In June 2010, Greenpeace took Oscar-winning actress, Marion Cotillard, to visit the tropical rainforests in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Travelling by pirogue (a small wooden boat), she witnessed the destruction caused by logging first hand. International logging companies are plundering the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and causing social chaos for many of the 40 million-odd people who depend on the rainforests for their livelihoods but whose voices are ignored. While the logging companies trade (often illegally logged) timber, avoid taxes, bribe officials and cheat local people out of invaluable forest resources in exchange for a few bags of salt, the forests themselves - and the many endangered species that live in them - are in jeopardy.
