Although Honda boasts the Baja-winning capabilities of a highly modified CRF450X, the true calling card of the stock Honda CRF450X is its EPA-friendly emissions equipment that keeps it trail-legal in California—the most restrictive state in the union for off-road vehicles. The off-road-only 2022 Honda CRF450X sits between the CRF450RX competition-only racer and the CRF450RL dual-sport bike. We put lots of miles on the CRF450X, from tight single-track to wide-open desert terrain. While it has many racebike characteristics, it’s a trailbike at heart, and that’s how we enjoyed it.Hopping on the 2022 Honda CRF450X, it feels instantly familiar. Honda has ergonomics down, and nothing feels out of place. It doesn’t hurt that there are six CRF450 variants, so we spend quite a bit of time on the platform. The cockpit isn’t complicated, with start and kill buttons taking care of the electronics—no power modes, traction control, or launch control on this one.The big reason you don’t need any power modes for trail riding the 2022 Honda CRF450X is that the motor is a big sweetheart. Smoothly ramping up to a peak of about 40 horsepower with tons of overrev, plus a smooth run to a midrange maximum torque production of 30 ft/lbs.Unlike the barking CRF450R and CRF450RX, the X subdues the throttle response, focusing on retaining traction regardless of the terrain’s challenges. Honda achieves this by giving the CRF450X its own cam profile and piston, while increasing the crank mass. With a much less restricted exhaust system than the catalyst-saddled CRF450RL dual-sport bike, the CRF450X is a gentle step up from the CRF450RL, though not coming close to challenging the maximum power outputs from the R or RX.The 2022 Honda CRF450X is documented below about 5000 rpm. If you like short-shifting and lugging, the X will happily comply—it doesn’t have the flame-out problem that makes you want to keep the revs up on the RL. Above 5k, the delivery gets a bit more exciting, and by 8000 rpm, even the most aggressive rider will click up a gear on the flawless transmission. Honda wisely outfitted the CRF450X with a six-speed transmission, rather than the five-speed used in the R and RX. Matched with the broad powerband, the CRF450X is willing to take you anywhere. You can work your way through the most technical trails in 1st gear—a damper on the countershaft sprocket adds to the smoothness.When you get into open terrain, you can crank it up into 6th, which will take you up to speeds that will get you a ticket on an Interstate. This won’t happen in a blink of an eye, but it will transpire with a satisfying urgency if you’re hard on the throttle.If you get going too fast, the two-piston Nissin calipers working on a 260mm disc will reverse the process, and the rear brake has good feel when you need it. Also, you can easily keep tabs on your pace thanks to an easy-to-read LCD dash, though a configurable TFT display would be a cool upgrade.Balance is always the key to a successful motorcycle, and the 2022 Honda CRF450X is a testament to that maxim. The smooth power delivery matches high-quality Showa suspension that is wonderfully plush. This is precisely what we like in a trail bike—awesome suspension that puts a premium on rider comfort and traction delivery. Racers will consider the damping and spring rates to be unacceptably soft. That’s easily fixed by visiting a local suspension revalving shop, or buying a CRF450RX.For trail riding, the suspension is heavenly. The dampening prevents wild changes in the CRF450X’s attitude, and the spring rate is just enough to prevent the bike from packing down too quickly on rougher terrain.The compression damping is about the same as the heavier CRF450RL, and considerably lighter than the RX. Rebound is the opposite, with the X preventing the back end from hopping around by slowing things down. These differences are immediately felt, as the X feels like it’s gliding across the terrain. If you’re not satisfied with the stock setting, full damping and spring-preload adjustability are at your fingertips. Speaking of fingertips—the stock hand guards are greatly appreciated.Honda engineers added to the X’s ease of use by giving the X more flexible upper motor mounts and increasing chassis flex a bit. While the X doesn’t have anywhere near the exciting and responsive feel of the RX, over the course of a day’s ride through demanding terrain, you’re happy for the X’s emphasis on comfort if you’re riding for fun, rather than racing for a trophy (or cash). All is not perfect, of course. Hitting the scales at 275 pounds, the 2022 Honda CRF450X is no lightweight—it’s 24 pounds heavier than the RX—and the nearly 38-inch seat height puts you far above the dirt. Fortunately, in technical terrain, the suspension and power delivery mask the heft, for the most part. However, it’s a bit of a beast to pick up should you have a tip-over. It is worth noting that the CRF450X weighs just 10 pounds more than the CRF250F, making the transition easier for someone moving upmarket.At speed, the weight is less of an issue, though riders who frequently access 6th gear will probably consider a steering damper. On the upside, the rake on the X is kicked out a half-degree compared to the RX. With the fork angled at 27.6 degrees, stability is impressive at speed in the stock configuration.Honda mounted a pair of now-discontinued Dunlop Geomax MX52 tires on the CRF450X, rather than the superior current MX53. It’s an intermediate-to-hard tire with a substantial carcass to deal with the tortures provided off-road. Certainly, the MX52 isn’t a bad tire and had a good reputation until the MX53 replaced it. We liked the feel of the rear—traction when needed, and controllable when steering with the rear—but occasionally lost the front unexpectedly in looser terrain. We’ve peeked at the ’23 CRF450X, and it will have Dunlop Geomax AT81 rubber—good choice.Californians can thank Honda for keeping the CRF450X Green Sticker legal. Yamaha let the WRs’ legality lapse, narrowing the number of performance-oriented Green Sticker off-road motorcycles to only the X and, sort of, the Kawasaki KLX300R. We hear that Beta will have some Green Sticker 2023 dirt bikes to keep Honda honest. We wouldn’t complain if the folks in Austria would turn one of its lines of dirt bikes into a Green Sticker armada—maybe GasGas, the “fun” brand. While we’re dreaming, how about a CRF400F from Honda—a modernized version of the XR400R with EFI and electric start?As it stands, the 2022 Honda CRF450X is a fantastic trail bike. It has personalizable ultra-comfy suspension, a meaty motor with easily 10 more horses in it if you’re interested, impeccable handling, and an exemplary reliability record. That’s enough for us to celebrate its continued presence in the marketplace and out in the dirt.Photography by Kelly CallanRIDING STYLE2022 Honda CRF450X SpecsENGINE
Engine: Four-stroke single canted 10 degrees forward
Choosing the best motorbike touring gear for you, from a helmet all the way down to riding boots, will go a long way to keeping your comfortable and protected in the saddle. But get it wrong and that glorious summer motorbike tour to the Alps could quickly turn into a cold, wet, and thoroughly miserable ordeal. But where do you start? How much should you spend? And do you get what you pay for?
In Episode 11 of the ABR Garage, the podcast from the Adventure Bike Rider team, join James, Bryn, and gear expert Ed Miles as they unpack their must-have riding gear for a motorbike tour. From the pros and cons of flip-front helmets to is it ever appropriate to break out those leather trousers, the boys discuss what’s worked best for them on their travels.
So, if you want to know how a laminated motorcycle jacket works before you splash out on one, or if you’re not sure whether you need adventure or touring boots, this episode of the ABR Garage will help you prepare for your next adventure at home and abroad.
So stay tuned for an update on Adventure Bike Riders long-term review bikes including Bryn’s Honda NT1100 and James’ Suzuki GSX-S1000GT. And make sure you leave a comment letting us know your ideal gear set up for touring. We’ll read out a selection in the next episode of the ABR Garage and award our favorite comment a top prize.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro finds evidence of illegal extraction of endangered tree species, precious minerals and strategic metals headed for global markets.
The investigation reveals that Chinese-owned companies use ‘complaisance’ permits to log and export CITES II-listed Afrormosia, which international demand pushed to extinction in other African countries, and flags irregularities in the latest export quota. European countries will consider stricter measures on imports from the DRC.
Military-protected concessionaires have been illegally mining gold, diamonds and rare metals with prospecting licenses for more than a year. They use mercury, a neurotoxic pollutant, in waters communities use to fish, bathe and drink.
Mongabay has partnered with EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro to publish this investigation in English. This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
BASOKO, Congo — In Yaliwasa, northern DRC, logs from 200-year-old hardwood trees lie rotting deep into the world’s second largest rainforest. They were cut in a hurry to be exported to global processing hubs in Asia, then redistributed to luxury markets in China and beyond. Instead, the precious wood is sprouting orange fungi and crumbles to the touch.
Some of the logs are unmarked, but they all belong to Fodeco, a Chinese-owned company without industrial logging experience that was handed a concession three times the size of New York city in 2015. The company soon came into conflict with local communities over compensation, and they have since boycotted the removal of the timber.
“Other [Chinese] companies I’ve worked for pay policemen or the military to protect their interests, but we don’t have the money because we can’t get the wood to markets,” said concession manager Liga Guo. He is referring to Maniema Union, the holder of logging concessions illegally traded by a Congolese army general, General Gabriel Amisi Kumba, who was sanctioned by the US and the EU for human rights abuses in 2019.
“All I want is to extract the logs, ship the timber, get the hell out of here. But it is impossible to work like this. I left China to make a living, but this job is killing me,” he said, carrying a bag full of antiparasitic and antimalarial pills to his container home next to the Congo river.
Fodeco holds one of the 18 contracts successive ministers awarded in violation of the country’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging ”an outright sale of forestry concessions,” according to an audit by Congolese finance inspectors that was recently published following months of pressure by international NGOs and media.
Downstream, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-registered Booming Group, is also harvesting hardwood in breach of DRC law, while nearby Xiang Jiang Mining is illegally dredging for precious and strategic minerals.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro has obtained evidence showing how Chinese-owned companies in northern DRC are illegally extracting natural resources using permits that amount to blank checks. The companies are extracting and exporting endangered tree species and minerals in breach of DRC law, and violating labor and human rights in collusion with officials.
Logging permits ‘à la carte’
The EU, the UK, Norway and another nine donors are keeping an eye on the DRC following a pledge of $500 million for Congo forest conservation at COP26. The publication of the financial audit on logging titles marked the first milestone of the arrangement and the DRC’s environment minister, Ève Bazaiba, committed to suspending the companies listed in the report until further notice.
In January 2020, unpublished reports accessed by this reporter were already flagging Fodeco’s infractions. The company allegedly presented false quarterly logging declarations, destroyed seedlings, and failed to produce a mandatory management plan.
A tree felled by Fodeco marked ‘ACC1’, logged using a permit based on a fictitious tree inventory. The company obtained its concession in violation of the DRC’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
This investigation also obtained a December 2020 declaration where the company admits arrangements to lower taxes and the failure to pay income and pollution taxes.
Fodeco also applied for a logging permit with ‘imaginary’ tree inventories, which were nevertheless approved by the environment minister at the time, Amy Ambatobe Nyongolo.
“In the DRC, any document, any proof of legality can be bought; administrations are legalizing machines,” an international consultant based in Kinshasa, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he advises DRC authorities on forest governance, told us.
Official documents obtained by this investigation show that Fodeco was granted permission to harvest 2,885 Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees between 2018 and 2019. Northeastern DRC has the world’s largest remaining pockets of this endangered species, a giant that can reach the height of a 15-story building which needs between 120 and 200 years to reach the harvesting diameter.
International demand wiped out the prized indigenous hardwood species in several Western and Central African countries, and its exports are now strictly regulated by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, or CITES, through a system of quotas and permits.
Fodeco was authorized to harvest the tree, commonly known as African teak, based on an inventory it presented. But the trees did not exist in the annual logging areas, so the company felled the trees wherever they could find them, including beyond the authorized limits of its permits and on the lands of forest-dependent communities.
This investigation found they also resorted to acquiring sawn Afrormosia from artisanal, unlicensed loggers, and had 500 pieces impounded, according to the police.
Samuel Ekomba – not his real name – is one of the informal loggers who harvested Afrormosia for Fodeco. He paid $20 per tree to customary forest owners, then sold it to the company 30% below the local price of $245 per cubic meter. In global markets, Afrormosia lumber sells for $1,200 to $2,000 per cubic meter and is used to make high-end fittings and furniture.
“I have been working without an artisanal logging permit for a decade,” Ekomba said. “I hoped Fodeco would give me the money to apply for it, so I could eventually produce timber for them legally, but I’m right where I started.”
Part of the wood he sold to the Chinese-owned company still sits in their premises, darkening inside an open shipping container.
Timber bought from forest-dependant people sits in a shipping container in Fodeco’s concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Rich land, poor people
“These [Fodeco] people came here with no experience and no translator, so they can hardly communicate with anyone,” said a Congolese employee with years of experience in the industrial logging sector, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We wonder how they ever got permission to start this business,” he added, pointing at pyramids of decaying logs from century-old trees that once topped the canopy.
He lost a finger logging in the forest, but never received any compensation or medical care beyond first aid. DRC law requires companies to issue contracts to employees after three months, but three years into the job, the man and his co-workers, who parted from their families in Kinshasa to join Fodeco, are still laborers earning as little as $3 per day.
A logger who lost his hand in an industrial accident shows reporter’s his injury. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In a remote forest at Yawinawina, community members who used to work for Fodeco retraced the steps towards a logging camp, pointing out the flimsy leaf shacks where they used to sleep. The Forest Code also requires companies to provide workers in the forest with adequate living quarters, drinking water and health facilities.
“Half a cup of rice per day, sleeping on the floor, no mosquito nets, no contract, no nursing room…Are we beasts?,” Joseph Atuku said. “We had so hoped it would be good for us, good for the community.”
The company operates in Basoko territory, a marshy area with five industrial logging concessions, one of the largest palm oil plantations in the region, and a mining venture operating around the clock.
The region’s natural resources attracted investors from China, Europe, South Africa and the US, and involved investment vehicles in secrecy jurisdictions such as Lichtenstein, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius and Delaware. But that wealth is not reflected in the living standards of people in the area, where one in three children are chronically malnourished.
Along river banks, boys with reddish-orange hair — a symptom of severe protein deficiency — unknowingly bathe beside diamond fields, under the shade of towering hardwood trees worth thousands of dollars in international markets.
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader with a leopard headdress, a 40-fang necklace — each piece representing a village — and a law degree. “Our ancestral forest is being plundered with the connivance of our own authorities. There’s all this talk about climate change, but the forestry administration is corrupt to the bone.”
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader in Yaliwasa, a remote forest-dependent community in Tshopo province affected by Fodeco’s logging concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
International trade in endangered species
Across the river from Fodeco, Chinese-owned Booming Green controls more than 1 million hectares of rainforest. The logging giant, which also works in Liberia, acquired five concessions in 2017 in violation of DRC’s ban on new industrial felling. Congolese inspectors also accuse them of owing $2.59 million to the treasury in acquisition fees and area taxes, but their concession numbers do not feature on the suspension order.
This investigation obtained Booming Green’s latest logging permit. It shows that, in January 2021, outgoing environment minister Claude Nyamugabo authorized them to harvest 91,455 cubic meters of Afrormosia, nearly twice the approved CITES export quota for the entire country in 2020. That volume also represents 93% of the quota for 2021,a figure that was only published towards the end of the year, and represents the highest quota to date.
Most DRC timber reaches global markets the year after it has been logged. That means exports of Congolese Afrormosia are currently in the hands of a company that is operating in breach of a 20-year moratorium.
The annual logging permit allows the company to log 1 million cubic meters of timber in one season — the DRC has never officially exported more than 400,000 cubic meters in a year, all species included. It lists a species that does not exist in the area, Moabi (Baillonella toxisperma), and the number of trees and corresponding volume of timber harvesting it allows do not match, including for an endangered species known as Mukulungu (Autranella congolensis).
“Complaisance permits are sold at gold price,” the international consultant supporting DRC efforts to improve forest governance told us. “Concessionaires could potentially use them to launder timber bought anywhere in the country, to misdeclare species, and to fraudulently export endangered trees.”
In a Linkedin post, Booming Green’s chairman promotes the company’s Afrormosia, an endangered species, that were readied for sale on international markets. The Chinese-owned company controls more than 1 million hectares of forest in breach of Congolese regulations. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In the meantime, shiploads of Booming Green’s timber have been making their way from Matadi port to destinations such as Jinjiang in China, a global wood processing center.
Neither Booming Green nor Fodeco responded to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
‘Stricter measures possible’ in the EU
How the DRC calculates the export quotas also raises questions. The latest available quota for Afrormosia, for example, is based on an EU-funded study coordinated by the DRC government, and conducted by Congolese researchers with the support of a CITES program. It was published in early 2022, nearly one year late, but it did not turn out as expected.
The first question the research was supposed to answer was which volume of Afrormosia must enter a DRC sawmill to produce a volume — say, one cubic meter — of products such as planks and veneer. This is called the ‘conversion rate,’ and has been a contentious issue for years because the higher it is, the more trees industrial loggers can fell.
However, the figure the DRC finally presented this year is not based on an independent study, as was originally intended, but on a dataset provided by logging companies.
A second objective of the study was to verify the traceability of the timber from forest floor to shipping container. But according to sources consulted for this investigation, the CITES management authority in the DRC repeatedly failed to grant researchers access to export permits. They also did not facilitate their access to the seaport of Matadi to review customs data.
The CITES management authority in Kinshasa did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees in Tshopo Province, northeastern DRC. International demand has pushed this species into oblivion in several West and Central African countries. Credit: Axel Fassio
This reporter shared the findings with Belgium — the top EU importer of Afrormosia from the DRC — and asked them to comment on the latest export quota “The high conversion rate and the audit by the DRC Ministry of Finance are indeed causes for concern,” said Belgium’s Federal Public Service for the environment.
“We will suggest [the EU Scientific Review Group conduct] an official consultation with the DRC, requesting more information on their management system, the audit, the study and the rate,” they added. “The audit raises bigger discussions on the management issues in the DRC and will have to be discussed at EU level, with stricter measures being possible.”
Global markets exposed to high-risk timber
To reduce the danger of importing tainted timber, DRC’s trading partners could check both the authenticity of CITES export permits and the corresponding logging permits. Even so, markets with stringent regulations such as the EU and the US are at risk of importing products that were obtained in breach of DRC law, but which have all documentation in order according to the DRC authorities.
“Unless there is an alert, we have to accept the documents issued by the country of origin,” Alfonso San Miguel, advisor to the Spanish CITES Authority, told us. The last word is with the Scientific Review Group, which convenes experts from each EU country to protect the common market from dubious imports.
However, the risk increases significantly when countries import finished wood products such as furniture via global processing hubs in Asia. China and Vietnam have been the main importers of Congolese Afrormosia in the past four years, according to DRC-reported figures, while Belgium remains a top global market and the main port of entry of the hardwood to Europe, followed by Portugal, Italy and Spain. The US imported a small quantity in 2018.
In the CITES Trade Database, the volumes reported by exporting and importing countries rarely match, adding to the difficulties of following Congolese timber from forest floor to consumer shelf. But under the trees, and underwater, lie riches that are even harder to trace.
Illegal gold and diamond mining
The world of Chinese companies in northern DRC is small. Fodecos’s operations manager joined them from the infamous Maniema Union to replace a man hired by Xian Jiang Mining. The company, which started operating in January 2021, controls two concessions in the territory of Basoko and third in Banalia, a total of more than 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres).
Without speedboats, reaching the Basoko concessions from the provincial capital takes days of navigating down the Congo river; paddling dug-out canoes up a tributary; fixing off-road motorcycles in muddy forest footpaths and carrying them across marshes, wading through waist-deep water towards riverside villages where dredging noises can be heard 24/7.
This investigation found that Xian Jiang Mining has been illegally extracting gold, diamonds and rare metals from the river bed for more than a year under cover of a ‘prospecting license’, promising communities to build them schools and dispensaries when they eventually started selling the goods. Their five dredgers used to be guarded by policemen, but the company ended up hiring Congolese military to fend off locals who opposed the operation.
One of the five dredgers illegally operated by Xian Jiang Mining in a hard-to-reach corner of Basoko territory, northeastern DRC. They extract gold, diamonds and rare metals from the Aruwimi river, and their concessions also cover the surrounding rainforest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Companies with a prospecting license are only authorized to search for mineral-rich areas. All of the samples they extract belong to the state, meaning they cannot be sold. There must be inspectors of the provincial mining division on each dredger to verify and collect the material. Instead, Xian Jiang Mining has been exploiting and selling the materials, without oversight, as administrations turned a blind eye.
This reporter accessed unpublished mining registry data showing they are authorized to look for gold and diamonds, as well as niobium, tantalum, stannic oxide and wolfram, also known as tungsten. The rare metals are used to produce high-strength alloys steel for oil and gas pipelines, smoke detectors, components for missiles and nuclear power plants, as well as surgical implants.
Collusion with authorities
In 2020, the provincial minister of mines and the vice governor led company-sponsored missions to the area to pressure customary authorities and reluctant communities into supporting the Chinese investment. The concessions cover both the river and the surrounding rainforest.
Upon receiving $1,700 and jobs from the company, even the youth leaders who had been blocking the first dredger for months caved in by the end of that year. “Kinshasa was with them. The province was with them. Even the military were with them,” Charles Kolo – not his real name – who previously opposed the project, told us. “What could we do?”
In 2021, even the provincial assembly urged locals to “sensitize” the last strongholds of resistance, so that Xian Jiang Mining could start working in the second of its two concessions in the area, according to documents obtained by this reporter.
The head of the mines division and provincial government representatives assured communities that the company was following the rules, insisted that prospecting studies would not affect water quality or local livelihoods, and said that compromises could be reached between the new investors and local, artisanal miners.
“We used to resort to the Aruwimi river for all our needs, but now it is so murky we have to go into the forest to get drinking water,” said Jean Christophe Njanjale, the chief of the Bangelema-Mongandjo Sector. Fishermen were forced downstream, too. Canoes got stuck in sandbanks created by automated dredgers, nets were torn by speedboats, and the fish are all but gone. Riverbanks flanked by 45-meter trees have crumbled.
Each of the company’s five dredgers extracts up to 75 tons of sand from the river bed every day and they illegally use mercury to separate the gold from the ore, dumping residues with the neurotoxic metal overboard. Downstream, fishermen still drink from the water, children bathe in it, and women use it to wash dishes.
The company buys the mercury at $5 per cubic centimeter from the same vendor to whom they sell the gold, in the center of the provincial capital Kisangani, a bustling mineral trading hub frequented by well-connected Chinese, Russian and Belgian traders.
One of the dredgers of Xian Jian Mining, which is guarded by the Congolese military. Some Chinese employees have mining experience in conflict-torn provinces of Kivu and Katanga, across the border from Zambia. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
As former driver and aide to Xiang Jiang Mining’s manager in Kisangani, Joseph Dako – not real name – had rare access to the company’ s modus operandi. “I used to carry diamonds to the city by motorbike through a hellish dirt road. Those are sold abroad,” he said. “Others would transport gold twice a week on the boat that stocks up on fuel and food. On a good day, we could deposit $100,000 in the bank from gold sales.”
The dredgers are clearly meant to exploit underground riches, not to obtain samples, and they cost much more than the $10,000 declared on the formation papers of the company, which we obtained. So why did provincial authorities allow, and advocate for, their deployment?
Chinese investors control about 70 percent of the DRC’s mining sector, according to the Congolese Chamber of Mines. The DRC has significant deposits of untapped gold and was the third-largest producer of industrial diamonds in 2019, contributing around 21 percent of global production. It also has one of the world’s poorest populations, and is struggling to improve the governance of its extraordinary natural resources.
Speaking within walking distance of the dredger assembling site in Kisangani, then chief of the mining division, Michel Liete, said he had not had a chance to see the machines or to speak with company representatives about reports of illegal exploitation, despite the fact they lived across the road.
“I didn’t need to take a look at the dredge. I trust the word of the company,” he said. “And anyway, why all this interest in the Chinese?”
On 3 September 2021, N’Samba ordered the temporary suspension of Xian Jiang Mining’s operations. However, on 13 December, Bazaïba warned they were still “illegally exploiting raw materials with very serious consequences,” and urged her to take all necessary measures to revoke the permit.
The DRC ministries of mines and the environment did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail. Xian Jiang Mining did not respond to requests for comment.
This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
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Banner image: Decaying log sitting at the premises of Fodeco, a Chinese-owned logging company operating in Tshopo, DRC’s largest forest province. It is not profitable for them to ship the logs unless they manage to extract enough of them from the forest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
One of the most significant safety checks you can do on your motorcycle is often overlooked—checking the air pressure in its tires. Even if you think about ensuring proper air pressure, the hassle of getting a gauge on the valve stem can be a convenient excuse to rely on eyeballing the psi. Lee Parks Design recognized that roadblock to doing what you know you need to do, and came up with the Psi Pro Tire Pressure Gauge.The idea behind the Lee Parks Design Psi Pro Tire Pressure Gauge is brilliantly simple—make it easier to get a reading. Lee Parks Design founder Lee Parks, best known as the founder of Total Control Training school for motorcyclists and author of the total control advanced how-to-ride book, turned his design skills toward tire pressure gauges, resulting in the Psi Pro.The secret is in the 90-degree angle for the cylindrical air chuck. Many valve stems point straight to the hub, which makes it impossible to get a traditional straight pencil-style, round-head tire pressure gauge. Even the heads with a 45-degree angle from the body can find interference from spokes, discs, or a sprocket. The 90-degree angle design on the Psi Pro makes every valve stem accessible.The Psi Pro features a 5.5-inch long brass body with a high-grip textured coating. The air chuck is nickel-plated steel and a half-inch long and is designed to securely mount on the valve stem with an intuitive push. When the pressure comes in, a piston acts on a steel spring that pushes out a traditional three-inch-long nylon stick that has markings in one-psi increments to reveal the pressure. When you remove the air chuck from the valve stem, the indicator bar self-retracts to avoid inadvertent damage.Lee Park’s designs claims the pressure measurement is accurate within one psi from 5 psi to 50 psi—making it compatible with street bikes and bikes—and backs that up with a five-year warranty. Even if you have a tire pressure monitoring system, you might want this gauge as a backup to confirm its accuracy. The Lee Parks Design Psi Pro Tire Pressure Gauge is made in the United States and has an MSRP of $28.
Choosing the best motorbike touring gear for you, from a helmet all the way down to riding boots, will go a long way to keeping your comfortable and protected in the saddle. But get it wrong and that glorious summer motorbike tour to the Alps could quickly turn into a cold, wet, and thoroughly miserable ordeal. But where do you start? How much should you spend? And do you get what you pay for?
In Episode 11 of the ABR Garage, the podcast from the Adventure Bike Rider team, join James, Bryn, and gear expert Ed Miles as they unpack their must-have riding gear for a motorbike tour. From the pros and cons of flip-front helmets to is it ever appropriate to break out those leather trousers, the boys discuss what’s worked best for them on their travels.
So, if you want to know how a laminated motorcycle jacket works before you splash out on one, or if you’re not sure whether you need adventure or touring boots, this episode of the ABR Garage will help you prepare for your next adventure at home and abroad.
So stay tuned for an update on Adventure Bike Riders long-term review bikes including Bryn’s Honda NT1100 and James’ Suzuki GSX-S1000GT. And make sure you leave a comment letting us know your ideal gear set up for touring. We’ll read out a selection in the next episode of the ABR Garage and award our favorite comment a top prize.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro finds evidence of illegal extraction of endangered tree species, precious minerals and strategic metals headed for global markets.
The investigation reveals that Chinese-owned companies use ‘complaisance’ permits to log and export CITES II-listed Afrormosia, which international demand pushed to extinction in other African countries, and flags irregularities in the latest export quota. European countries will consider stricter measures on imports from the DRC.
Military-protected concessionaires have been illegally mining gold, diamonds and rare metals with prospecting licenses for more than a year. They use mercury, a neurotoxic pollutant, in waters communities use to fish, bathe and drink.
Mongabay has partnered with EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro to publish this investigation in English. This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
BASOKO, Congo — In Yaliwasa, northern DRC, logs from 200-year-old hardwood trees lie rotting deep into the world’s second largest rainforest. They were cut in a hurry to be exported to global processing hubs in Asia, then redistributed to luxury markets in China and beyond. Instead, the precious wood is sprouting orange fungi and crumbles to the touch.
Some of the logs are unmarked, but they all belong to Fodeco, a Chinese-owned company without industrial logging experience that was handed a concession three times the size of New York city in 2015. The company soon came into conflict with local communities over compensation, and they have since boycotted the removal of the timber.
“Other [Chinese] companies I’ve worked for pay policemen or the military to protect their interests, but we don’t have the money because we can’t get the wood to markets,” said concession manager Liga Guo. He is referring to Maniema Union, the holder of logging concessions illegally traded by a Congolese army general, General Gabriel Amisi Kumba, who was sanctioned by the US and the EU for human rights abuses in 2019.
“All I want is to extract the logs, ship the timber, get the hell out of here. But it is impossible to work like this. I left China to make a living, but this job is killing me,” he said, carrying a bag full of antiparasitic and antimalarial pills to his container home next to the Congo river.
Fodeco holds one of the 18 contracts successive ministers awarded in violation of the country’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging ”an outright sale of forestry concessions,” according to an audit by Congolese finance inspectors that was recently published following months of pressure by international NGOs and media.
Downstream, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-registered Booming Group, is also harvesting hardwood in breach of DRC law, while nearby Xiang Jiang Mining is illegally dredging for precious and strategic minerals.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro has obtained evidence showing how Chinese-owned companies in northern DRC are illegally extracting natural resources using permits that amount to blank checks. The companies are extracting and exporting endangered tree species and minerals in breach of DRC law, and violating labor and human rights in collusion with officials.
Logging permits ‘à la carte’
The EU, the UK, Norway and another nine donors are keeping an eye on the DRC following a pledge of $500 million for Congo forest conservation at COP26. The publication of the financial audit on logging titles marked the first milestone of the arrangement and the DRC’s environment minister, Ève Bazaiba, committed to suspending the companies listed in the report until further notice.
In January 2020, unpublished reports accessed by this reporter were already flagging Fodeco’s infractions. The company allegedly presented false quarterly logging declarations, destroyed seedlings, and failed to produce a mandatory management plan.
A tree felled by Fodeco marked ‘ACC1’, logged using a permit based on a fictitious tree inventory. The company obtained its concession in violation of the DRC’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
This investigation also obtained a December 2020 declaration where the company admits arrangements to lower taxes and the failure to pay income and pollution taxes.
Fodeco also applied for a logging permit with ‘imaginary’ tree inventories, which were nevertheless approved by the environment minister at the time, Amy Ambatobe Nyongolo.
“In the DRC, any document, any proof of legality can be bought; administrations are legalizing machines,” an international consultant based in Kinshasa, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he advises DRC authorities on forest governance, told us.
Official documents obtained by this investigation show that Fodeco was granted permission to harvest 2,885 Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees between 2018 and 2019. Northeastern DRC has the world’s largest remaining pockets of this endangered species, a giant that can reach the height of a 15-story building which needs between 120 and 200 years to reach the harvesting diameter.
International demand wiped out the prized indigenous hardwood species in several Western and Central African countries, and its exports are now strictly regulated by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, or CITES, through a system of quotas and permits.
Fodeco was authorized to harvest the tree, commonly known as African teak, based on an inventory it presented. But the trees did not exist in the annual logging areas, so the company felled the trees wherever they could find them, including beyond the authorized limits of its permits and on the lands of forest-dependent communities.
This investigation found they also resorted to acquiring sawn Afrormosia from artisanal, unlicensed loggers, and had 500 pieces impounded, according to the police.
Samuel Ekomba – not his real name – is one of the informal loggers who harvested Afrormosia for Fodeco. He paid $20 per tree to customary forest owners, then sold it to the company 30% below the local price of $245 per cubic meter. In global markets, Afrormosia lumber sells for $1,200 to $2,000 per cubic meter and is used to make high-end fittings and furniture.
“I have been working without an artisanal logging permit for a decade,” Ekomba said. “I hoped Fodeco would give me the money to apply for it, so I could eventually produce timber for them legally, but I’m right where I started.”
Part of the wood he sold to the Chinese-owned company still sits in their premises, darkening inside an open shipping container.
Timber bought from forest-dependant people sits in a shipping container in Fodeco’s concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Rich land, poor people
“These [Fodeco] people came here with no experience and no translator, so they can hardly communicate with anyone,” said a Congolese employee with years of experience in the industrial logging sector, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We wonder how they ever got permission to start this business,” he added, pointing at pyramids of decaying logs from century-old trees that once topped the canopy.
He lost a finger logging in the forest, but never received any compensation or medical care beyond first aid. DRC law requires companies to issue contracts to employees after three months, but three years into the job, the man and his co-workers, who parted from their families in Kinshasa to join Fodeco, are still laborers earning as little as $3 per day.
A logger who lost his hand in an industrial accident shows reporter’s his injury. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In a remote forest at Yawinawina, community members who used to work for Fodeco retraced the steps towards a logging camp, pointing out the flimsy leaf shacks where they used to sleep. The Forest Code also requires companies to provide workers in the forest with adequate living quarters, drinking water and health facilities.
“Half a cup of rice per day, sleeping on the floor, no mosquito nets, no contract, no nursing room…Are we beasts?,” Joseph Atuku said. “We had so hoped it would be good for us, good for the community.”
The company operates in Basoko territory, a marshy area with five industrial logging concessions, one of the largest palm oil plantations in the region, and a mining venture operating around the clock.
The region’s natural resources attracted investors from China, Europe, South Africa and the US, and involved investment vehicles in secrecy jurisdictions such as Lichtenstein, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius and Delaware. But that wealth is not reflected in the living standards of people in the area, where one in three children are chronically malnourished.
Along river banks, boys with reddish-orange hair — a symptom of severe protein deficiency — unknowingly bathe beside diamond fields, under the shade of towering hardwood trees worth thousands of dollars in international markets.
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader with a leopard headdress, a 40-fang necklace — each piece representing a village — and a law degree. “Our ancestral forest is being plundered with the connivance of our own authorities. There’s all this talk about climate change, but the forestry administration is corrupt to the bone.”
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader in Yaliwasa, a remote forest-dependent community in Tshopo province affected by Fodeco’s logging concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
International trade in endangered species
Across the river from Fodeco, Chinese-owned Booming Green controls more than 1 million hectares of rainforest. The logging giant, which also works in Liberia, acquired five concessions in 2017 in violation of DRC’s ban on new industrial felling. Congolese inspectors also accuse them of owing $2.59 million to the treasury in acquisition fees and area taxes, but their concession numbers do not feature on the suspension order.
This investigation obtained Booming Green’s latest logging permit. It shows that, in January 2021, outgoing environment minister Claude Nyamugabo authorized them to harvest 91,455 cubic meters of Afrormosia, nearly twice the approved CITES export quota for the entire country in 2020. That volume also represents 93% of the quota for 2021,a figure that was only published towards the end of the year, and represents the highest quota to date.
Most DRC timber reaches global markets the year after it has been logged. That means exports of Congolese Afrormosia are currently in the hands of a company that is operating in breach of a 20-year moratorium.
The annual logging permit allows the company to log 1 million cubic meters of timber in one season — the DRC has never officially exported more than 400,000 cubic meters in a year, all species included. It lists a species that does not exist in the area, Moabi (Baillonella toxisperma), and the number of trees and corresponding volume of timber harvesting it allows do not match, including for an endangered species known as Mukulungu (Autranella congolensis).
“Complaisance permits are sold at gold price,” the international consultant supporting DRC efforts to improve forest governance told us. “Concessionaires could potentially use them to launder timber bought anywhere in the country, to misdeclare species, and to fraudulently export endangered trees.”
In a Linkedin post, Booming Green’s chairman promotes the company’s Afrormosia, an endangered species, that were readied for sale on international markets. The Chinese-owned company controls more than 1 million hectares of forest in breach of Congolese regulations. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In the meantime, shiploads of Booming Green’s timber have been making their way from Matadi port to destinations such as Jinjiang in China, a global wood processing center.
Neither Booming Green nor Fodeco responded to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
‘Stricter measures possible’ in the EU
How the DRC calculates the export quotas also raises questions. The latest available quota for Afrormosia, for example, is based on an EU-funded study coordinated by the DRC government, and conducted by Congolese researchers with the support of a CITES program. It was published in early 2022, nearly one year late, but it did not turn out as expected.
The first question the research was supposed to answer was which volume of Afrormosia must enter a DRC sawmill to produce a volume — say, one cubic meter — of products such as planks and veneer. This is called the ‘conversion rate,’ and has been a contentious issue for years because the higher it is, the more trees industrial loggers can fell.
However, the figure the DRC finally presented this year is not based on an independent study, as was originally intended, but on a dataset provided by logging companies.
A second objective of the study was to verify the traceability of the timber from forest floor to shipping container. But according to sources consulted for this investigation, the CITES management authority in the DRC repeatedly failed to grant researchers access to export permits. They also did not facilitate their access to the seaport of Matadi to review customs data.
The CITES management authority in Kinshasa did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees in Tshopo Province, northeastern DRC. International demand has pushed this species into oblivion in several West and Central African countries. Credit: Axel Fassio
This reporter shared the findings with Belgium — the top EU importer of Afrormosia from the DRC — and asked them to comment on the latest export quota “The high conversion rate and the audit by the DRC Ministry of Finance are indeed causes for concern,” said Belgium’s Federal Public Service for the environment.
“We will suggest [the EU Scientific Review Group conduct] an official consultation with the DRC, requesting more information on their management system, the audit, the study and the rate,” they added. “The audit raises bigger discussions on the management issues in the DRC and will have to be discussed at EU level, with stricter measures being possible.”
Global markets exposed to high-risk timber
To reduce the danger of importing tainted timber, DRC’s trading partners could check both the authenticity of CITES export permits and the corresponding logging permits. Even so, markets with stringent regulations such as the EU and the US are at risk of importing products that were obtained in breach of DRC law, but which have all documentation in order according to the DRC authorities.
“Unless there is an alert, we have to accept the documents issued by the country of origin,” Alfonso San Miguel, advisor to the Spanish CITES Authority, told us. The last word is with the Scientific Review Group, which convenes experts from each EU country to protect the common market from dubious imports.
However, the risk increases significantly when countries import finished wood products such as furniture via global processing hubs in Asia. China and Vietnam have been the main importers of Congolese Afrormosia in the past four years, according to DRC-reported figures, while Belgium remains a top global market and the main port of entry of the hardwood to Europe, followed by Portugal, Italy and Spain. The US imported a small quantity in 2018.
In the CITES Trade Database, the volumes reported by exporting and importing countries rarely match, adding to the difficulties of following Congolese timber from forest floor to consumer shelf. But under the trees, and underwater, lie riches that are even harder to trace.
Illegal gold and diamond mining
The world of Chinese companies in northern DRC is small. Fodecos’s operations manager joined them from the infamous Maniema Union to replace a man hired by Xian Jiang Mining. The company, which started operating in January 2021, controls two concessions in the territory of Basoko and third in Banalia, a total of more than 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres).
Without speedboats, reaching the Basoko concessions from the provincial capital takes days of navigating down the Congo river; paddling dug-out canoes up a tributary; fixing off-road motorcycles in muddy forest footpaths and carrying them across marshes, wading through waist-deep water towards riverside villages where dredging noises can be heard 24/7.
This investigation found that Xian Jiang Mining has been illegally extracting gold, diamonds and rare metals from the river bed for more than a year under cover of a ‘prospecting license’, promising communities to build them schools and dispensaries when they eventually started selling the goods. Their five dredgers used to be guarded by policemen, but the company ended up hiring Congolese military to fend off locals who opposed the operation.
One of the five dredgers illegally operated by Xian Jiang Mining in a hard-to-reach corner of Basoko territory, northeastern DRC. They extract gold, diamonds and rare metals from the Aruwimi river, and their concessions also cover the surrounding rainforest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Companies with a prospecting license are only authorized to search for mineral-rich areas. All of the samples they extract belong to the state, meaning they cannot be sold. There must be inspectors of the provincial mining division on each dredger to verify and collect the material. Instead, Xian Jiang Mining has been exploiting and selling the materials, without oversight, as administrations turned a blind eye.
This reporter accessed unpublished mining registry data showing they are authorized to look for gold and diamonds, as well as niobium, tantalum, stannic oxide and wolfram, also known as tungsten. The rare metals are used to produce high-strength alloys steel for oil and gas pipelines, smoke detectors, components for missiles and nuclear power plants, as well as surgical implants.
Collusion with authorities
In 2020, the provincial minister of mines and the vice governor led company-sponsored missions to the area to pressure customary authorities and reluctant communities into supporting the Chinese investment. The concessions cover both the river and the surrounding rainforest.
Upon receiving $1,700 and jobs from the company, even the youth leaders who had been blocking the first dredger for months caved in by the end of that year. “Kinshasa was with them. The province was with them. Even the military were with them,” Charles Kolo – not his real name – who previously opposed the project, told us. “What could we do?”
In 2021, even the provincial assembly urged locals to “sensitize” the last strongholds of resistance, so that Xian Jiang Mining could start working in the second of its two concessions in the area, according to documents obtained by this reporter.
The head of the mines division and provincial government representatives assured communities that the company was following the rules, insisted that prospecting studies would not affect water quality or local livelihoods, and said that compromises could be reached between the new investors and local, artisanal miners.
“We used to resort to the Aruwimi river for all our needs, but now it is so murky we have to go into the forest to get drinking water,” said Jean Christophe Njanjale, the chief of the Bangelema-Mongandjo Sector. Fishermen were forced downstream, too. Canoes got stuck in sandbanks created by automated dredgers, nets were torn by speedboats, and the fish are all but gone. Riverbanks flanked by 45-meter trees have crumbled.
Each of the company’s five dredgers extracts up to 75 tons of sand from the river bed every day and they illegally use mercury to separate the gold from the ore, dumping residues with the neurotoxic metal overboard. Downstream, fishermen still drink from the water, children bathe in it, and women use it to wash dishes.
The company buys the mercury at $5 per cubic centimeter from the same vendor to whom they sell the gold, in the center of the provincial capital Kisangani, a bustling mineral trading hub frequented by well-connected Chinese, Russian and Belgian traders.
One of the dredgers of Xian Jian Mining, which is guarded by the Congolese military. Some Chinese employees have mining experience in conflict-torn provinces of Kivu and Katanga, across the border from Zambia. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
As former driver and aide to Xiang Jiang Mining’s manager in Kisangani, Joseph Dako – not real name – had rare access to the company’ s modus operandi. “I used to carry diamonds to the city by motorbike through a hellish dirt road. Those are sold abroad,” he said. “Others would transport gold twice a week on the boat that stocks up on fuel and food. On a good day, we could deposit $100,000 in the bank from gold sales.”
The dredgers are clearly meant to exploit underground riches, not to obtain samples, and they cost much more than the $10,000 declared on the formation papers of the company, which we obtained. So why did provincial authorities allow, and advocate for, their deployment?
Chinese investors control about 70 percent of the DRC’s mining sector, according to the Congolese Chamber of Mines. The DRC has significant deposits of untapped gold and was the third-largest producer of industrial diamonds in 2019, contributing around 21 percent of global production. It also has one of the world’s poorest populations, and is struggling to improve the governance of its extraordinary natural resources.
Speaking within walking distance of the dredger assembling site in Kisangani, then chief of the mining division, Michel Liete, said he had not had a chance to see the machines or to speak with company representatives about reports of illegal exploitation, despite the fact they lived across the road.
“I didn’t need to take a look at the dredge. I trust the word of the company,” he said. “And anyway, why all this interest in the Chinese?”
On 3 September 2021, N’Samba ordered the temporary suspension of Xian Jiang Mining’s operations. However, on 13 December, Bazaïba warned they were still “illegally exploiting raw materials with very serious consequences,” and urged her to take all necessary measures to revoke the permit.
The DRC ministries of mines and the environment did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail. Xian Jiang Mining did not respond to requests for comment.
This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
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Banner image: Decaying log sitting at the premises of Fodeco, a Chinese-owned logging company operating in Tshopo, DRC’s largest forest province. It is not profitable for them to ship the logs unless they manage to extract enough of them from the forest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro finds evidence of illegal extraction of endangered tree species, precious minerals and strategic metals headed for global markets.
The investigation reveals that Chinese-owned companies use ‘complaisance’ permits to log and export CITES II-listed Afrormosia, which international demand pushed to extinction in other African countries, and flags irregularities in the latest export quota. European countries will consider stricter measures on imports from the DRC.
Military-protected concessionaires have been illegally mining gold, diamonds and rare metals with prospecting licenses for more than a year. They use mercury, a neurotoxic pollutant, in waters communities use to fish, bathe and drink.
Mongabay has partnered with EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro to publish this investigation in English. This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
BASOKO, Congo — In Yaliwasa, northern DRC, logs from 200-year-old hardwood trees lie rotting deep into the world’s second largest rainforest. They were cut in a hurry to be exported to global processing hubs in Asia, then redistributed to luxury markets in China and beyond. Instead, the precious wood is sprouting orange fungi and crumbles to the touch.
Some of the logs are unmarked, but they all belong to Fodeco, a Chinese-owned company without industrial logging experience that was handed a concession three times the size of New York city in 2015. The company soon came into conflict with local communities over compensation, and they have since boycotted the removal of the timber.
“Other [Chinese] companies I’ve worked for pay policemen or the military to protect their interests, but we don’t have the money because we can’t get the wood to markets,” said concession manager Liga Guo. He is referring to Maniema Union, the holder of logging concessions illegally traded by a Congolese army general, General Gabriel Amisi Kumba, who was sanctioned by the US and the EU for human rights abuses in 2019.
“All I want is to extract the logs, ship the timber, get the hell out of here. But it is impossible to work like this. I left China to make a living, but this job is killing me,” he said, carrying a bag full of antiparasitic and antimalarial pills to his container home next to the Congo river.
Fodeco holds one of the 18 contracts successive ministers awarded in violation of the country’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging ”an outright sale of forestry concessions,” according to an audit by Congolese finance inspectors that was recently published following months of pressure by international NGOs and media.
Downstream, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-registered Booming Group, is also harvesting hardwood in breach of DRC law, while nearby Xiang Jiang Mining is illegally dredging for precious and strategic minerals.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro has obtained evidence showing how Chinese-owned companies in northern DRC are illegally extracting natural resources using permits that amount to blank checks. The companies are extracting and exporting endangered tree species and minerals in breach of DRC law, and violating labor and human rights in collusion with officials.
Logging permits ‘à la carte’
The EU, the UK, Norway and another nine donors are keeping an eye on the DRC following a pledge of $500 million for Congo forest conservation at COP26. The publication of the financial audit on logging titles marked the first milestone of the arrangement and the DRC’s environment minister, Ève Bazaiba, committed to suspending the companies listed in the report until further notice.
In January 2020, unpublished reports accessed by this reporter were already flagging Fodeco’s infractions. The company allegedly presented false quarterly logging declarations, destroyed seedlings, and failed to produce a mandatory management plan.
A tree felled by Fodeco marked ‘ACC1’, logged using a permit based on a fictitious tree inventory. The company obtained its concession in violation of the DRC’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
This investigation also obtained a December 2020 declaration where the company admits arrangements to lower taxes and the failure to pay income and pollution taxes.
Fodeco also applied for a logging permit with ‘imaginary’ tree inventories, which were nevertheless approved by the environment minister at the time, Amy Ambatobe Nyongolo.
“In the DRC, any document, any proof of legality can be bought; administrations are legalizing machines,” an international consultant based in Kinshasa, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he advises DRC authorities on forest governance, told us.
Official documents obtained by this investigation show that Fodeco was granted permission to harvest 2,885 Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees between 2018 and 2019. Northeastern DRC has the world’s largest remaining pockets of this endangered species, a giant that can reach the height of a 15-story building which needs between 120 and 200 years to reach the harvesting diameter.
International demand wiped out the prized indigenous hardwood species in several Western and Central African countries, and its exports are now strictly regulated by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, or CITES, through a system of quotas and permits.
Fodeco was authorized to harvest the tree, commonly known as African teak, based on an inventory it presented. But the trees did not exist in the annual logging areas, so the company felled the trees wherever they could find them, including beyond the authorized limits of its permits and on the lands of forest-dependent communities.
This investigation found they also resorted to acquiring sawn Afrormosia from artisanal, unlicensed loggers, and had 500 pieces impounded, according to the police.
Samuel Ekomba – not his real name – is one of the informal loggers who harvested Afrormosia for Fodeco. He paid $20 per tree to customary forest owners, then sold it to the company 30% below the local price of $245 per cubic meter. In global markets, Afrormosia lumber sells for $1,200 to $2,000 per cubic meter and is used to make high-end fittings and furniture.
“I have been working without an artisanal logging permit for a decade,” Ekomba said. “I hoped Fodeco would give me the money to apply for it, so I could eventually produce timber for them legally, but I’m right where I started.”
Part of the wood he sold to the Chinese-owned company still sits in their premises, darkening inside an open shipping container.
Timber bought from forest-dependant people sits in a shipping container in Fodeco’s concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Rich land, poor people
“These [Fodeco] people came here with no experience and no translator, so they can hardly communicate with anyone,” said a Congolese employee with years of experience in the industrial logging sector, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We wonder how they ever got permission to start this business,” he added, pointing at pyramids of decaying logs from century-old trees that once topped the canopy.
He lost a finger logging in the forest, but never received any compensation or medical care beyond first aid. DRC law requires companies to issue contracts to employees after three months, but three years into the job, the man and his co-workers, who parted from their families in Kinshasa to join Fodeco, are still laborers earning as little as $3 per day.
A logger who lost his hand in an industrial accident shows reporter’s his injury. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In a remote forest at Yawinawina, community members who used to work for Fodeco retraced the steps towards a logging camp, pointing out the flimsy leaf shacks where they used to sleep. The Forest Code also requires companies to provide workers in the forest with adequate living quarters, drinking water and health facilities.
“Half a cup of rice per day, sleeping on the floor, no mosquito nets, no contract, no nursing room…Are we beasts?,” Joseph Atuku said. “We had so hoped it would be good for us, good for the community.”
The company operates in Basoko territory, a marshy area with five industrial logging concessions, one of the largest palm oil plantations in the region, and a mining venture operating around the clock.
The region’s natural resources attracted investors from China, Europe, South Africa and the US, and involved investment vehicles in secrecy jurisdictions such as Lichtenstein, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius and Delaware. But that wealth is not reflected in the living standards of people in the area, where one in three children are chronically malnourished.
Along river banks, boys with reddish-orange hair — a symptom of severe protein deficiency — unknowingly bathe beside diamond fields, under the shade of towering hardwood trees worth thousands of dollars in international markets.
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader with a leopard headdress, a 40-fang necklace — each piece representing a village — and a law degree. “Our ancestral forest is being plundered with the connivance of our own authorities. There’s all this talk about climate change, but the forestry administration is corrupt to the bone.”
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader in Yaliwasa, a remote forest-dependent community in Tshopo province affected by Fodeco’s logging concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
International trade in endangered species
Across the river from Fodeco, Chinese-owned Booming Green controls more than 1 million hectares of rainforest. The logging giant, which also works in Liberia, acquired five concessions in 2017 in violation of DRC’s ban on new industrial felling. Congolese inspectors also accuse them of owing $2.59 million to the treasury in acquisition fees and area taxes, but their concession numbers do not feature on the suspension order.
This investigation obtained Booming Green’s latest logging permit. It shows that, in January 2021, outgoing environment minister Claude Nyamugabo authorized them to harvest 91,455 cubic meters of Afrormosia, nearly twice the approved CITES export quota for the entire country in 2020. That volume also represents 93% of the quota for 2021,a figure that was only published towards the end of the year, and represents the highest quota to date.
Most DRC timber reaches global markets the year after it has been logged. That means exports of Congolese Afrormosia are currently in the hands of a company that is operating in breach of a 20-year moratorium.
The annual logging permit allows the company to log 1 million cubic meters of timber in one season — the DRC has never officially exported more than 400,000 cubic meters in a year, all species included. It lists a species that does not exist in the area, Moabi (Baillonella toxisperma), and the number of trees and corresponding volume of timber harvesting it allows do not match, including for an endangered species known as Mukulungu (Autranella congolensis).
“Complaisance permits are sold at gold price,” the international consultant supporting DRC efforts to improve forest governance told us. “Concessionaires could potentially use them to launder timber bought anywhere in the country, to misdeclare species, and to fraudulently export endangered trees.”
In a Linkedin post, Booming Green’s chairman promotes the company’s Afrormosia, an endangered species, that were readied for sale on international markets. The Chinese-owned company controls more than 1 million hectares of forest in breach of Congolese regulations. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In the meantime, shiploads of Booming Green’s timber have been making their way from Matadi port to destinations such as Jinjiang in China, a global wood processing center.
Neither Booming Green nor Fodeco responded to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
‘Stricter measures possible’ in the EU
How the DRC calculates the export quotas also raises questions. The latest available quota for Afrormosia, for example, is based on an EU-funded study coordinated by the DRC government, and conducted by Congolese researchers with the support of a CITES program. It was published in early 2022, nearly one year late, but it did not turn out as expected.
The first question the research was supposed to answer was which volume of Afrormosia must enter a DRC sawmill to produce a volume — say, one cubic meter — of products such as planks and veneer. This is called the ‘conversion rate,’ and has been a contentious issue for years because the higher it is, the more trees industrial loggers can fell.
However, the figure the DRC finally presented this year is not based on an independent study, as was originally intended, but on a dataset provided by logging companies.
A second objective of the study was to verify the traceability of the timber from forest floor to shipping container. But according to sources consulted for this investigation, the CITES management authority in the DRC repeatedly failed to grant researchers access to export permits. They also did not facilitate their access to the seaport of Matadi to review customs data.
The CITES management authority in Kinshasa did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees in Tshopo Province, northeastern DRC. International demand has pushed this species into oblivion in several West and Central African countries. Credit: Axel Fassio
This reporter shared the findings with Belgium — the top EU importer of Afrormosia from the DRC — and asked them to comment on the latest export quota “The high conversion rate and the audit by the DRC Ministry of Finance are indeed causes for concern,” said Belgium’s Federal Public Service for the environment.
“We will suggest [the EU Scientific Review Group conduct] an official consultation with the DRC, requesting more information on their management system, the audit, the study and the rate,” they added. “The audit raises bigger discussions on the management issues in the DRC and will have to be discussed at EU level, with stricter measures being possible.”
Global markets exposed to high-risk timber
To reduce the danger of importing tainted timber, DRC’s trading partners could check both the authenticity of CITES export permits and the corresponding logging permits. Even so, markets with stringent regulations such as the EU and the US are at risk of importing products that were obtained in breach of DRC law, but which have all documentation in order according to the DRC authorities.
“Unless there is an alert, we have to accept the documents issued by the country of origin,” Alfonso San Miguel, advisor to the Spanish CITES Authority, told us. The last word is with the Scientific Review Group, which convenes experts from each EU country to protect the common market from dubious imports.
However, the risk increases significantly when countries import finished wood products such as furniture via global processing hubs in Asia. China and Vietnam have been the main importers of Congolese Afrormosia in the past four years, according to DRC-reported figures, while Belgium remains a top global market and the main port of entry of the hardwood to Europe, followed by Portugal, Italy and Spain. The US imported a small quantity in 2018.
In the CITES Trade Database, the volumes reported by exporting and importing countries rarely match, adding to the difficulties of following Congolese timber from forest floor to consumer shelf. But under the trees, and underwater, lie riches that are even harder to trace.
Illegal gold and diamond mining
The world of Chinese companies in northern DRC is small. Fodecos’s operations manager joined them from the infamous Maniema Union to replace a man hired by Xian Jiang Mining. The company, which started operating in January 2021, controls two concessions in the territory of Basoko and third in Banalia, a total of more than 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres).
Without speedboats, reaching the Basoko concessions from the provincial capital takes days of navigating down the Congo river; paddling dug-out canoes up a tributary; fixing off-road motorcycles in muddy forest footpaths and carrying them across marshes, wading through waist-deep water towards riverside villages where dredging noises can be heard 24/7.
This investigation found that Xian Jiang Mining has been illegally extracting gold, diamonds and rare metals from the river bed for more than a year under cover of a ‘prospecting license’, promising communities to build them schools and dispensaries when they eventually started selling the goods. Their five dredgers used to be guarded by policemen, but the company ended up hiring Congolese military to fend off locals who opposed the operation.
One of the five dredgers illegally operated by Xian Jiang Mining in a hard-to-reach corner of Basoko territory, northeastern DRC. They extract gold, diamonds and rare metals from the Aruwimi river, and their concessions also cover the surrounding rainforest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Companies with a prospecting license are only authorized to search for mineral-rich areas. All of the samples they extract belong to the state, meaning they cannot be sold. There must be inspectors of the provincial mining division on each dredger to verify and collect the material. Instead, Xian Jiang Mining has been exploiting and selling the materials, without oversight, as administrations turned a blind eye.
This reporter accessed unpublished mining registry data showing they are authorized to look for gold and diamonds, as well as niobium, tantalum, stannic oxide and wolfram, also known as tungsten. The rare metals are used to produce high-strength alloys steel for oil and gas pipelines, smoke detectors, components for missiles and nuclear power plants, as well as surgical implants.
Collusion with authorities
In 2020, the provincial minister of mines and the vice governor led company-sponsored missions to the area to pressure customary authorities and reluctant communities into supporting the Chinese investment. The concessions cover both the river and the surrounding rainforest.
Upon receiving $1,700 and jobs from the company, even the youth leaders who had been blocking the first dredger for months caved in by the end of that year. “Kinshasa was with them. The province was with them. Even the military were with them,” Charles Kolo – not his real name – who previously opposed the project, told us. “What could we do?”
In 2021, even the provincial assembly urged locals to “sensitize” the last strongholds of resistance, so that Xian Jiang Mining could start working in the second of its two concessions in the area, according to documents obtained by this reporter.
The head of the mines division and provincial government representatives assured communities that the company was following the rules, insisted that prospecting studies would not affect water quality or local livelihoods, and said that compromises could be reached between the new investors and local, artisanal miners.
“We used to resort to the Aruwimi river for all our needs, but now it is so murky we have to go into the forest to get drinking water,” said Jean Christophe Njanjale, the chief of the Bangelema-Mongandjo Sector. Fishermen were forced downstream, too. Canoes got stuck in sandbanks created by automated dredgers, nets were torn by speedboats, and the fish are all but gone. Riverbanks flanked by 45-meter trees have crumbled.
Each of the company’s five dredgers extracts up to 75 tons of sand from the river bed every day and they illegally use mercury to separate the gold from the ore, dumping residues with the neurotoxic metal overboard. Downstream, fishermen still drink from the water, children bathe in it, and women use it to wash dishes.
The company buys the mercury at $5 per cubic centimeter from the same vendor to whom they sell the gold, in the center of the provincial capital Kisangani, a bustling mineral trading hub frequented by well-connected Chinese, Russian and Belgian traders.
One of the dredgers of Xian Jian Mining, which is guarded by the Congolese military. Some Chinese employees have mining experience in conflict-torn provinces of Kivu and Katanga, across the border from Zambia. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
As former driver and aide to Xiang Jiang Mining’s manager in Kisangani, Joseph Dako – not real name – had rare access to the company’ s modus operandi. “I used to carry diamonds to the city by motorbike through a hellish dirt road. Those are sold abroad,” he said. “Others would transport gold twice a week on the boat that stocks up on fuel and food. On a good day, we could deposit $100,000 in the bank from gold sales.”
The dredgers are clearly meant to exploit underground riches, not to obtain samples, and they cost much more than the $10,000 declared on the formation papers of the company, which we obtained. So why did provincial authorities allow, and advocate for, their deployment?
Chinese investors control about 70 percent of the DRC’s mining sector, according to the Congolese Chamber of Mines. The DRC has significant deposits of untapped gold and was the third-largest producer of industrial diamonds in 2019, contributing around 21 percent of global production. It also has one of the world’s poorest populations, and is struggling to improve the governance of its extraordinary natural resources.
Speaking within walking distance of the dredger assembling site in Kisangani, then chief of the mining division, Michel Liete, said he had not had a chance to see the machines or to speak with company representatives about reports of illegal exploitation, despite the fact they lived across the road.
“I didn’t need to take a look at the dredge. I trust the word of the company,” he said. “And anyway, why all this interest in the Chinese?”
On 3 September 2021, N’Samba ordered the temporary suspension of Xian Jiang Mining’s operations. However, on 13 December, Bazaïba warned they were still “illegally exploiting raw materials with very serious consequences,” and urged her to take all necessary measures to revoke the permit.
The DRC ministries of mines and the environment did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail. Xian Jiang Mining did not respond to requests for comment.
This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
Feedback: Use this form to send a message to the editor of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Banner image: Decaying log sitting at the premises of Fodeco, a Chinese-owned logging company operating in Tshopo, DRC’s largest forest province. It is not profitable for them to ship the logs unless they manage to extract enough of them from the forest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
One of the most significant safety checks you can do on your motorcycle is often overlooked—checking the air pressure in its tires. Even if you think about ensuring proper air pressure, the hassle of getting a gauge on the valve stem can be a convenient excuse to rely on eyeballing the psi. Lee Parks Design recognized that roadblock to doing what you know you need to do, and came up with the Psi Pro Tire Pressure Gauge.The idea behind the Lee Parks Design Psi Pro Tire Pressure Gauge is brilliantly simple—make it easier to get a reading. Lee Parks Design founder Lee Parks, best known as the founder of Total Control Training school for motorcyclists and author of the total control advanced how-to-ride book, turned his design skills toward tire pressure gauges, resulting in the Psi Pro.The secret is in the 90-degree angle for the cylindrical air chuck. Many valve stems point straight to the hub, which makes it impossible to get a traditional straight pencil-style, round-head tire pressure gauge. Even the heads with a 45-degree angle from the body can find interference from spokes, discs, or a sprocket. The 90-degree angle design on the Psi Pro makes every valve stem accessible.The Psi Pro features a 5.5-inch long brass body with a high-grip textured coating. The air chuck is nickel-plated steel and a half-inch long and is designed to securely mount on the valve stem with an intuitive push. When the pressure comes in, a piston acts on a steel spring that pushes out a traditional three-inch-long nylon stick that has markings in one-psi increments to reveal the pressure. When you remove the air chuck from the valve stem, the indicator bar self-retracts to avoid inadvertent damage.Lee Park’s designs claims the pressure measurement is accurate within one psi from 5 psi to 50 psi—making it compatible with street bikes and bikes—and backs that up with a five-year warranty. Even if you have a tire pressure monitoring system, you might want this gauge as a backup to confirm its accuracy. The Lee Parks Design Psi Pro Tire Pressure Gauge is made in the United States and has an MSRP of $28.
Choosing the best motorbike touring gear for you, from a helmet all the way down to riding boots, will go a long way to keeping your comfortable and protected in the saddle. But get it wrong and that glorious summer motorbike tour to the Alps could quickly turn into a cold, wet, and thoroughly miserable ordeal. But where do you start? How much should you spend? And do you get what you pay for?
In Episode 11 of the ABR Garage, the podcast from the Adventure Bike Rider team, join James, Bryn, and gear expert Ed Miles as they unpack their must-have riding gear for a motorbike tour. From the pros and cons of flip-front helmets to is it ever appropriate to break out those leather trousers, the boys discuss what’s worked best for them on their travels.
So, if you want to know how a laminated motorcycle jacket works before you splash out on one, or if you’re not sure whether you need adventure or touring boots, this episode of the ABR Garage will help you prepare for your next adventure at home and abroad.
So stay tuned for an update on Adventure Bike Riders long-term review bikes including Bryn’s Honda NT1100 and James’ Suzuki GSX-S1000GT. And make sure you leave a comment letting us know your ideal gear set up for touring. We’ll read out a selection in the next episode of the ABR Garage and award our favorite comment a top prize.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro finds evidence of illegal extraction of endangered tree species, precious minerals and strategic metals headed for global markets.
The investigation reveals that Chinese-owned companies use ‘complaisance’ permits to log and export CITES II-listed Afrormosia, which international demand pushed to extinction in other African countries, and flags irregularities in the latest export quota. European countries will consider stricter measures on imports from the DRC.
Military-protected concessionaires have been illegally mining gold, diamonds and rare metals with prospecting licenses for more than a year. They use mercury, a neurotoxic pollutant, in waters communities use to fish, bathe and drink.
Mongabay has partnered with EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro to publish this investigation in English. This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
BASOKO, Congo — In Yaliwasa, northern DRC, logs from 200-year-old hardwood trees lie rotting deep into the world’s second largest rainforest. They were cut in a hurry to be exported to global processing hubs in Asia, then redistributed to luxury markets in China and beyond. Instead, the precious wood is sprouting orange fungi and crumbles to the touch.
Some of the logs are unmarked, but they all belong to Fodeco, a Chinese-owned company without industrial logging experience that was handed a concession three times the size of New York city in 2015. The company soon came into conflict with local communities over compensation, and they have since boycotted the removal of the timber.
“Other [Chinese] companies I’ve worked for pay policemen or the military to protect their interests, but we don’t have the money because we can’t get the wood to markets,” said concession manager Liga Guo. He is referring to Maniema Union, the holder of logging concessions illegally traded by a Congolese army general, General Gabriel Amisi Kumba, who was sanctioned by the US and the EU for human rights abuses in 2019.
“All I want is to extract the logs, ship the timber, get the hell out of here. But it is impossible to work like this. I left China to make a living, but this job is killing me,” he said, carrying a bag full of antiparasitic and antimalarial pills to his container home next to the Congo river.
Fodeco holds one of the 18 contracts successive ministers awarded in violation of the country’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging ”an outright sale of forestry concessions,” according to an audit by Congolese finance inspectors that was recently published following months of pressure by international NGOs and media.
Downstream, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-registered Booming Group, is also harvesting hardwood in breach of DRC law, while nearby Xiang Jiang Mining is illegally dredging for precious and strategic minerals.
An investigation by EL PAÍS/Planeta Futuro has obtained evidence showing how Chinese-owned companies in northern DRC are illegally extracting natural resources using permits that amount to blank checks. The companies are extracting and exporting endangered tree species and minerals in breach of DRC law, and violating labor and human rights in collusion with officials.
Logging permits ‘à la carte’
The EU, the UK, Norway and another nine donors are keeping an eye on the DRC following a pledge of $500 million for Congo forest conservation at COP26. The publication of the financial audit on logging titles marked the first milestone of the arrangement and the DRC’s environment minister, Ève Bazaiba, committed to suspending the companies listed in the report until further notice.
In January 2020, unpublished reports accessed by this reporter were already flagging Fodeco’s infractions. The company allegedly presented false quarterly logging declarations, destroyed seedlings, and failed to produce a mandatory management plan.
A tree felled by Fodeco marked ‘ACC1’, logged using a permit based on a fictitious tree inventory. The company obtained its concession in violation of the DRC’s 20-year moratorium on new industrial logging. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
This investigation also obtained a December 2020 declaration where the company admits arrangements to lower taxes and the failure to pay income and pollution taxes.
Fodeco also applied for a logging permit with ‘imaginary’ tree inventories, which were nevertheless approved by the environment minister at the time, Amy Ambatobe Nyongolo.
“In the DRC, any document, any proof of legality can be bought; administrations are legalizing machines,” an international consultant based in Kinshasa, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he advises DRC authorities on forest governance, told us.
Official documents obtained by this investigation show that Fodeco was granted permission to harvest 2,885 Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees between 2018 and 2019. Northeastern DRC has the world’s largest remaining pockets of this endangered species, a giant that can reach the height of a 15-story building which needs between 120 and 200 years to reach the harvesting diameter.
International demand wiped out the prized indigenous hardwood species in several Western and Central African countries, and its exports are now strictly regulated by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, or CITES, through a system of quotas and permits.
Fodeco was authorized to harvest the tree, commonly known as African teak, based on an inventory it presented. But the trees did not exist in the annual logging areas, so the company felled the trees wherever they could find them, including beyond the authorized limits of its permits and on the lands of forest-dependent communities.
This investigation found they also resorted to acquiring sawn Afrormosia from artisanal, unlicensed loggers, and had 500 pieces impounded, according to the police.
Samuel Ekomba – not his real name – is one of the informal loggers who harvested Afrormosia for Fodeco. He paid $20 per tree to customary forest owners, then sold it to the company 30% below the local price of $245 per cubic meter. In global markets, Afrormosia lumber sells for $1,200 to $2,000 per cubic meter and is used to make high-end fittings and furniture.
“I have been working without an artisanal logging permit for a decade,” Ekomba said. “I hoped Fodeco would give me the money to apply for it, so I could eventually produce timber for them legally, but I’m right where I started.”
Part of the wood he sold to the Chinese-owned company still sits in their premises, darkening inside an open shipping container.
Timber bought from forest-dependant people sits in a shipping container in Fodeco’s concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Rich land, poor people
“These [Fodeco] people came here with no experience and no translator, so they can hardly communicate with anyone,” said a Congolese employee with years of experience in the industrial logging sector, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We wonder how they ever got permission to start this business,” he added, pointing at pyramids of decaying logs from century-old trees that once topped the canopy.
He lost a finger logging in the forest, but never received any compensation or medical care beyond first aid. DRC law requires companies to issue contracts to employees after three months, but three years into the job, the man and his co-workers, who parted from their families in Kinshasa to join Fodeco, are still laborers earning as little as $3 per day.
A logger who lost his hand in an industrial accident shows reporter’s his injury. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In a remote forest at Yawinawina, community members who used to work for Fodeco retraced the steps towards a logging camp, pointing out the flimsy leaf shacks where they used to sleep. The Forest Code also requires companies to provide workers in the forest with adequate living quarters, drinking water and health facilities.
“Half a cup of rice per day, sleeping on the floor, no mosquito nets, no contract, no nursing room…Are we beasts?,” Joseph Atuku said. “We had so hoped it would be good for us, good for the community.”
The company operates in Basoko territory, a marshy area with five industrial logging concessions, one of the largest palm oil plantations in the region, and a mining venture operating around the clock.
The region’s natural resources attracted investors from China, Europe, South Africa and the US, and involved investment vehicles in secrecy jurisdictions such as Lichtenstein, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius and Delaware. But that wealth is not reflected in the living standards of people in the area, where one in three children are chronically malnourished.
Along river banks, boys with reddish-orange hair — a symptom of severe protein deficiency — unknowingly bathe beside diamond fields, under the shade of towering hardwood trees worth thousands of dollars in international markets.
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader with a leopard headdress, a 40-fang necklace — each piece representing a village — and a law degree. “Our ancestral forest is being plundered with the connivance of our own authorities. There’s all this talk about climate change, but the forestry administration is corrupt to the bone.”
Jean Francis Ilinga Mokonzi is a customary and administrative leader in Yaliwasa, a remote forest-dependent community in Tshopo province affected by Fodeco’s logging concession. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
International trade in endangered species
Across the river from Fodeco, Chinese-owned Booming Green controls more than 1 million hectares of rainforest. The logging giant, which also works in Liberia, acquired five concessions in 2017 in violation of DRC’s ban on new industrial felling. Congolese inspectors also accuse them of owing $2.59 million to the treasury in acquisition fees and area taxes, but their concession numbers do not feature on the suspension order.
This investigation obtained Booming Green’s latest logging permit. It shows that, in January 2021, outgoing environment minister Claude Nyamugabo authorized them to harvest 91,455 cubic meters of Afrormosia, nearly twice the approved CITES export quota for the entire country in 2020. That volume also represents 93% of the quota for 2021,a figure that was only published towards the end of the year, and represents the highest quota to date.
Most DRC timber reaches global markets the year after it has been logged. That means exports of Congolese Afrormosia are currently in the hands of a company that is operating in breach of a 20-year moratorium.
The annual logging permit allows the company to log 1 million cubic meters of timber in one season — the DRC has never officially exported more than 400,000 cubic meters in a year, all species included. It lists a species that does not exist in the area, Moabi (Baillonella toxisperma), and the number of trees and corresponding volume of timber harvesting it allows do not match, including for an endangered species known as Mukulungu (Autranella congolensis).
“Complaisance permits are sold at gold price,” the international consultant supporting DRC efforts to improve forest governance told us. “Concessionaires could potentially use them to launder timber bought anywhere in the country, to misdeclare species, and to fraudulently export endangered trees.”
In a Linkedin post, Booming Green’s chairman promotes the company’s Afrormosia, an endangered species, that were readied for sale on international markets. The Chinese-owned company controls more than 1 million hectares of forest in breach of Congolese regulations. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
In the meantime, shiploads of Booming Green’s timber have been making their way from Matadi port to destinations such as Jinjiang in China, a global wood processing center.
Neither Booming Green nor Fodeco responded to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
‘Stricter measures possible’ in the EU
How the DRC calculates the export quotas also raises questions. The latest available quota for Afrormosia, for example, is based on an EU-funded study coordinated by the DRC government, and conducted by Congolese researchers with the support of a CITES program. It was published in early 2022, nearly one year late, but it did not turn out as expected.
The first question the research was supposed to answer was which volume of Afrormosia must enter a DRC sawmill to produce a volume — say, one cubic meter — of products such as planks and veneer. This is called the ‘conversion rate,’ and has been a contentious issue for years because the higher it is, the more trees industrial loggers can fell.
However, the figure the DRC finally presented this year is not based on an independent study, as was originally intended, but on a dataset provided by logging companies.
A second objective of the study was to verify the traceability of the timber from forest floor to shipping container. But according to sources consulted for this investigation, the CITES management authority in the DRC repeatedly failed to grant researchers access to export permits. They also did not facilitate their access to the seaport of Matadi to review customs data.
The CITES management authority in Kinshasa did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail.
Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) trees in Tshopo Province, northeastern DRC. International demand has pushed this species into oblivion in several West and Central African countries. Credit: Axel Fassio
This reporter shared the findings with Belgium — the top EU importer of Afrormosia from the DRC — and asked them to comment on the latest export quota “The high conversion rate and the audit by the DRC Ministry of Finance are indeed causes for concern,” said Belgium’s Federal Public Service for the environment.
“We will suggest [the EU Scientific Review Group conduct] an official consultation with the DRC, requesting more information on their management system, the audit, the study and the rate,” they added. “The audit raises bigger discussions on the management issues in the DRC and will have to be discussed at EU level, with stricter measures being possible.”
Global markets exposed to high-risk timber
To reduce the danger of importing tainted timber, DRC’s trading partners could check both the authenticity of CITES export permits and the corresponding logging permits. Even so, markets with stringent regulations such as the EU and the US are at risk of importing products that were obtained in breach of DRC law, but which have all documentation in order according to the DRC authorities.
“Unless there is an alert, we have to accept the documents issued by the country of origin,” Alfonso San Miguel, advisor to the Spanish CITES Authority, told us. The last word is with the Scientific Review Group, which convenes experts from each EU country to protect the common market from dubious imports.
However, the risk increases significantly when countries import finished wood products such as furniture via global processing hubs in Asia. China and Vietnam have been the main importers of Congolese Afrormosia in the past four years, according to DRC-reported figures, while Belgium remains a top global market and the main port of entry of the hardwood to Europe, followed by Portugal, Italy and Spain. The US imported a small quantity in 2018.
In the CITES Trade Database, the volumes reported by exporting and importing countries rarely match, adding to the difficulties of following Congolese timber from forest floor to consumer shelf. But under the trees, and underwater, lie riches that are even harder to trace.
Illegal gold and diamond mining
The world of Chinese companies in northern DRC is small. Fodecos’s operations manager joined them from the infamous Maniema Union to replace a man hired by Xian Jiang Mining. The company, which started operating in January 2021, controls two concessions in the territory of Basoko and third in Banalia, a total of more than 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres).
Without speedboats, reaching the Basoko concessions from the provincial capital takes days of navigating down the Congo river; paddling dug-out canoes up a tributary; fixing off-road motorcycles in muddy forest footpaths and carrying them across marshes, wading through waist-deep water towards riverside villages where dredging noises can be heard 24/7.
This investigation found that Xian Jiang Mining has been illegally extracting gold, diamonds and rare metals from the river bed for more than a year under cover of a ‘prospecting license’, promising communities to build them schools and dispensaries when they eventually started selling the goods. Their five dredgers used to be guarded by policemen, but the company ended up hiring Congolese military to fend off locals who opposed the operation.
One of the five dredgers illegally operated by Xian Jiang Mining in a hard-to-reach corner of Basoko territory, northeastern DRC. They extract gold, diamonds and rare metals from the Aruwimi river, and their concessions also cover the surrounding rainforest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Companies with a prospecting license are only authorized to search for mineral-rich areas. All of the samples they extract belong to the state, meaning they cannot be sold. There must be inspectors of the provincial mining division on each dredger to verify and collect the material. Instead, Xian Jiang Mining has been exploiting and selling the materials, without oversight, as administrations turned a blind eye.
This reporter accessed unpublished mining registry data showing they are authorized to look for gold and diamonds, as well as niobium, tantalum, stannic oxide and wolfram, also known as tungsten. The rare metals are used to produce high-strength alloys steel for oil and gas pipelines, smoke detectors, components for missiles and nuclear power plants, as well as surgical implants.
Collusion with authorities
In 2020, the provincial minister of mines and the vice governor led company-sponsored missions to the area to pressure customary authorities and reluctant communities into supporting the Chinese investment. The concessions cover both the river and the surrounding rainforest.
Upon receiving $1,700 and jobs from the company, even the youth leaders who had been blocking the first dredger for months caved in by the end of that year. “Kinshasa was with them. The province was with them. Even the military were with them,” Charles Kolo – not his real name – who previously opposed the project, told us. “What could we do?”
In 2021, even the provincial assembly urged locals to “sensitize” the last strongholds of resistance, so that Xian Jiang Mining could start working in the second of its two concessions in the area, according to documents obtained by this reporter.
The head of the mines division and provincial government representatives assured communities that the company was following the rules, insisted that prospecting studies would not affect water quality or local livelihoods, and said that compromises could be reached between the new investors and local, artisanal miners.
“We used to resort to the Aruwimi river for all our needs, but now it is so murky we have to go into the forest to get drinking water,” said Jean Christophe Njanjale, the chief of the Bangelema-Mongandjo Sector. Fishermen were forced downstream, too. Canoes got stuck in sandbanks created by automated dredgers, nets were torn by speedboats, and the fish are all but gone. Riverbanks flanked by 45-meter trees have crumbled.
Each of the company’s five dredgers extracts up to 75 tons of sand from the river bed every day and they illegally use mercury to separate the gold from the ore, dumping residues with the neurotoxic metal overboard. Downstream, fishermen still drink from the water, children bathe in it, and women use it to wash dishes.
The company buys the mercury at $5 per cubic centimeter from the same vendor to whom they sell the gold, in the center of the provincial capital Kisangani, a bustling mineral trading hub frequented by well-connected Chinese, Russian and Belgian traders.
One of the dredgers of Xian Jian Mining, which is guarded by the Congolese military. Some Chinese employees have mining experience in conflict-torn provinces of Kivu and Katanga, across the border from Zambia. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
As former driver and aide to Xiang Jiang Mining’s manager in Kisangani, Joseph Dako – not real name – had rare access to the company’ s modus operandi. “I used to carry diamonds to the city by motorbike through a hellish dirt road. Those are sold abroad,” he said. “Others would transport gold twice a week on the boat that stocks up on fuel and food. On a good day, we could deposit $100,000 in the bank from gold sales.”
The dredgers are clearly meant to exploit underground riches, not to obtain samples, and they cost much more than the $10,000 declared on the formation papers of the company, which we obtained. So why did provincial authorities allow, and advocate for, their deployment?
Chinese investors control about 70 percent of the DRC’s mining sector, according to the Congolese Chamber of Mines. The DRC has significant deposits of untapped gold and was the third-largest producer of industrial diamonds in 2019, contributing around 21 percent of global production. It also has one of the world’s poorest populations, and is struggling to improve the governance of its extraordinary natural resources.
Speaking within walking distance of the dredger assembling site in Kisangani, then chief of the mining division, Michel Liete, said he had not had a chance to see the machines or to speak with company representatives about reports of illegal exploitation, despite the fact they lived across the road.
“I didn’t need to take a look at the dredge. I trust the word of the company,” he said. “And anyway, why all this interest in the Chinese?”
On 3 September 2021, N’Samba ordered the temporary suspension of Xian Jiang Mining’s operations. However, on 13 December, Bazaïba warned they were still “illegally exploiting raw materials with very serious consequences,” and urged her to take all necessary measures to revoke the permit.
The DRC ministries of mines and the environment did not respond to requests for comment sent by e-mail. Xian Jiang Mining did not respond to requests for comment.
This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.
Feedback: Use this form to send a message to the editor of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Banner image: Decaying log sitting at the premises of Fodeco, a Chinese-owned logging company operating in Tshopo, DRC’s largest forest province. It is not profitable for them to ship the logs unless they manage to extract enough of them from the forest. Credit: Gloria Pallares/El País
Hopping on the 2022 Honda CRF450X, it feels instantly familiar. Honda has ergonomics down, and nothing feels out of place. It doesn’t hurt that there are six CRF450 variants, so we spend quite a bit of time on the platform. The cockpit isn’t complicated, with start and kill buttons taking care of the electronics—no power modes, traction control, or launch control on this one.The big reason you don’t need any power modes for trail riding the 2022 Honda CRF450X is that the motor is a big sweetheart. Smoothly ramping up to a peak of about 40 horsepower with tons of overrev, plus a smooth run to a midrange maximum torque production of 30 ft/lbs.Unlike the barking CRF450R and CRF450RX, the X subdues the throttle response, focusing on retaining traction regardless of the terrain’s challenges. Honda achieves this by giving the CRF450X its own cam profile and piston, while increasing the crank mass. With a much less restricted exhaust system than the catalyst-saddled CRF450RL dual-sport bike, the CRF450X is a gentle step up from the CRF450RL, though not coming close to challenging the maximum power outputs from the R or RX.
The 2022 Honda CRF450X is documented below about 5000 rpm. If you like short-shifting and lugging, the X will happily comply—it doesn’t have the flame-out problem that makes you want to keep the revs up on the RL. Above 5k, the delivery gets a bit more exciting, and by 8000 rpm, even the most aggressive rider will click up a gear on the flawless transmission. Honda wisely outfitted the CRF450X with a six-speed transmission, rather than the five-speed used in the R and RX. Matched with the broad powerband, the CRF450X is willing to take you anywhere. You can work your way through the most technical trails in 1st gear—a damper on the countershaft sprocket adds to the smoothness.When you get into open terrain, you can crank it up into 6th, which will take you up to speeds that will get you a ticket on an Interstate. This won’t happen in a blink of an eye, but it will transpire with a satisfying urgency if you’re hard on the throttle.
If you get going too fast, the two-piston Nissin calipers working on a 260mm disc will reverse the process, and the rear brake has good feel when you need it. Also, you can easily keep tabs on your pace thanks to an easy-to-read LCD dash, though a configurable TFT display would be a cool upgrade.Balance is always the key to a successful motorcycle, and the 2022 Honda CRF450X is a testament to that maxim. The smooth power delivery matches high-quality Showa suspension that is wonderfully plush. This is precisely what we like in a trail bike—awesome suspension that puts a premium on rider comfort and traction delivery. Racers will consider the damping and spring rates to be unacceptably soft. That’s easily fixed by visiting a local suspension revalving shop, or buying a CRF450RX.For trail riding, the suspension is heavenly. The dampening prevents wild changes in the CRF450X’s attitude, and the spring rate is just enough to prevent the bike from packing down too quickly on rougher terrain.
The compression damping is about the same as the heavier CRF450RL, and considerably lighter than the RX. Rebound is the opposite, with the X preventing the back end from hopping around by slowing things down. These differences are immediately felt, as the X feels like it’s gliding across the terrain. If you’re not satisfied with the stock setting, full damping and spring-preload adjustability are at your fingertips. Speaking of fingertips—the stock hand guards are greatly appreciated.Honda engineers added to the X’s ease of use by giving the X more flexible upper motor mounts and increasing chassis flex a bit. While the X doesn’t have anywhere near the exciting and responsive feel of the RX, over the course of a day’s ride through demanding terrain, you’re happy for the X’s emphasis on comfort if you’re riding for fun, rather than racing for a trophy (or cash). All is not perfect, of course. Hitting the scales at 275 pounds, the 2022 Honda CRF450X is no lightweight—it’s 24 pounds heavier than the RX—and the nearly 38-inch seat height puts you far above the dirt. Fortunately, in technical terrain, the suspension and power delivery mask the heft, for the most part. However, it’s a bit of a beast to pick up should you have a tip-over. It is worth noting that the CRF450X weighs just 10 pounds more than the CRF250F, making the transition easier for someone moving upmarket.
At speed, the weight is less of an issue, though riders who frequently access 6th gear will probably consider a steering damper. On the upside, the rake on the X is kicked out a half-degree compared to the RX. With the fork angled at 27.6 degrees, stability is impressive at speed in the stock configuration.Honda mounted a pair of now-discontinued Dunlop Geomax MX52 tires on the CRF450X, rather than the superior current MX53. It’s an intermediate-to-hard tire with a substantial carcass to deal with the tortures provided off-road. Certainly, the MX52 isn’t a bad tire and had a good reputation until the MX53 replaced it. We liked the feel of the rear—traction when needed, and controllable when steering with the rear—but occasionally lost the front unexpectedly in looser terrain. We’ve peeked at the ’23 CRF450X, and it will have Dunlop Geomax AT81 rubber—good choice.
Californians can thank Honda for keeping the CRF450X Green Sticker legal. Yamaha let the WRs’ legality lapse, narrowing the number of performance-oriented Green Sticker off-road motorcycles to only the X and, sort of, the Kawasaki KLX300R. We hear that Beta will have some Green Sticker 2023 dirt bikes to keep Honda honest. We wouldn’t complain if the folks in Austria would turn one of its lines of dirt bikes into a Green Sticker armada—maybe GasGas, the “fun” brand. While we’re dreaming, how about a CRF400F from Honda—a modernized version of the XR400R with EFI and electric start?As it stands, the 2022 Honda CRF450X is a fantastic trail bike. It has personalizable ultra-comfy suspension, a meaty motor with easily 10 more horses in it if you’re interested, impeccable handling, and an exemplary reliability record. That’s enough for us to celebrate its continued presence in the marketplace and out in the dirt.Photography by Kelly CallanRIDING STYLE2022 Honda CRF450X SpecsENGINE
