Essylot C. Lubala is the coordinator of OGF (Observatoire de la Gouvernance Forestière), a Congolese environmental NGO dedicated to the independent monitoring of rainforests in DRC. Essylot holds a degree in law from the University of Kinshasa, and is an expert in forestry law and governance. He has conducted many forestry monitoring missions throughout the country in collaboration with Congolese authorities to track illegal logging activities by industrial and artisanal operators. Prior to creating OGF with his colleagues, Essylot worked as a legal officer for the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, an American NGO that works to protect bonobos, an endangered species of great apes found in the tropical rainforests of DRC. He later worked as a senior legal expert for REM (Resource Extraction Monitoring), a British NGO that specializes in IM-FLEG (Independent Monitoring of Forest Law Enforcement and Governance).