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FRONT •• EDEN IS SPARED The largely untouched lOO-square-mile Goualogo Triangle in northern Congo contains some of the densest popula- tions of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in Africa. It is so remote that the animals have no fear of humans. The Goualogo Triangle is also home to up to $40 million worth of precious wood, including hotly sought ebony, sipo and sapelli. Given Congo's recent history, the Goualogo might look li ke a ripe target for commer- cia l exploitation, but in a well- publicized declaration on July 6, 2001, a German-owned forestry company, Congolaise Industrie lle des Bois (CIB), which holds a lease over the Goualogo, boldly announced that it is voluntari ly ceding the pristine tract to the nearby Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. The decision was made public during a ceremony at New York's Bronx Zoo. The zoo's parent organization, the World Wildlife Conservation Society, carried out a survey of the Goualogo last year and lobbied CIB heavily to spare the Goualogo's wildlife. "There was no compensation for us in this," Heinrich Stoll, CIB's president, told reporters. "This came from a mutual understanding to give up part of a forest with great value." Among those attending the ceremony was Giuseppe Topa, chief African forestry specialist for the World Bank, which has come under criticism in the past for pumping money into for- est exploitation without paying sufficient attention to ecological impact. Although the Goualogo is re latively small compared to the 5,000 square miles of tropical forests the CIB has leased for logging in Congo, their decision to cede control over it has gained them interna- tional headlines and genera l plaudits from environmenta li sts. Africa contains one-third of the world's rainforests, but until recently politica l instability and a lack of infrastructure have meant that its wood output accounts for only about 10 percent of the world market. The recent .cease-fire between warring factions in Congo could change that, and 24 AN AFRICA lumber companies have been hungrily gearing up for widespread exploitation of previously inaccessible forests. But both the logging companies and the World Bank are acutely aware that they wi ll have to win over public opinion if they want to avoid confronting a new firestorm from green activists. CI B received a $2.1 million loan in 1984 from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank. The loan was repaid partia lly in equity in 1992. The IFC says it sold its last remaining equity in 1995. At the time, various non- governmental organizations (NGOs) were criticizing the World Bank and CIB for ravaging the rainforests. CIB was accused of smuggling wood across the border of Congo into Cameroon to avoid government controls. A former employee told news agencies that the company was cutting down everything in sight. It also did all it cou ld to keep environmental- ists from observing its ope-rations. In 1996, CIB blocked Korinna Horta, an environmental econ- omist from the Environmental Defense Fund, from entering the area, and other activists received an equally frosty reception. As NGO pres- sures mounted, however, the company's approach began to change. Last year, Stol l publicly voiced support for a movement to establish a certification system guaranteeing that precious woods reaching the market come from sustainable forest areas. After the Bronx Zoo announcement, Simon Counsell, director of the London-based Rai nforest Foundation, noted that it is still hard to tell what CIB is really doing since apart from a handful of selected people from the World Wildl ife Conservation Society and a BBC-TV crew, few independent observers have managed to get into the area. Of course, since the Goualogo is surrounded by two impassable rivers and an impenetrable forest swamp, it's not unreasonable to ask how much the company is really giving up. -William Dowell