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JUDY WOODRUFF: The Democratic
Republic of Congo is a massive
country, the size of Alaska

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and Texas combined. It's also
home to a large part of the
Congo Basin rain forest. That

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is the world's second
largest after the Amazon.

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It is the habitat for countless
species, and crucial to
mitigating climate change, as it

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soaks up atmospheric
carbon dioxide.

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One of the major threats
comes from illegal and
uncontrolled logging.

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In partnership with the Pulitzer
Center, special correspondent
Monica Villamizar reports.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Pygmies have
lived in the forests of the
Democratic Republic of Congo

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for generations. After
five years of campaigning,
the village of Lokolama
became one of the

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first indigenous communities
in the country to be given
titles to their ancestral land.

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In March 2019, the whole
village celebrated when more
than 20,000 acres of forest was

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handed over to them to
sustainably manage. But
the joy and dancing was
short lived. Fast-forward

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to today and village elder,
Joseph Bonkile, says that the
threat of climate change and

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widespread logging is
ruining that dream.

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JOSEPH BONKILE, Lokolama Village
Elder (through translator): We
will die and lose everything.

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Our children will suffer. They
will die from the effects of
rising temperatures and climate

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change. We must protect
the forest from logging.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The
government of Congo
DRC has a forest code
that determines which

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trees can be cut and how many,
but there is little enforcement.

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Despite international and
national laws designed
to protect the rain
forest, from 2001 to 2018,

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Congo DRC lost 6 percent of
all the forest in the country,
an area similar to the size

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of Mississippi.

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Congolese environmental activist
Irene Wabiwa accuses logging
companies of abusing the system.

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IRENE WABIWA BETOKO, Greenpeace:
Many companies are using fraud
to legalize what is not legal.

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What is happening on the ground
is that these companies, they
are coming, using their own

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power and money. They get
permits and they falsify or
modify it to get more volume of

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timber that they will cut.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: So, why do
you think the government is not
doing more? Who is responsible

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for this, and why are
they not doing enough?

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IRENE WABIWA BETOKO:
Governance in Congo is
very poor. Corruption
is very high. So, when

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you have power, you have
money, you can do what you
want in the forest sector.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Greenpeace
has campaigned against illegal
logging for many years. It

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argues timber consumed globally
should be traced to its origin.

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Normally, a system of marks
ensures that each log that is
cut down is accounted for. The

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marks mirror those at the stump
and also have information about
the location where the tree

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was cut. But Greenpeace says,
much of the timber leaving
Congo is cut without permission

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and manages to reach the
final destination with
counterfeit marks or permit.

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We joined environmental
activist Etienne Kasiraca
on a fact-finding mission
deep into the forest.

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Many of Congo's forests are
only accessible by river boat.

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The reason why so many
African parks have been
spared of logging is
because the infrastructure

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is so poor that getting
the timber out becomes
very expensive. But this
is not the case here

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in this part of the DRC, because
the Congo River is such a
good means of transportation.

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We arrived at a
concession operated by
the Congolese-registered
Bakri Bois Corporation.

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Kasiraca decided to visit
the site now, as he had heard
that the timber workers were

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on strike, and we could enter
the concession. These places are
normally guarded and off-limits

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to visits from
environmentalists and reporters.

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Licenses and paperwork are the
only way to prove the timber
is legal, and that loggers

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are not chopping down trees
that are too old, too young or
endangered. But Kasiraca says

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he has rarely seen a
company operate with a
valid license in this area.

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Do you think a lot of
this is going on in
the Congolese forest?

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ETIENNE KASIRACA, Environmental
Activist (through translator):
Yes, it's a major problem, not

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an isolated case. In
other areas, it's even
worse than here. The
forest is being pillaged.

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No one respects the law.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: What do you
know about the paperwork this
corporation has, for instance?

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Do they have a license
to be cutting this wood?

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ETIENNE KASIRACA (through
translator): They had a license
to log here issued in 2018.

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It was valid for that year, but
has now expired, but they still
continue logging regardless.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The
logs are tied together,
forming makeshift rafts
and floated to the

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capital, Kinshasa. This is the
port of Kinkole, one of the
many hubs in and around Kinshasa

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used for processing rain forest
timber from the Congo Basin.

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Many of these trees facing the
chopping block are hundreds of
years old. Local authorities

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check the mark on the timber
to see that it corresponds
with the right permit.

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The log number, the owner's
name or initials, the month
and the log number, correct?

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Barouti represents 300
small-scale loggers known
as artisanal loggers.
He says, on average,

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people like him only cut down
around 150 trees per year, while
large-scale industrial loggers

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cut down tens of thousands.

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Under Congolese law, small-scale
loggers are given a special
permit to work in their local

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forests. But foreign companies
are using these licenses to log
on an industrial scale. Next

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to this port and visible from
the air, there is a large timber
mill operated by a Chinese

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company, where hundreds of
logs piled up. We were not
allowed to film inside.

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BAROUTI, Artisanal Logger
(through translator):
The Chinese logging
company has pushed down

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prices so much that artisanal
loggers like us can't compete.
We can each only afford

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to float our logs down river
once a year, while the Chinese
company brings in two full

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ferries of wood each week.

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MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Widespread
logging of the Congo Basin
continues to go unchecked, and

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this trend of deforestation
is set to go on, with
irreversible consequences.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Monica Villamizar in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.

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JUDY WOODRUFF:
Thank you, Monica.

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And, for the record, the story
was filmed before the pandemic.