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PROFILE: Rene Ngongo - activist for Congo's rain forests
Oct 13, 2009, 9:54 GMT
Stockholm - Biologist Rene Ngongo on Tuesday became the first national from the Democratic Republic of Congo to win the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes known as the 'alternative Nobel'.
He was born in the eastern city of Goma in 1961.
Since 1994, Ngongo has campaigned to protect the rain forests in the central African country by promoting sustainable land use.
'The forests of the DR Congo and the Congo Basin, the planet's second 'lung', are a precious heritage that should be preserved,' Ngongo has said, adding:
'It is a living environment, a grocery store, a pharmacy, a spiritual landmark for millions of forest communities and aboriginal people.'
He founded the non-governmental organization OCEAN that grouped ecologists and offered outreach programmes throughout the vast country.
During the civil war 1996-2002 that ravaged the DRC, claimed millions of lives and involved armies of several neighbouring countries, Ngongo documented the exploitation of Congo's rich natural resources by the warring parties. This work was often done at great personal risk.
He still receives regular threats, Ole von Uexkull, director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation said.
Since 2008, Ngongo has worked with the environmental group Greenpeace.
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