The third and fourth films documenting Inception star Marion Cottilard's journey to the Congo see her head out into the rainforest.

After meeting her hosts in Oshwe and the local forestry administration, she follows Greenpeace campaigners to see timber the loggers have left behind. Despite including sizeable tree trunks, they've been abandoned because they won't fetch enough money to make it worth the effort. Read more »

In June, Oscar-winning French superstar Marion Cottilard - currently playing in Inception at all good multiplexes - took a trip to the Congo rainforest with Greenpeace campaigners to see for herself the effect that the logging industry is having on the forest and the people who live there. Read more »

It's easy to forget that, even though we moan about discredited political systems and infringement of civil liberties, in the UK we don't actually have it that bad. It's rare that anyone in the UK would feel in danger for speaking out against the government but of course that's not the case in other parts of the world. A shocking reminder of this came with the news last week that a prominent human rights activist was murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Floribert Chebeya Bahizire was the executive director of La Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless), an organisation he set up in 1983 to expose human rights abuses and injustice in the DRC. But last Wednesday in Kinshasa he was found dead in his car, and his driver is still missing. According to the news wires, there'll be an investigation into Bahizire's death but there are questions over how revealing it will be. So much so that an open letter has been sent to the president Joseph Kabila from over 50 human rights groups, advocating an open, impartial inquiry.

Of course, Greenpeace has a team in Kinshasa and the challenges of campaigning there are markedly different than from a comfortable office in London. Intimidation and murder against those working to improve the lives of those who are disenfranchised and disregarded is unacceptable wherever it happens, and with the 50th anniversary of independence for the DRC approaching at the end of the month, Bahizire's murder will cast a long shadow over the celebrations.

Sarah is in Kinshasa, visiting our Congo office on their first anniversary.

I write from our office in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In some ways it's very like any other Greenpeace office. There are pictures of the Rainbow Warrior on the wall, people on phones rush from room to room, journalists and cameramen walk in and out. There's a shout and we all crowd round the TV to watch one of our colleagues, Rene Ngongo, who won the alternative livelihood award a few weeks ago for his work in the DRC, giving an interview. Read more »

Rene Ngongo, winner of the 2009 Right Livelihood award

For as long as I can remember, I have played a game with myself - imagining what it is like to be someone else in a different time or a different place. It's just a bit of fun and kept me entertained for hours on long train journeys before I got my laptop. Sometimes though I wonder whether I would have the courage to stand up for what I believe in if I didn't have the luxury of being here in the UK, at this moment in time.

Would I have joined the White Rose movement, students at Munich University who were executed after spreading anti-Nazi leaflets during the height of the Third Reich regime? Would I have had the courage to sit at the back of the bus like Rosa Parks did or demonstrate in the streets in Tehran following the election results? Read more »

Raoul on board the Arctic Sunrise during the launch of the DRC office © Greenpeace

It has only been a few months since Greenpeace Africa set up its office in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but since then we have very busy. The Kinshasa office is only a small one and there are just two of us working there - myself and René Ngongo, the policy advisor. We are already making a name for Greenpeace and René is in demand - he is invited to multiple meetings and is much sought after for interviews on radio and TV.

© Stok/Greenpeace

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has, at long last, completed a review of the logging industry. Although there are some positive results, at the same time it has allowed an expansion of the industry to more than twice the recommended size.

Back in October last year, the government announced the results of a three-year review of logging contracts that had been issued. Logging companies which had contracts cancelled were then allowed to appeal against the decisions and this week's announcement is the final result of that process.

Arctic Sunrise arriving at the DRC port of Matadi

Today we're celebrating the opening of a new Greenpeace office in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hurrah! We marked the occasion by inviting Congolese officials aboard the Arctic Sunrise, which is currently docked in Matadi, the country's principal port for timber exports.

This is a crucial time for the Congo rainforest, the world's second largest, as the DRC's government is the final stages of reviewing over 150 land titles, which cover millions of hectares of forest. While a number of titles were recently rejected by the government, the current 'appeals process' could see many of them returned to their former owners, the logging companies. The logging industry is using the present economic downturn to pressurise the govrnment to allow them to keep hold of (and exploit) what effectively amounts to millions of hectares of forest, and carry on business as usual.

As if Carving up the Congo wasn't enough, logging companies are also evading paying taxes and cheating the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) out of millions of euros in revenue. A new report we have released today called Conning the Congo shows how the logging company Danzer has avoided paying approximately €8 million in tax from its logging operations in the DRC and the Republic of Congo. Just to put €8m in context in this part of the world, that is more than fifty times the DRC Ministry of Environment's annual operating budget.

The Congo rainforests of Central Africa form the second largest rainforest block on Earth after Amazon. They are of great importance for the global climate, the planet's biodiversity and the forest-dwelling communities who depend on them for resources and livelihoods.

Full story on Greenpeace International website

There have been some great developments around our Congo rainforest campaign, as the FT reported on its website this morning that one of the arms of the World Bank will offload the shares it owns in a company known to be destroying the forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced that it will divest its holdings in Olam International, a Singapore-based company which has operations in the DRC. The Congo report we released earlier this year showed how Olam was holding forest land granted in breach of the current moratorium which the World Bank itself helped establish and that it was also trading in dodgy timber. As a result, Olam has since given back its forest holdings to the DRC government, but it still buys illegal timber cut by local companies.