This investigative video report reveals how the Republic of Congo’s green diplomacy clashes with extractive industries: while the country claims to preserve its forests in exchange for international carbon credit payments through the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, the investigation shows that nearly 80 gold mining permits were granted in the same forest zones earmarked for protection. Filmed in the heart of the Sangha region, this report takes viewers inside areas of critical biodiversity of the Congo Basin, one of the world's largest terrestrial carbon sinks. This ecosystem plays a decisive role in mitigating the effects of climate change but is threatened by these semi-industrial gold mining projects. Through field footage, graphics and local testimonies, we expose environmental degradation caused by these activities — forest clearing, river pollution, and loss of community access to ancestral lands — all under the eye of the REDD+ authorities. Indigenous communities that depend on this vast forest for food, medicine and cultural survival are now cut off from rivers and resources essential to their daily lives, compelling them to travel long distances just for basic sustenance. By combining on-the-ground visuals with expert analysis, this video complements a broader investigation published this year by Mongabay in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network. It has since been publicly screened by Congolese civil society groups and has prompted academic debate, international media coverage, and even spurred an environmental NGO to take legal action. This film is a rare, raw look into the disconnect between Congolese climate policy and the reality of its extractive industries, where green commitments on paper appear to contradict actual destruction on the ground. Our exclusive footage reveals vast holes in the forest, documenting the degradation of the Congo Basin, one of the world's key lungs.

English

Gold mines damage green goals in Republic of Congo

This investigative video report reveals how the Republic of Congo has granted dozens of destructive mining permits in protected forest areas that are supposed to generate carbon credits under a World Bank climate funding program. Shot in the Sangha region in the heart of the Congo Basin, the report exposes environmental degradation, river pollution, and the exclusion of Indigenous communities from the forest. Filmed with the support of the Pulitzer Center, the video offers a rare look into the raw contradictions of the nation’s climate policy.

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Closing out RECON Extended, the online film festival brings back the films showcased at RECONFERENCE 2025 — CREA’s flagship global feminist convening that brought together over 550 participants from 60+ countries in Kathmandu, Nepal, in December 2025. Curated in partnership with ALT EFF,  the festival brings together documentaries and short films from across South Asia, Africa and beyond — stories of resistance, memory, climate justice, gender, sexuality, survival and collective struggle. 

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