How Those Meant To Protect the Congo Basin Ecosystem Plunder It Through Illegal Timber Sales

Timber extraction from the Congo Basin greatly contributes to the deforestation of the rainforest. The illegal trade of the wood has been going on for decades.

As an investigative reporter with the Standard Media Group, Protus Onyango does deep-dive investigations to expose the players in the illegal trade, which includes politicians, security officers, border revenue authority officials, business organizations, forest guards, parastatals, port officials, traffic officers, truck drivers, and international buyers.

The investigations focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Kenya, which is the gateway to East African countries through the port of Mombasa. Onyango uses public data, maps, and multimedia to uncover and tell the stories.