Use of cookies: We use cookies to optimize our website for you and to be able to improve it continuously. By continuing to use the website you agree to the use of cookies.
For more information on cookies, please see our privacy policy
CBFP Facilitation at Work: The Federal Republic of Germany CBFP Facilitation Roadmap is available….
The Facilitation´s overarching objective for 2020 and 2021 is to contribute to the preservation and sustainable use of Central Africa´s incredibly rich forest landscapes. Safeguarding their threatened integrity is crucial for the sustainable development of states and populations in the Basin as well as for the fight against global challenges like a declining biodiversity or a changing climate. In doing so, the Facilitation aims to add value to and build on the important work of the Partnership´s members and preceding Facilitations.
By means of an official ceremony in Douala in December 2019, the Facilitation of Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) was handed over from the Kingdom of Belgium, represented by Minister of State François–Xavier De Donnea, to the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the new CBFP Facilitator Dr. Christian Ruck. Marked by a launch in Berlin on 14 February 2020 under the auspices of Dr. Gerd Müller, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the presence of various representatives from COMIFAC member countries, the work of German Facilitation has undoubtedly begun.
The Road Map at hand indicates several key topics which the German Facilitation intends to emphasize together with the whole Partnership. An overall objective of the Facilitation effort in 2020 and 2021 will be to promote and strengthen intensive cooperation for transparent as well as concerted multi-stakeholder leadership. Addressing the ever more pressing threats for Central Africa´s forest ecosystems, their biodiversity, and their populations will require a strong and equal Partnership as well as consistency with the work of preceding Facilitations. Hence, the Facilitation intends to bring together CBFP partners in the Congo Basin and beyond. It proposes to the Partnership to put particular focus on a number of governance subjects and wants to trigger broad discussions on different thematic matters. These key subjects are closely aligned with the strategic areas of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan, the medium-term priorities of the CBFP, the Rio Conventions, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
I. Consolidation of achievements to date: To begin with, the Partnership should stay committed to consolidating its achievements under the preceding Belgian Facilitation on cross-border anti-poaching efforts, security concerns and management of transhumance issues in the region. The Facilitation encourages the Partnership to follow up on the commitments laid out in the N´Djamena declaration and to encourage practical measures on the ground.
II. Governance within the partnership: We remain convinced that the Partnership is of decisive importance for safeguarding the Central African forests, the various ecosystem services they provide and the rich possibilities they harbor for sustainable development within the region. Thus, the Facilitation aims to strengthen CBFP´s governance, broaden its membership network and bolster interactions and cooperation within the Partnership in order to safeguard its relevance and increase its impact. Besides the regular holding of meetings of and between the Colleges, meetings of the Governing Council and as well as the organization of the annual Meeting of Parties of the CBFP, a key objective will be to make greater use of the vast expertise assembled in the Colleges and to proactively tap into this knowledge resource by assigning the Colleges a stronger role in the Partnership´s thematic work.
III. Biodiversity, wildlife & protected area management: Furthermore, the incoming Facilitation urges the Partnership to underline the Congo Basin forests´ relevance in global efforts to conserve biodiversity and will work to identify possibilities for long-term financing of conservation efforts. It intends to promote increased coordination and synergies between policies and various existing conservation instruments. It aims to move CBFP members to seek a way forward for managing transboundary protected areas and to reduce gaps in the conservation – development – security nexus. A prioritized aim is to facilitate a common perspective from the Congo Basin to be brought to the table at this year´s landmark CBD Conference of Parties in Kunming. In order to protect the forests´ rich biodiversity, the Facilitation also wants to accentuate the need for an improved management of protected areas along guiding principles for human rights and participation of local and indigenous groups. Conservation of vulnerable landscapes and wildlife can only succeed if resident populations are participating substantively in management approaches like parks or nature reserves. Resident communities should receive the tangible benefits – economic and beyond – protected areas can provide for them if they are to support conservation efforts.
IV. Forests and climate: Calling attention to the Congo Basin forests´ outstanding role as stock for carbon sequestration in global efforts to curb climate change, the Partnership should stay committed to raising the profile of the region in current and upcoming international climate negotiations which are at a decisive state for future environmental politics. The Facilitation intends to act as neutral intermediary within the Partnership and to work towards a shared position of Congo Basin countries at UNFCCC COPs 26 and 27. It also aims to activate the Partnership´s network in order to identify ways for enabling REDD+ in Central Africa, to discuss additional mechanisms for valuing the forests´ vital ecosystem services and to appropriately consider Central African forests and the ecosystem services they provide in finance flows of international climate politics. A further ambition will be to encourage restoration of degraded landscapes as well as conserving peatlands within the Congo Basin. By revitalizing degraded landscapes, pressure on vulnerable virgin forests might be decreased.
V. Sustainable land use: Being aware of the relevance of the Congo Basin forests and their resources for local livelihoods and regional economies, the Facilitation aims to stimulate a debate on ways to utilize forests, natural resources and lands in Central Africa in a sustainable way. Inducing discussions on how to move towards an integrated land use planning within the region and developing ideas on how to strengthen approaches such as – amongst others – certification, ecotourism, adding value to forest-related products or deforestation-free supply chains are key aspirations for the next two years. The long-term objective is to move towards regulative harmonization and minimum standards within the region for the sustainable optimization of all resource and land use in order to support conservation, biodiversity and sustainable management and – above all – the economic development of the populations of Central Africa.
VI. Dialogue with China: Again with reference to the preceding achievements, the Facilitation aims to deepen the dialogue of the CBFP and its members with partners from China. A focus will be to link actors from the private sector with the political level in order to render cooperation and investment beneficial and sustainable in the long term.
The Facilitation wants to affirm that the upcoming two years 2020 – 2021 represent a crucial window of opportunity for protecting the rainforests in the Congo Basin and for enabling them to continue providing ecosystem services which are vital on local, regional and global levels. With a CBD COP 15 as a milestone biodiversity conference, UNFCCC COPs 26 and 27 as turning points for global climate politics and the EU - China Summit as a key moment in taking stock of China´s growing engagement in the Congo Basin, it is essential for the Partnership to speak with a common voice. The Facilitation firmly believes that a coordinated and harmonized stance will benefit the Partnership as well as the Congo Basin and its forests in impinging on these crucial negotiations. To this end, it aims to make use of the moment in creating synergies with Germany´s current simultaneous presidency of the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI).
In close alignment with the Convergence Plan of the COMIFAC, the German Facilitation proposes the Road Map outlined above to its partners from Central Africa and beyond. It invites the members of the Partnership to come together and to move forward in the protection and sustainable management of the rainforests of the Congo Basin as well as the sustainable development of its Population. It stays open for suggestions and ideas from its partners and welcomes new initiatives and ideas from all sides.
Korup United, the Voluntary Association of ex-personnel of the Korup Project (1998-2003), is organizing a two-day Symposium October 31 - November 01, 2024, on Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Lower Guinea Congolian Forest Ecosystem. This event also commemorates the 38th Anniversary of the creation of the Korup National Park in October 1986 by Presidential Decree as the first rainforest IUCN Category II National Park in Cameroon.
Mrs Salina GRENET-CATALANO was appointed on July 5, 2024, by decrees of the Prime Minister and the Minister in charge of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Director of Global Affairs of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. It is in this light that she takes over Mr Christophe GUILHOU and becomes French’s new Co-facilitator for the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP).
PANGEA investigates variation between and within Earth’s two largest tropical forests in the Americas and Central Africa while integrating datasets and research from existing and complementary activities across the tropics. PANGEA’s research questions focus on five thematic areas, Biogeochemical Cycles; Biodiversity; Climate Interactions and Feedbacks; Social-Ecological Systems; and Disturbance Dynamics.
The Science Panel for the Congo Basin (SPCB) was launched on 3rd December 2023, at COP28 in Dubai. The SPCB is an independent platform for scientists from the region to synthesize the existing knowledge including Indigenous peoples and autochthonous knowledge, on the functioning of, and threats to, the Congo Basin and its ecosystems.
The DYNAFAC collective was created to develop common skills and technical and scientific complementarities. Its goal: to develop activities that will ultimately improve development plans and ensure better management of production forests in Central Africa.
The Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI) is an independent scientist-led platform that promotes long-term investment in science in the Congo Basin with a mission to transform our understanding of the world’s second largest extent of tropical forest, build scientific capacity in the region, and use this knowledge to support sustainable development.
In his book, "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need,” Bill Gates singled out CGIAR centers, which have been at the forefront of supporting the world to feed itself through research including developing improved higher-yielding varieties of important staples such as maize and rice, as doing work that is “indispensable in creating new climate-smart crops and livestock for the world’s poor farmers.”
The PANGEA Scoping Campaign had a strong presence at the 20th Meeting of the Parties of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership from May 31 – June 5, 2024 in Kinshasa, DRC. The conference exchanges between civil servants, scientists, and philanthropic organizations in the Congo Basin provided a special opportunity to address the need for strengthening collaborative partnerships in the region and pan-tropically.
The CBFP and the coordination of the Western Bloc are pleased to invite you to a face-to-face exchange session, to be held on Friday 4 October from 8:00 to 10:00 at the Hôtel de l'Amitié, in N'Djamena, on the occasion of the conference on pastoralism and protected areas. The event will provide an opportunity to reflect on how the CBFP can continue to lead discussions on the most topical issues in the sub-region.
The Conference aims at: Presenting the state of knowledge on the causes and consequences of tensions between agropastoral activities and protected areas within the Sahelian and Sudano-Guinean ecosystems; Reviewing the modes of governance and technical innovations making it possible to better manage the interface zones between agropastoral areas and protected areas, in order to promote the sustainable development of agropastoral territories...
After a series of broken silence procedures in the lead-up to the Summit, the Summit of the Future (SOF) opened under a cloud of uncertainty when the Russian Federation made a last-minute proposal for an amendment to the outcome document. However, following a quick voting round, delegates adopted the Summit’s negotiated outcome, the Pact for the Future, and its two annexes: the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration of Future Generations. The rest of the day then proceeded largely as planned, with general statements by high-level representatives taking place in parallel with two interactive dialogues on the Summit’s themes.
The Summit of the Future opened with some drama when the Russian Federation tabled its objection to several paragraphs in the outcome documents: the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and Declaration on Future Generations. In the end, after months of negotiations, the Pact was adopted. UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Philémon Yang thanked the Co-Facilitators for steering a complex negotiating process and described the just-adopted Pact as a reflection of “our pledge” to lay the foundation for a sustainable, inclusive, and peaceful global order.
The Central African Biodiversity Working Group adopts common views for COP-16 at the CBD and related meetings at the end of their 38 meeting held from September 9 to 13, 2024 in Brazzaville. The Central African Biodiversity Working Group held its thirty-eighth meeting (GTBAC-38) from September 9 to 13, 2024 in Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo. These meetings organised by the Executive Secretariat of the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) with technical and financial support from the GIZ Regional Support Project to COMIFAC, brought together members of the GTBAC.
President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Philemon Yang has made available an updated programme of the Summit of the Future (SoF), along with a logistics note, an announcement of the co-chairs for the interactive dialogues to take place during the Summit, and lists of speakers for the interactive dialogues. The SoF is taking place in New York, US, from 22-23 September 2024.
New York, 10 September 2024 – Philémon Yang, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Cameroon, took office today as President of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly at a time when the urgent need to strengthen multilateralism respond to new and emerging challenges is increasingly acute. The theme of President Yang’s mandate is “Unity in diversity, for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for everyone, everywhere”. His priorities range from boosting gender equality, advancing multilingualism to combatting terrorism. Under his leadership, efforts will focus on fostering more effective collaboration and finding effective solutions to global challenges.
On 10 September 2024, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) closed its 78th session. Addressing the Assembly for the last time as its President, Dennis Francis (Trinidad and Tobago) underscored the important role of the multilateral system in overcoming complex challenges. Philemon Yang (Cameroon), President-elect of the 79th session of the UNGA, subsequently took an oath of office, pledging to perform his duties “in all loyalty, discretion and conscience.” This was followed by the opening of the Assembly’s 79th session.
07 September, Abidjan - African Environment Ministers meeting in Abidjan have called for the establishment of a legally binding protocol on drought management under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), with a special focus on Africa. The call for action comes amid growing concerns over the detrimental impact of land degradation, drought and desertification on the continent’s socio-economic stability, food security, and environmental sustainability.
A search was carried out using Google Scholar and Scopus (for the period 2000-2023) and official reports (from the inscription of the site until 2024) submitted by countries on the state of conservation of natural UNESCO World Heritage sites in Africa. The scientific literature does not sufficiently address the determinants of armed conflicts affecting African Natural World Heritage sites or the connections between the quality of governance of Protected Areas and the emergence and/ or resolution of armed conflicts. Understanding the origins and foundations of these armed conflicts requires an in-depth analysis of several determinants linked to the existence of these protected areas and an assessment of the effectiveness of the governance systems, which is rarely available.
Abidjan, 3–6 September 2024 : Leveraging financing and partnerships for combating drought, land degradation and desertification in Africa The note available to dowload explores the critical role of financing and partnerships in addressing the interrelated challenges of drought, land degradation, and desertification in Africa.
Bonn / Laramie, 4 September 2024 - Today, a groundbreaking online map was launched showing the migration paths of land animals around the world. An international team of over 80 scientists has collaborated to create the first-ever interactive migration map of hooved mammals such as antelopes, guanacos and zebras, that routinely travel large distances at different times in the year. Such animals are collectively called “ungulates".
The African Forest Forum (AFF) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s Regional office for Africa, is organizing a three-week Community of Practice (CoP) on “Climate Change in African Forestry and Wildlife Sectors”. The CoP will be held from9 - 27 September 2024, from 12:00 noon - 3.00 pm Nairobi time/ 9:00 am -12.00 noon GMT., via Howspace – a virtual ‘African Forestry Community’ platform – for knowledge sharing and learning.
To prepare the next post-Malabo plan, the ECCAS Regional Economic Community (REC), in partnership with AU, and the Feed the Future Policy LINK Program organized regional stakeholder consultations for the Central Africa region. The participants at the consultation were: the CAADP focal points and government representatives of different countries, as well as private sector and non-state actor representatives from the seven ECCAS Member States. Please download the report...
The tenth special session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) regional consultations will be held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, from 30 August to 6 September 2024, under the theme “Raising Africa’s Ambition to Reduce Land Degradation, Desertification, and Drought.” The theme underscores the critical need to address the current state of land degradation in the region and restore this vital resource.
Rome – A new roadmap guiding the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on forests was endorsed on Wednesday by members at the 27th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO 27) in Rome. The FAO Forestry Roadmap - From Vision to Action 2024-2031 sets out how FAO will work to enhance the role forests play in meeting forestry-related goals and targets and in addressing global challenges in coming years.
In recent years, the international community and countries in central Africa have developed various initiatives and programmes to halt biodiversity and natural resource degradation, and to address challenges to sustainable development in forest ecosystems.
At the 26th IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm from 23-29 June 2024, the booth hosted by the Scientific and Academic College of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) provided an opportunity for Crispin Ilunga-Mulala Mushagalusa, a PhD student at the University of Liège (Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech), to present his research as part of the UFA - Reforest project (Reforestation in the Forest Management Units of Cameroon).
This study addresses the need to explore the attitude and perception of local residents toward wildlife and conservation. Questionnaires, surveys and field observations were used in data collection. A total of 400 people was conveniently selected in 16 villages from October to December 2015. Data analysis relied mainly on factor analysis and structural equation modelling in SPSS 21 and Smart-PLS software.
The objective of this side event on 4 June 2024 was move away from rapid conflict mitigation and prevention towards to holistic and integrated coexistence programs between human and forest elephants in rainforest of the Congo Basin.
The theme for International Youth Day 2024 (12 August) is “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.” This theme highlights the key connection between digitalization and accelerating the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), emphasizing the crucial contributions of young people in this transformative process.
On 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided, in its resolution 49/214, that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year. The date marks the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The International Day observance will take place online on Friday, 9 August 2024. This year’s theme is: Protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact.
CBFP, which is one of the oldest Type 2 partnerships in the United Nations system, registered in the ECOSOC and UN DESA partnerships, and strengthened in SDG 17, is calling on its partners to make the conclusions of the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development their own... the call is crystallised in advocacy for Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership with diverse stakeholders for sustainable developmen. In Fact, Partnerships are the glue for SDG implementation and is been essential to making the Agenda a reality.
This hybrid event aims to set the stage for the 2025 IYC, which will be officially launched during the ICA Global Cooperative Conference, scheduled for November 25-29, 2024, in New Delhi, India. The New York event will serve as a platform to deepen the theme of IYC2025, unveil the media package, discuss the UN resolutions outlining the modalities for the IYC launch.
Side event organized by the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme on the 04/06 from 8h30 to 9h30 am. United Nations member states are committed to reducing hunger, improving health, and conserving natural resources through the Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aims to conserve 30% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, promoting sustainable wildlife management and equitable benefits. However, in Central Africa, the unsustainable wild meat trade threatens food security and biodiversity, making these goals challenging to achieve.
The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme presented its innovative Legal Hub at the recent 20th Meeting of Parties (MoP20) of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. This event was held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), from 3 to 5 June, 2024. A specific side-event titled "A Tool to Connect Different Sources of Law" showcased the Legal Hub’s critical role in enhancing the legal frameworks governing wildlife management across multiple countries, including the sub-region.
In this 20th meeting, the consortium comprising the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), RIKOLTO, and the Catholic University of Bukavu (UCB) actively participated in the sessions held from June 3 to 5, 2024, at the Pullman Hotel in Kinshasa. During a panel focused on agroforestry and agribusiness, the consortium presented solutions for sustainable and effective land management around the Itombwe Reserve and the Kahuzi-Biega National Park through two main themes...
