes could undermine a major conservation and development initiative stretching across the country. A major conservation and economic development initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces calls for stronger environmental safeguards and protection for local communities, amid concerns that oil exploration, mining, and large-scale commercial activities could undermine its ambitions. Climate Rights International (CRI) says in a new report that the government must ensure projects under the proposed Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor protect the country’s forests, respect land rights, and meet climate commitments. The organisation calls for a permanent ban on new logging concessions, a ban on oil and gas exploration and extraction, and restrictions on destructive mining within the corridor.

It also wants the government to protect environmental activists and ensure that communities are not forcibly displaced in the name of development. Announced in 2025 by President Felix Tshisekedi, the Green Corridor is one of Africa’s most ambitious conservation and economic development initiatives. Afrormosia tree, Yangambi, DRC. Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR cifor. org forestsnews. cifor. org If you use one of our photos, please credit it accordingly and let us know. You can reach us through our Flickr account or at: cifor-mediainfo@cgiar. org and m. edliadi@cgiar. org Stretching approximately 2,400km from North Kivu in eastern DR Congo to the capital, Kinshasa, in the west, the proposed corridor covers an area roughly the size of France and is home to about 25 million people. It sits within the Congo Basin, which contains the world’s largest net carbon sink and some of its most threatened tropical forests.…