Earth s lung to be revived
Africa's massive rainforests, second only to the one in Amazon basin, have received a new lease of life. Leaders of seven central African countries recently signed a treaty to protect these forests, spread over more than 200 million hectares in their territories.
Poaching, illegal logging and ecological damage is rampant in the rainforests, which are shrinking at the rate of 8,000 square kilometres per year.
The treaty was signed in Congo's capital, Brazzaville. French president Jacques Chirac, along with many international representatives, was present on the occasion. The pact provides for reviving a five-year-old dormant conservation project for the forest. Heads of governments and African and Western logging companies participated in the talks that preceeded the signing of the treaty. The idea was to coordinate their efforts. Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathai agreed to be the goodwill ambassador for protecting the part of the forest in the Congo basin. The countries also agreed to create a certification system for tropical wood. This will ensure that Western consumers identify the origin of the wood of the furniture they buy.