Congo Basin Forest Receives Only 4 % Of International Funding As Compared To Others

• COMIFAC and WWF in joint initiative aimed at increasing finance flow to support the sustainable management of Congo Basin,  that is facing many challenges

Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala, from February 27 – 28, 2024, hosted a workshop on the Congo Basin Forest, jointly organised by the Central African Forest Commission commonly known by its French acronym, COMIFAC, and the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF. To be precise, the Douala workshop was on how to increase international finance flow to the Congo Basin, with focus on a joint initiative adopted by COMIFAC and WWF, which is aimed at increasing international finance flow to support the sustainable management of the Congo Basin forest, that  is facing many challenges like deforestation, degradation, poaching and mineral exploitation.

Worth noting that participants to the workshop came from the six member countries of the Congo Basin which include Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Republic (Brazzavile), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and DR Congo (Kinshasha). Participants from these countries included National Coordinators of COMIFAC (NCCs) and officials in charge of climate financing from the Ministries of Finance of the six member States of the Congo Basin. Other participants, some of who came from Europe and the United States, were representatives of technical and financial partners.

Terms Of Reference

In the document of the Terms of Reference of the Douala workshop that was produced by the organisers, it was stated that for several years now, the process of implementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC, has been punctuated by discussions, negotiations and commitments on the financing by developed countries of actions to adapt to, and mitigate climate change. “Tropical forests as carbon sink and habitats for biodiversity play a major role in climate regulation.  If we look at the flow of financing for the three tropical forests basins (Amazonia, Mekong –  Bomeo and Congo), we see that the Congo Basin is a dwarf, with less than 4 %  of funding, 67 % of which comes from public development aid, and more than 25 % from loans”, it was revealed in the Terms of Reference of the Douala workshop.

It was asserted that since the Rio Summit on sustainable development and the Kyotto Summit on Climate Change, the countries of the Congo Basin “have made enormous efforts in terms of policy legislation and action to conserve their forest ecosystems, which are among the richest in carbon and biodiversity in the world. These efforts have limited the rate of deforestation to between 0.01% and 0.33 %”.  It was further asserted that: “Although the high – integrity forests of the Congo Basin are involved in carbon market initiatives, the revenues indexed to carbon sequestration flows would not be enough to cover investment costs, let alone contribute to the economic development of these countries.”.

                    Difficult Choices Of Countries Of The Congo Basin

It was pointed out that faced with the need to meet legitimate expectations for socio – economic development, the countries of the Congo Basin are faced with difficult choices. “On the  other hand, there is need to put their forestry potential at the heart of economic development, which suggest large scale forest conversion, and on the other, to respond to the global challenge of conserving this forestry potential so that it continues to play its role as the lungs of the planet. These are difficult and highly topical choices facing the countries of the Congo Basin. “While there is no question of the Congo Basin countries sacrificing their socio economic development, it is more necessary for them to develop new approaches to forest financing that recognize their efforts to conserve, protect and sustainably manage forests”, it was asserted in the Terms of Reference.

                                           COMIFAC / WWF Initiative

It was explained that the new approaches mentioned above, which are the subject of the COMIFC / WWF Initiative, make it possible to define options aimed at increasing forest financing flows in order to support the transition to the development of green economy, while avoiding forest degradation and maintaining intact forest ecosystems that contribute to climate stabilization. It was disclosed that as part of the process, an initiative study has been carried out to take stock of the current situation and identify financing agreements with all the flexibility required and adapted to the context of the COMIFAC countries.

“On 19 December 2023, COMIFAC and WWF signed a Memorandum of Collaboration aimed, among other things at developing this initiative, but also at strengthening COMIFAC in the governance process of climate and biodiversity financing initiatives for forests of the Congo Basin”. It was explained that it was against this backdrop that COMIFAC and WWF were organizing the coordination workshop in Douala, with a view to socializing and ensuring ownership of the COMIFAC – WWF Initiative by the countries of the Congo Basin, and to reflecting on the governance of climate and biodiversity financing initiatives for the forests of the Congo Basin.

The Objectives Of The Workshop

The organizers of the Douala Workshop sated that there were five major objectives of the workshop, which were as follows: 1) To have a shared understanding and enable a good coordination of the COMIFAC – WWF Initiative at the level of COMIFAC and the Congo Basin countries. 2) To promote ownership of the COMIFAC – WWF Initiative by the COMIFAC National Coordinators in order to ensure that the initiative is properly promoted in the countries. 3) Adopt the Terms of Reference and the agenda for socialization and ownership of the COMIFAC – WWF Initiative by the BC countries. 4) Reflect on measures to strengthen the capacities of the COMIFAC Executive Secretariat and governance. 5) Stimulate synergies and complementarity with Technical Partners.

“Conservation Of Forests Of The Congo Basin, Passes By Finances”

Meanwhile the workshop jointly organized by COMIFAC and WWF which held in Douala on February 27 and 28, 2024 was officially opened by the Deputy Executive Secretary and Technical Coordinator of COMIFAC, Nchoutpouen Chouabou. In his opening address, the  Deputy Executive Secretary of COMIFAC expressed gratitude to the Cameroonian authorities for having accepted that the country host the workshop, as well as to WWF for its “multiform contributions” to the organization of the workshop. He urged WWF to continue to support COMIFAC.

Nchoutpouen Chouabou stressed the importance of the forests of the Congo Basin to the world at large, which is a very rich carbon sink that plays a major role a climate regulation, as well the Congo Basin being a big habitat for biodiversity. But he noted that Congo Basin is facing quite a number of threats which include deforestation, degradation of the forests, poaching and mineral exploitation. “We need much funds to face these challenges”, he stressed.  He minced no words in stressing the fact that the continuous conservation of the forests of the Congo Basin, will pass by finances. That is, to ensure the permanent conservation of the forests of Congo Basin, there have to be sufficient flow of international funds.

But the Deputy Executive Secretary of COMIFAC, said unfortunately the finances that the Congo Basin receives is far below what is required to face the challenges or threats confronting the forests of the Congo Basin. “Congo Basin does not receive sufficient funds. We need much more funds to face these challenges”, he stressed.  He complained that as compared to the other two forest basins in the world, Amazonia and Mekong – Bomeo, the Congo Basin receives only a miserable 4 % of the international funding. “That is why COMIFAC and WWF launched the initiative. We want to increase international finance flow to the Congo Basin in order to support Conservation and the Protection of the forests of the Congo Basin .The Congo Basin is very important for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and also for the global framework which was adopted in Montreal during the COP 15 Biodiversity Convention”, he explained.

The Deputy Executive Secretary of COMIFAC disclosed that they plan to embark on a mission to the six member countries of the Congo Basin, to formerly present to them the COMIFAC / WWF Initiative, as well as explain to them what the Initiative is all about. He said the Douala workshop was thus also meant to serve as an occasion for COMIFAC and WWF to discuss with the National Coordinators of COMIFAC of the six member States of the Congo Basin, to see how the national workshop will be organized in each of the country, for the COMIFAC / WWF Initiative to be presented at the national level. He hoped that by the end of the workshop, they would be able to adopt a roadmap that will guide them to go to the different countries to present the COMIFAC / WWF Initiative.

                 “Funds Are Available. The Problem Is To Get To The Funds”

Meanwhile, speaking earlier, a senior official of WWF, Laurent Some, stressed the importance of the Basin Congo as a big carbon sink like to mitigate Climate Change impact, and also as a habitat for biodiversity. But despite the increasing level of international funding being allocated to preserve the forests, and thus also mitigate Climate Change impact, he said they have seen that only four percent of the fund is flowing into the Congo Basin, and that this was a very disturbing situation, especially knowing the importance of the forests of the Congo Basin. He expressed the deep concern of his organization, that the Congo Basin was not receiving sufficient international funding. “Congo Basin receives only 4 % of international funds, as compared to the other forest basins. I think that more can be done”, he declared.

But the senior WWF official the problem was not actually the lack of funds, for there are in fact many opportunities out there. “So at the international level the funds are available, but the problem is for the Congo Basin to get to the funds. One of the problems is to be able to find out where the funds are available.  Then there are conditions to fulfill to be able to get the funds. There are institutional frameworks. There are issues like the type of banking system in operation in the basin. There is also the aspect of project writing to get the funds. In a nutshell, you have to convince the donors of what you want to do with the funds. These little things are very important for our ability to attract money. We have to give the donors some security guarantee for the funds”, the WWF official frankly explained.

The Senior official of WWF said the Douala workshop which brought together among others the National Coordinators of COMIFAC in the six member States of the Congo Basin,  was an occasion for them for them to  jointly look at the different opportunities available as regard international funds, be it funds from  the public or private sector. “To guide this exercise, COMIFAC and WWF commissioned a study, and this workshop is meant to present those options. As I said earlier, most a times, the problem is not that the money is not there.  The money is out there. The problem is how to get it flow into the Congo Basin. This means that we have to get rid of the different barriers”, the Senior Official of WWF stated