53 years later - a brief look back for Independence Day in the DRC
Today, on the 30th of June 1960, the Belgian Congo was officially given back to its original owners. 53 years later the country is unfortunately worse off than before independence. This entry is a brief look back - on the Congos history but also our first three months in the country. Just briefly: what are we doing here: We decided to go to the DRC as Melaine took a job as Project Manager with an US-American Research Center (Woods Hole) in March. The first weeks we were accompanied by the directors and an administrator of the organization for a whirl wind tour of the area they plan on working in, to implement a Pilot of a so called REDD+ project. REDD stands for Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and has been mainly put in place to keep the large primary forest intact in places like the Congo, to help mitigate Climate Change (if that is still possible). The project is actually financed by the Norwegian and British governments, that recogni