By Omotayo Edubi
Forest loss in DRC is intensified by tremendous poverty, mainly due to a growing population living with extreme poverty.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President, Félix Tshisekedi and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom on behalf of the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) last week approved a 10-year agreement (2021-31) to protect the Congo Basin rainforest which happens to be the world’s second largest.
The DRC’s forest represents 10% of the world’s tropical forests; its peat lands cover 100,000 km2 and are the largest in the world. Its ecosystem offers a carbon absorption service equivalent to 10 years of global emissions.
The many commitments reflected in the new Letter of Intent demonstrate DRC’s high level of resolve to establish a low-deforestation green economy.
The approval is supported by European countries, the Republic of Korea, the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) is a United Nations Trust Fund and policy dialogue platform that aims to support six Central African countries in pursuing a low-emission development pathway that ensures economic growth and poverty reduction while protecting the forests and natural resources, on which people depend.
CAFI thus combines investments and high-level policy dialogue to help its six partner countries implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, fight poverty and develop sustainably while being aligned with the post-2020 biodiversity framework.
The Central Africa’s tropical rainforest is under pressure. While trends and causes vary widely across national contexts, forest loss represents more than 6 million hectares of primary tropical forest since 2001, equivalent to about 6 million rugby fields.
Home to more than 10,000 plant and animal species, many of them endemic, the Central African rainforest is an indispensable source of food, energy, shelter and spirituality in countries with some of the lowest human development indexes and the largest number of people in urgent need of food security assistance in the world.
The Congo Basin is one of the last regions in the world to absorb more carbon than it emits. Its forest, the second largest in the world, absorbs nearly 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year or 4% of global emissions.
The agreement will unlock on-the-ground multi-donor investments of US$500 million for the first five years.
“With its forests, water and mineral resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo are a genuine “Solution Country” to the climate crisis.
“To protect our forest and promote its sustainable management, our priority, backed by this new partnership, is to strengthen governance and transparency across all land use sectors”.
“The Partnership will also prop up our ambition to respond to the dual challenge of food security and climate change through sustainable agriculture, primarily in the savannahs”, said President Tshisekedi.
All divisions of the DRC’s economy have joined in this landmark agreement to undertake actions that could change land use practices that date back millennia. These concerted efforts are essential in a country the size of Western Europe with one of the lowest human development indices in the world, and that loses nearly half a million hectares of forest every year.
Through this new multi-year partnership, the DRC aims to first cap forest cover loss at its 2014-2018 average and ensure that deforestation continues to decline. The partnership will also promote the regeneration of 8 million hectares of degraded land and forests, and place 30% of national areas under a protection status, including areas where local communities undertake efforts to manage forests sustainably.
Lord Goldsmith, UK Minister for Pacific and the Environment declared: “The UK is proud to be signing this ambitious ten-year Letter of Intent with the Central African Forest Initiative alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a crucial step forward in our efforts to protect and restore the country’s precious forests, as well as providing sustainable livelihoods and alleviating poverty.”
Exacerbated by extreme poverty, forest loss in the DRC is mainly due to a growing population lacking livelihood opportunities outside the forest and relying mostly on fuelwood for cooking, all that in the absence of land use planning. Any solution proposed to stem forest loss in the DRC must therefore focus on rural development, poverty reduction, and better food security.
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