The Democratic Republic of Congo is taking steps to cancel a large number of timber contracts in order to protect the world’s second biggest tropical rain forest.

Congo issued a five-year moratorium on new logging contracts in 2002 in an effort to stem rampant deforestation aggravated by the conflict. That measure went largely unheeded and companies continued to sign new deals.

Around three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of illegal concessions have already been cancelled by Congo’s new government, which took office this year after historic post-war elections in 2006.