Josué Aruna elevated to the rank of ambassador for ecological justice in the DRC

We are very honoured to receive this Congo Peace Honours award. This recognition is well deserved for our work over many years. Today, the Amani Citizen Bloc is awarding us this prize, as was the case with the Golden Patriot Award and the New Congolese Civil Society Award.

This recognition is deserved by both state and non-state actors. I would just like to say a few words about this award, which is an indicator of our work. I always say that we must do everything we can to build peace with nature, especially for the young people who come to us.

I condemn this jargon, because often when we talk about peace, we think that nature must be removed, but without good management of nature, our future is in disarray.

That is why we have made this commitment, which is now officially recognised, and we say that you are encouraging us to do even more to defend nature. It is true that this is a sector that poses too many threats to its defenders, but we are asking young people to follow in our footsteps because without the ecological foundation in the Congo Basin, the future of the DRC is in jeopardy.

That is why, in times of war and in times of peace, we all have a duty to protect nature because it is our common future. That is why I invite you to join the collective conscience. We will never stop talking about the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, the Itobwe Nature Reserve, and other key ecosystems in southern South Kivu. The province is rich in ecosystems of great value, which are home to

biodiversity of global importance.

With this globally significant biodiversity, we continue to benefit from the ecosystem services on which we depend for our survival and our economy. We cannot talk about development without an ecological foundation. Thank you.

#CBCS