Leaders from Africa’s Congo Basin gather in Brazzaville with international officials on Saturday for a conference on the threats facing the region’s vast forest expanses, one of the world’s two lungs.
The seven-nation meeting aims to breathe life into a conservation treaty signed in 1999, but which has so far made little progress on the ground, having failed to win financial backing from Western donors and credit organisations.
Tropical forests in the Congo Basin stretch over 2,3-million square kilometres, making up a third of the forests across Africa.
As the planet’s second-biggest timber resource and its second lung for survival, after the Amazon basin in Latin America, the fate of Central Africa’s forests is of vital interest not only to the region but also to the rest of the world.
Seven countries that together make up the forested land will be taking part in the conference, dubbed Comifac: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
French President Jacques Chirac, attending as part of an African tour, will be the only industrialised country leader present at the talks.
”We are waiting for concrete announcements from Jacques Chirac to really get the programme started on the ground,” explained the head of the United States Wildlife Conservation Society in Gabon, Dr Lee White.
”Northern countries need to really commit financially if we want to move from words to deeds,” agreed Marc Ona Essangui, of the NGO Brainforest in Gabon. ”And they need to act fast, because the threat is looming.”
Central Africa’s tropical forests are shrinking at a rate of 8 000 square kilometres per year, plagued by illegal logging, smuggling and ecological damage.
Comifac, or the Conference of Ministers in charge of Central African Forests, was launched in Yaounde in 1999, with the aim of coordinating local and global efforts to preserve the vital resource.
African leaders recommitted to the scheme on the sidelines of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2001, but disagreements over funding have held back its implementation.
”Basically, countries from the region want to manage aid directly, while international creditors want to maintain control over their contributions,” one expert said.
”The question is far from settled,” he warned, adding that ”only original, innovative solutions will help us find a way out”.
Under a partnership scheme agreed in Johannesburg, the conservation project was to be 40% funded by the Congo Basin countries, with the remainder provided by international donors.
The ambitious proposals made under the scheme were based on a projected budget of $1,6-billion for the period running from 2004 to 2013.
Since then, however, only France and the US have contributed to the programme, donating €50-million and $53-million respectively.
”We saw some very substantial pledges at a donor conference in Paris in 2003, but few have come to anything,” complained Gabon’s Forestry Minister, Emile Doumba.
”We have to take things forwards at Brazzaville, by settling disagreements over the management of the funds,” he said.
Participants at the talks are due to sign a treaty formally instituting the Comifac programme, as well as examine progress made since 1999 and, most importantly, to look at ways of securing the necessary funding the scheme.
The Republic of Congo’s Forestry Minister, Henri Djombo, said he hopes the summit will produce a clear blueprint that can then be submitted to the international community with a view to obtaining the funds. — Sapa-AFP