Lush, old-growth rainforest covers 65% of Rosalie Matondos country nearly double the share of wooded land in the United States or European Union and conservationists hail it for its success in cracking down on deforestation and poaching.

But the Republic of the Congos gains are in danger, Matondo warns, if the majority of Central African nations 6 million residents keep getting poorer. The poverty rate eclipsed 66% last year, and its on pace to surpass 72% next year.

As the top government official in charge of the forest economy, Matondos job is to find ways to make money without chopping down one of the worlds last intact old-growth rainforests. In the meantime, however, Congo is following the same path the U.S. has long taken to make money and strengthen alliances: selling natural gas to the Europeans.

Congo sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish the coastal state from its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year became the worlds newest exporter of liquified natural gas. And Matondo is tired of Western environmentalists lecturing her country about the toll its fossil fuel exports take on rising global temperatures.

We have people that will come and tell us what we have to do, Matondo, the Congolese minister of the forest economy, told HuffPost through a French translator in a wide-ranging interview last month. NGOs from developed countries think they can tell us what we have to do.

Congo ranks among the worlds countries most vulnerable to climate change. And although its emissions are rising , it still constitutes a tiny fraction of a percent of the global total. The countrys trees absorb about three times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as its people emit.