Indirect Effects of Logging
As human population in the region increases and loggers expand into ever-more isolated parts of the forest, the future of these large tracts of undisturbed forest is increasingly uncertain. In the north of Congo over 90% of the landmass now lies within logging concessions, and while these activities bring much-needed development to rural populations, they also bring with them a myriad of dangers for the forest fauna and flora.
Logging operations often inadvertently facilitate illegal activities such as the commercial exploitation of ivory and bushmeat, constructing a road network that opens up previously inaccessible areas to hunters and poachers. The large logging settlements that are constructed to house the logging company employees increase the demand for bushmeat and other wildlife products, so that logging advances across the landscape as timber companies push further and further into unlogged frontier forests, in search of the few valuable trees that are scattered across the landscape.