Congo should cancel most logging deals: report

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo should cancel more than three quarters of its logging deals for not meeting necessary standards, a government-sponsored working group looking into the forestry sector said on Wednesday.

Congo, home to the world's second largest tropical forest, launched a World Bank-backed review of all timber contracts last week in an effort to recoup millions of dollars in lost taxes and clean up a business rife with corruption.

The working group is evaluating the technical and legal aspects of 156 logging deals, mostly signed during a 1998-2003 war and subsequent corruption-plagued interim government.

A list published in the local press on Wednesday showed only 29 of the contracts met the minimum standards required.

"These are the opinions of the technical working group," Abel Leon Kalambayi, the head of the commission that will make the final decision on the deals, told Reuters.

"They do not bind the commission. We must wait for the end of the process and the commission's recommendations," he added.

Amongst contracts recommended for cancellation are 10 of 16 belonging to Portuguese-owned Sodefor, a unit of NST.

Siforco, a subsidiary of Germany's Danzer Group, had three of its nine logging deals picked out while Safbois saw both of its contracts on the cancellation list.