Resuscitating Africa’s lung
 The Congo basin forest stretches across Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo. Some 60 million people from these countries depend on it for their sustenance. The Congo basin forest is a natural mosaic of 400 mammalian species, 280 reptile species, 900 butterfly species and 10,000 plant species. At 2 million square kilometres, it is the second largest rainforest in the world, second only to the Amazon forest in Latin America.
However, the forest is under serious threat from a combination of factors like illegal logging and settlements, shifting agriculture, population growth, oil and mining industries. The forest is losing 1.5 million hectares – half of Lesotho – every year.
To stem this loss, UNEP is working with Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) to conserve 29 protected areas, and promote sustainable forestry and community-based conservation in 11 priority landscapes spanning the Congo basin.
UNEP is supporting the Goodwill Ambassador of the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai in her endeavours. Her role is to engage donors in high level lobbying on behalf of the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem. She also serves as the co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund. So far, the governments of Norway and the United Kingdom have contributed US$ 200 million to the Fund.
The Fund is tailored to develop viable alternatives to logging, mining, and felling trees for firewood and subsistence farming. Funded activities will follow guidelines established by the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) Convergence Plan, which is a common vision for sustainable and joint management of the sub-region’s forest resources.
DRC, which hosts 54% of the Congo basin forest, is one of the nine pilot countries in the UN-REDD Programme, an initiative that seeks to maintain forest ecosystem services and maximize their carbon stocks while delivering community and livelihood benefits. The country is in the process of developing a national strategy for monitoring, assessment, reporting and verification of forest cover and carbon stocks. |
