Congo Basin Forest Partnership

The Congo Basin forest is the world’s second largest tropical forest, covering 700,000 square miles in six countries, and containing a quarter of the world’s remaining tropical forest. This vast area hosts a wealth of biodiversity, including over 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals. It is also home to more than 24 million people, most of whom depend on the forest for their livelihoods.

These livelihoods are under threat by the continued loss of the forest. Logging, often illegal or unregulated, and clearing of land for agriculture are eating away at the intact ecosystems, which are being degraded at the rate of two million acres every year. And the hunting of wildlife to supply urban and commercial forestry settlement markets may represent a more immediate and significant threat to the forest than deforestation itself.

To protect this invaluable forest area the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) was created, which was announced by the United States at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The result of five years of hard work and commitment by devoted groups of individuals, governments, organizations, CBPF brings together governments, international organizations, non-governmental environmental organizations, industry, and civil society in a strong international partnership to manage the Congo Basin in a sustainable manner.

The goals of CBFP are to:

• Provide people with sustainable means of livelihood through well-managed forestry concessions, sustainable agriculture, and integrated ecotourism programs;
• Improve forest and natural resource governance by using community-based management, combating illegal logging, and enforcing anti-poaching laws; and
• Help the Congo Basin countries develop a network of effectively managed parks, protected areas, and ecological corridors.

The U.S. contribution to the partnership builds on the strengths of the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), USAID’s most prominent natural resources management program in Africa. The U.S. government will invest up to $53 million in CBFP over four years (2002–2005), of which approximately $48 million will be provided by USAID through CARPE. Partner NGOs such as the Africa Wildlife Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, World Conservation Society, and Conservation International have committed to matching this contribution. The other partners are also expected to provide significant contributions, all of which will greatly increase the financial support for conservation programs in the region.

The projects supported by CBFP will be nearly as diverse as the forest itself. Rangers and game scouts will be trained. Community enterprises linked to landscape conservation will be developed. Adoption and strengthening of legislation related to natural resource management, including protected areas and forestry, will be encouraged. Regional processes for communication, collaboration, and policy coordination will be supported. Forest access, land use, and deforestation will be monitored on a large scale using remote sensing technologies. And materials that help provide citizens with information to participate in natural resources governance will be disseminated.

Grants for these projects will be administered on what is known as a “landscape” approach. The partnership is focusing on eleven target areas, or landscapes within the Congo Basin Forest, which is located within the boundaries of Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo. Teams of conservation organizations and other implementing partners have been arranged in each landscape based on field experience and competitive advantage. Close coordination will be needed to ensure that similar techniques are being used for each of the different landscapes, and to allow reporting on progress basin-wide.

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