Healing the heavily forested landscapes of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the aftermath of devastating wars that ended in 2003 has been a slow process, just one of many systemic scars under repair amid ongoing post-conflict skirmishes.
War has contributed to forest loss and damage through unregulated wildlife hunting, livestock grazing, subsistence agricultural activities, fuelwood gathering and massive refugee camps. As an uneasy truce settled on the country, there were only six qualified people with post-graduate degrees to manage the vast forest in the nation of more than 80 million people.