THE European Union on Friday hailed an agreement by central African heads of state on the conservation and management of the region’s tropical forests. The heads of state of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, along with the vice-president of Gabon and Congo’s environment minister on Wednesday signed the Yaounde Declaration agreeing to protect forests in the central African region, which contain the world’s largest forest ecosystem after Amazonia. The EU, which is the region’s main donor for environmental programs, said in a communique received here that the declaration “turned the conservation and management of tropical forests into priorities recognized by the highest authorities of central Africa.”