Biodiversity loss from unequal mining deals is not a glitch. It’s the logical end point of multiple transnational pressures.

Mining of minerals such as copper and cobalt is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss in the DRC. Credit: Fairphone.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) holds one of the richest hotspots for biodiversity in the world. Half of Africa’s tropical forests lie within its borders, which support thousands of unique species as well as millions of people.

Fortunately, the government seems to recognise the importance of conserving its nature. It has signed on to numerous international treaties, such as the UN Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD), and enacted various national action plans to protect its rare biodiversity. 

And yet, at the same time, the DRC has continued to give concessions to transnational corporations to engage in poorly regulated mining, one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss according to the government’s own CBD documents. Not only that, the deals it is striking over its vast reserves of critical minerals barely benefit its people.

In 2008, for example, the DRC gave two Chinese companies exclusive rights until 2030 to mine and export 10 million megatons of copper and 600,000 megatons of cobalt. In exchange, the mining firms promised to construct much-needed roads, schools, and hospitals. Many years later, the companies have extracted billions worth of valuable metals, but the promised infrastructure has proven to be poor-quality where it exists at all. In 2023, the DRC’s General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) estimated in a study that the deal, called Sicomines, had so far seen $76 billion in gains for the foreign companies against $3 billion in infrastructure for the country.

Why is the DRC jeopardising its irreplaceable ecosystems and selling its valuable minerals with barely any return for the majority of people? 

One easy answer is corruption, which is indeed a major challenge. In 2022, an audit found that $400 million dollars had been misappropriated from state mining company Gecamines. The Sicomines deal also faced widespread allegations of bribery and embezzlement under former President Joseph Kabila.

This explanation, however, only touches the surface. New research we just published shows that we need to look deeper, further back, and further afield to truly understand the predicament that the DRC – and many other countries – face. Inequalities baked into the international financial system lock countries like the DRC into extracting and exporting natural resources at the expense of rich biodiversity and its people’s best interests.

Colonial debts push mining in the DRC

The DRC’s asymmetrical mining industry today is a legacy of its colonial history, which has informed its economy well into decades of independence. Belgian rule in the 19th century established the Congo as a resource colony. Colonial powers enslaved its people and built infrastructure to produce and export vast quantities of raw materials. 

In 1960, the DRC became independent, sparking hope that the country could stop being a mere provider of raw materials to the rich world. This dream, however, was pitted against brutal economic conditions. 

The country remained saddled with heavy debts that were only payable through foreign exchange, since the international market considered the DRC’s currency to be a risky asset. The US refused to provide aid to the country for fear of alienating their Belgian allies, who chafed at losing their colony. In 1961, the US and Belgium resorted to drastic measures and supported the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba – who had embraced a pan-Africanist vision of independence from neocolonialism and called for the country’s vast mineral wealth to benefit the people rather than corporate interests. 

To develop industry beyond resource extraction, the DRC needed money, but the terms of the international financial system in the 1970s and 80s worked to keep the DRC on the same resource-dependent path. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank made loans conditional on privatising the mining industry further. These loan arrangements not only limited the government’s control over its minerals but also pushed it to expand exports in order to generate more foreign currency to pay off these additional debts.

Fast forward to today and the DRC is severely constrained from many angles. It relies heavily on mining, with metal products accounting for 84% of its total export revenue in 2018-2022. It remains deeply indebted, meaning much of its export income goes towards repaying loans rather than developing the economy to serve sustainable development goals, conserve biodiversity, and create better jobs. And, the country continues to be seen as a risky site for investment, meaning private creditors are unwilling to finance projects or only offer sky-high interest rates. 

It is under these conditions that the DRC turns towards unequal investment arrangements like Sicomines despite the threats they pose to ecosystems, human rights, and national autonomy. 

The government and population still have power to change course, and they’re exerting it. Pressure from Congolese people for less destructive and more equitable modes of mining led to positive changes to the Mining Code in 2018. Earlier this year, President Felix Tshisekedi renegotiated the Sicomines deal to gain an additional $7 billion for the DRC.

These improvements, however, do not change the underlying terms of trade or the fact that destructive mining in vulnerable ecosystems will continue until the loan is fully repaid. Congolese workers continue to endure hazardous and exploitative conditions to mine the metals used to manufacture electronics in the Global North, while levels of access to electricity in the DRC itself remain at just 19%.

Biodiversity loss in the DRC is an international problem, so how can it be solved domestically? 

Extraction for export destroys biodiversity 

While the particular conditions in DRC are unique, the loans and colonial legacies that produce them are part of a larger pattern of global inequality. Similar debts, tax structures, and trade policies pressure many ecologically rich nations in the Global South to sell precious resources cheaply and destructively. 

For example, Colombia is a mega-biodiverse country with the most threatened lowland tropical ecosystem in the world. While President Gustavo Petro pledged in 2022 to halt new fossil fuel projects, the country is legally unable to stop extraction of coal for export in the nation’s largest open-pit mine, El Cerrejon, due to a binding investment agreement with the Swiss mining company Glencore. 

States like Colombia and the DRC may try to address biodiversity loss within their borders, but the forces of resource extraction, trade, and tax law are transnational. It is often beyond the ability of national governments, especially those in the Global South with less financial power, to tackle them. 

This October, CBD delegates will meet in Colombia for COP16 to review the 2022 biodiversity targets. To make real progress, delegates must address these underlying transnational forces that make extraction the only viable economic development strategy for many countries. 

At the 2022 CBD, the DRC advocated for a Global Biodiversity Fund financed by developed countries, much like the Loss and Damage Fund for climate change. They argued that countries with the most unsustainable consumption, and who benefit from ongoing resource colonialism, should pay for biodiversity. To repay the DRC for centuries of colonialism, the international community should unite behind these calls to both fund biodiversity and to remedy injustices in the international financial system that keep many countries in an open pit of unsustainable debt.