Valery Kyembo was inspecting his community’s protected forest in Congo’s mining belt when two armed soldiers blocked the narrow path ahead.
Behind them, a barrier guarded a growing mine site, and a raised rifle signalled he should turn back immediately.
The confrontation captured a rising struggle between local communities and powerful interests chasing the Democratic Republic of Congo’s prized minerals.
In southern Haut-Katanga province, villagers fear expanding mines will creep deeper into reserves created to protect ancestral land.
Lukutwe’s community forest gained official land titles to deter unauthorised exploitation as global demand for metals continues to surge.
Yet leaders say protection on paper does not erase the threat of displacement from lands held for generations.
Haut-Katanga sits atop vast deposits of cobalt, a silver-blue metal vital to electric batteries and modern defence technology.
The DRC supplies about 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, anchoring its place in a fierce global supply race.
Kyembo said Lukutwe sought legal recognition after watching neighbouring villages uprooted by a mining firm a decade earlier.
Since 2016, Congo has allowed community forest concessions to formalise customary land rights and strengthen local environmental stewardship.
Officials say these reserves help shield communities from forced relocations, while promoting reforestation and controlled resource use.
But from 2001 to 2024, Haut-Katanga and neighbouring Lualaba lost 1.38 million hectares of tree cover, driven largely by mining.
Environmental groups warn that waste leaks, shrinking forests, and polluted waterways are quietly reshaping lives around the mining corridor.
Communities complain companies still secure licences on protected lands without consent, revealing gaps between law, power, and practice.
A newly built road cutting through a reserve stands as a reminder that pressure from mining interests rarely retreats.
For Lukutwe’s residents, government documents remain their fragile shield against an industry that keeps knocking at the forest’s edge.