Mark asked Tim Butcher:

Thanks for your response. That is my perception as well and we are working with local CSOs in the DRC. DRC appears to be cracking down on both international and national CSOs and IP organizations when it comes to forest monitoring and governance. Donor countries want to engage DRC but have no ability or maybe willingness to control governance, corruption and enforcement.?

Tim Butcher The reality is that, like many other African regimes, the government in the DRC cares not for its people, only for itself. In as much as observers/locals get on the way of graft and enrichment by Le Pouvoir, they will be scotched. I believe the only way to change this is through transparency, changing completely the dynamic of foreign power involvement in places like DRC. The old canard of `commercial confidentiality’ must be dropped. Full and frank disclosure is the way forward. With modern communications the old regime control devices of owning the state media, the only one with any reach or audience, has disappeared. Everyone with a cellphone is a comms node. So get the facts out there and let the people judge their regimes.

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