Democratic Republic of Congo Timber Risk Profile

Legal rights to harvest

• Existing land tenure rights over forest land are not identified through public inquiries (1.1, 1.2); 
• Land rights and titles overlap (1.1); 
• The regulatory time frames for converting old forest titles are not respected (1.2);
• New concession contracts are awarded in violation of the moratorium in force (1.2); 
• Concession contracts are awarded at the discretion of the State without a reason that is compliant with the regulations (1.2);
• The specifications (cahier des charges) attached to the concession contract are not signed (1.2); 
• There is no social clause in the specifications (cahier des charges) in compliance with the regulatory template, duly signed by the logging company and the local communities and/or indigenous peoples (1.2);
• Concession contracts are not terminated where a forest management plan has not been duly drawn up and approved within the 4-year period specified by law for old forest titles that have been converted into concessions (1.2);
• Community forest concessions are monopolised or manipulated (1.2);
• Corrupt practices happen during the process for allocating land/forest concessions (1.2);
• There is an absence of any participative processes and consultation meetings with local communities when drawing up the forest management plan (1.3);
• The deadlines stipulated for drawing up and validating the forest management plan are not respected (1.3);
• The provisions of the forest management plan are not implemented or are only partially implemented (1.3);
• Activities not stipulated in the forest management plan are authorised or not monitored (mining, hunting, farming, etc.) (1.3);
• There are discrepancies between the concession limits indicated in the forest management plan and those indicated in the concession contract and the official database (Forest Atlas of the Democratic Republic of Congo) (1.3); 
• Non-compliance with harvest permits rules in industrial concessions (1.4): 

        o    Logging operations are carried out without a harvest permit, before a permit is issued or after a permit has been revoked
        o    Industrial harvest permits are allocated without an annual operations plan 
        o    Timber is harvested beyond the statutory period of the annual allowable cut (maximum three years) 

• Artisanal loggers are making fraudulent use of harvest permits (1.4):

        o    are not registered with local authorities; 
        o    are entities that are not designated to be recipient of artisanal permits; 
        o    are granted more annual permits than the maximul legally allowed (2 permits); and / or
        o    are granted harvest permits by authorities different than the ones legally authorised to

• Amounts due are calculated based on false figures (area or volume) (1.5); 
• Amounts due for area tax and logging tax are not paid due to significant administrative failures (1.5);
• Amounts due for corporate income tax are not paid (1.7); 

• Logs and stumps are not marked (1.8);
• Wood is harvested beyond the authorised volume (1.8);
• Non-authorised species are harvested (1.8);
• Logging activities are carried out without a permit (1.8);
• Trees below the minimum felling diameter are harvested (1.8);
• Logging activities are carried out beyond the specified limits (1.8);
• Wood is abandoned (1.8);
• The soil and subsoil is damaged (1.8);
• Protected species are harvested without a special harvest permit (1.9);
• Logging activities are carried out in protected areas (1.9);
• No environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) is conducted, no operational plan is drawn up and/or no provisions for mitigating the environmental and social impacts are implemented (1.10);
• Obligations relating to the health of the workers are not respected (lack of regulatory medical service, workers not cared for following an accident or illness, workers and accidents at work not declared to the National Social Security Institute (INSS)) (1.11);
• Obligations relating to the safety of the workers are not respected (no personal protective equipment, no access to drinking water on logging sites) (1.11);
• Employment regulations are not respected (lack of compliant and registered employment contract, employees not paid by way of a payslip, employer not paying social contributions, workers’ pay below the minimum wage) (1.12); 
• For Third parties’ rights, there is a risk that: 
• Agreements between concession-holders and local communities or between artisanal loggers and local communities are not in place or not implemented (1.13);
• Local funds and committees in place to deliver socio-economic development activities are manipulated and / or non-functional (1.13);
• Local communities forest concessions are effectively controlled by loggers and / or local elites and / or non-local NGOs without the required involvement of local communities (1.13);

Third parties' rights

• Agreements between concession-holders and local communities or between artisanal loggers and local communities are not in place or not implemented (1.13);
• Local funds and committees in place to deliver socio-economic development activities are manipulated and / or non-functional (1.13);
• Local communities forest concessions are effectively controlled by loggers and / or local elites and / or non-local NGOs without the required involvement of local communities (1.13);

Trade and transport

• False declarations are made in the site log books (1.16); 
• False declarations are made regarding species and their volume on transport permits (1.16);  
• False quarterly declarations are made or declarations are not accompanied by the secure documents used during the quarter by the forest administration to carry out the relevant checks (1.16);
• No site log book is kept (1.17);
• Fraudulent transport permits are used (i.e. they do not correspond to the concession from which the wood originates) (1.17);
• Volumes are under-billed for the purpose of manipulating transfer prices (1.18);
• The quotas for log exports are not respected (1.19);Volumes exported are falsified to lower export taxes payment (1.19);
• Export duties are not paid (1.19);
• CITES permits are issued where the legality of the logging activities has not been verified and/or the volumes have not been checked (1.20);
• CITES permits are issued fraudulently (1.20);
• CITES permits are replaced or renewed unlawfully (1.20);

Processing

• No environmental and social impact assessment is carried out by the wood processing unit (1.23); 
• Obligations relating to the health of the workers are not respected (lack of regulatory medical service, workers not cared for following an accident or illness, workers and accidents at work not declared to the National Social Security Institute (INSS)) (1.25);
• Obligations relating to the safety of the workers are not respected (lack of personal protective equipment) (1.25);
• Employment regulations are not respected (lack of compliant and registered employment contract, employees not paid by way of a payslip, employer not paying social contributions, workers’ pay below the minimum wage) (1.26).