[4] In 1885 a force of the Manyema people, followers of Tippu Tip, the Swahili-Zanzibari slave trader, arrived at the head of the Lopori River from Stanley Falls.

[5] The Belgian administrators of the Congo Free State were concerned by this development, and, in 1889, enacted the Monopoly Act, which declared that all products in the area were to be under their jurisdiction alone.

[5] By September 1892, the Free State was using its military forces to attack and occupy villages in the Lulonga and Maringa river valleys in order to expand its tax base.

[7] The company established posts throughout the region, staffed by agents who were mainly paid on commission and used brutal methods to force the villagers to pay their rubber taxes.

[9] The growing population is placing more stress on the environment, and there is risk of a revival of logging that could harm the ability of the land to sustain the people and could jeopardize biodiversity.

[1] Local and international institutions headed by the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) have recently started developing a sustainable land use plan for the MLW.