Preamble

2. Preamble • What: a 20-year USAID initiative, 1995-2015 • When: 1995-2000 phase now being reported • Where: the Congo Basin countries with humid tropical forests • Why: to learn about deforestation and biodiversity loss and test approaches to mitigate them • How: in partnership with US PVOs, US agencies and African NGOs, individuals and governments

3. Twenty Year Goal • To reduce the rate of deforestation of the tropical forests of the Congo Basin and conserve the biodiversity contained within them. Thus, in the long term, to avert potentially negative changes in global and regional climate

4. Strategic Objective • Identify and help establish conditions and practices required to reduce deforestation and biodiversity loss in the Congo Basin

5. CARPE Countries

6. U.S. Based Partners • Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) • NASA/University of Maryland/University of Virginia • U.S. Peace Corps • U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) • U.S. Department of Agriculture/International Forestry • Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) • Innovative Resources Management (IRM) • World Resources Institute (WRI) • World Wildlife Fund (WWF) • Conservation International (CI) • African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) • World Conservation Union (IUCN) • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

7. Guiding Principles • African Participation • Capacity Building • Donor Complementarity • Solid Science • Information Sharing • Regional Perspective

8. The CARPE approach • Filling the gaps in our knowledge • Building on the experience of others • Setting priorities and identifying strategic approaches to conserve forests and biodiversity • Involving Central Africans in forest management pilot activities in the region • Strengthening the capacity of Central African decision-makers to manage the forest • Disseminating lessons learned quickly and at no charge

9. Sources of knowledge • Information from CARPE partners • Field results generated by CARPE partners • Information gathered from existing studies • Results developed by studies supported outside CARPE

10. Setting priorities for action • Logging • reconciling revenue generation and forest conservation • Protected areas • biological priorities, economic realities and best practices • Local resource management • effective management systems and conservation incentives • Environmental governance • NGOs as policy implementation watchdogs

11. Results and Lessons

12. Present status of the forest • 2nd largest contiguous block of forest • 1.8 million km2 – covering 9 countries • 50% of forest has been allocated for logging concessions • 13% of forest under agriculture • 6% of forest is Protected Area • Over 20 million people dependent on forest resource use for livelihoods

13. Forest Trends • Current rates of deforestation in the Basin are low relative to other tropical forest areas (0.02 -0.45% per year) • But in absolute terms forest area being lost is significant • Human population growing at ~3% per year • Demand for agricultural land will double in 25 years and increase more than 4-fold by 2050 • Almost all old-growth forest will have been logged at least once by the end of the next two decades

14. Present forest use is unsustainable • Bushmeat hunting exceeds wildlife reproduction • Old-growth logging is mining a ‘gift of nature’ • Agricultural practices are resulting in declining soil fertility • Rising prices of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) stimulates overharvesting in the wild

15. Deforestation predictions • In 2050 forest cover may decline from 46% to 29% of the land area, and the forest will be highly fragmented • Forest biomass loss by 2050 may release the equivalent of 1.6 years of global carbon emissions • a nominal amount relative to fossil fuel burning worldwide • As most rainfall is recycled within the basin, loss of half of the remaining dense forest may cause rainfall to decline

16. Region’s Contribution to Environmental Change • Forest cover loss • Logging, clearing for agriculture, infrastructure, mining, fuelwood. • Other factors important globally much less so in Basin: • Combustion of fossil fuels • Methane release from agriculture, urban waste and livestock • Cement production

17. Values of the Forest • Economic • Timber • NTFP • Bushmeat • Ecological • Most diverse assemblage of plants and animals in Africa • Social • 80% of people dependent on forest resource use for their livelihoods • Cultural • Traditional domains

18. Monitoring • Monitoring change is essential to adapt conservation and development interventions • Monitoring is needed at a range of scales e.g. regional deforestation rates, logging extent and performance, local wildlife populations • Monitoring institutions are poorly equipped to provide the environmental data that is currently needed and some methods need improvement • Monitoring is only useful if it leads to an action • Monitoring will be most effective when driven by a socio/political demand for environmental information

19. Environmental Governance • Decentralization • Important trend Africa-wide, but just beginning in Congo Basin • Legal framework • Poorly understood, and little commitment to equity and other reforms • Advocacy • Capacity for advocacy remains weak, but is growing

20. Regional Forest Management • African regional forest management initiatives launched • CEFDHAC (“Brazzaville Process”) • Yaoundé Summit Process • African Timber Organization (ATO) • Promising start, but need support, coordination and leadership

21. Forest and state • Environment is used as a patronage resource by central government to the detriment of conservation and management • Present systems of resource management offer neither the economic efficiency of the rule of law, nor the social stability of kinship-based systems. • Until government spending is based on revenues generated by taxing national consumption, citizens are unlikely to demand accountable and representative government, nor expect quality social services. • Strong executive powers and absence of civil-suit provisions undermine citizen participation in forest use decisions and oversight

22. Greening the private sector • Private sector enterprises are often both de jure and de facto regulators of resource use over the majority of the forest estate in central Africa. • Initiatives to ‘green’ private sector practices have the potential to generate significant conservation and economic benefits.

23. Sustainable forest use • Sustainable forest management that captures all forest values is only possible by reconciling competing uses within the larger landscape • Deciding forest use is a socio-political process • who benefits, and over what time period? • who participates in the decisions? (global, regional, national, local actors)

24. Non-timber forest products • As NTFPs increase in value there is a trend toward overharvesting of wild resources, on-farm production, and exclusion of resource users by resource managers • Most urban and rural families use NTFPs and they are often an essential, if seasonal, source of income for poor families • NTFP marketing is a symptom of poverty, not a cure. • In Cameroon, agriculture’s contribution to GNP is 9 times that of NTFPs • Where forest has already been logged at least once, NTFPs can be more valuable than timber

25. Logging • 50% of forests in Central Africa have been allocated to logging companies • Logging generates jobs, provides services, contributes to national economies • A majority of the land is controlled by a minority of the actors • Legislation is poorly respected and hard to enforce (1 out of 5 citations were dropped in Cameroon after the intervention of an influential person)

26. Landscape conservation Biodiversity conservation is likely to be most effective when addressed at a landscape scale Resource conservation planning should include core protected areas, and multiple use zones Protected areas are key to a biodiversity conservation strategy as only within these areas is plant and animal conservation the primary land use.

27. Protected areas • Support more diverse and abundant populations of wildlife than human dominated areas • Raise awareness of conservation values • Provide a source of national pride and international recognition • Are inadequately staffed and financed • Must be managed in relation to local community interests • Are seldom self-financing and require long term international financing and stronger national commitment

28. What can we expect from community conservation? • Mobilization may lead to empowerment which may in turn lead to greater equity in forest resource use benefit sharing • Greater democracy in forest resource use decision making will at least ensure that minority practices do not undermine majority interests • Community control over land and resources does not necessarily reduce forest degradation or deforestation • Building civil society institutions is critical to counter-balancing the power of the public and private sectors

29. Conservation in times of conflict • Protected Areas have been effective where NGOs and donors have maintained a presence/support during periods of strife • Leadership training of junior staff helps them to assume key roles during conflicts • Local support is crucial to PA integrity in times of strife • Existing local community networks could be mobilized more effectively • Helping relief agencies to avoid or minimize the environmental impacts of their efforts will reap significant conservation payoffs

30. Bushmeat crisis • Commercial hunting is a greater immediate threat than is habitat loss • Bushmeat is both an important source of protein and household income • Consumers are price sensitive • Solutions must include both law enforcement and substitution • Working with logging companies to curb their role in the commercial bushmeat trade has proven possible and should be expanded

31. Costs of Conservation • Global heritage value of tropical forest plants and animals rarely, if ever, exceeds the short-term exploitation value of these resources. • Biodiversity conservation rarely pays for itself in full. Rather, it results in both direct management costs and indirect opportunity costs to local and national economies • Tourism, research, safari hunting and even a 10% national income tax are unlikely to cover a significant portion of protected area costs at present. • Compensating local and national economies for incurring the costs of maintaining protected areas is both critical and ethical.

32. Carbon trading • Central Africa could benefit from forest-based carbon offset projects, focused on plantations and reduced impact logging • If forest projects were linked to lasting improvements in the performance of public forest administrations, the Clean Development Mechanism could be a positive force for change • Governments should be empowered to participate in CDM negotiations and be willing to be held accountable for carbon trading contracts • Financial options exist to minimize risks associated with carbon trading in Central Africa (e.g., put-options)

33. Achievements • Maintained US environmental dialogue in a region of global interest • Collaborated across the region with series of partners to produce a compendium of environmental briefing sheets for wide range of users • Stimulated NGO interest and participation on regional issues through targeted small grants • Fostered awareness of environmental governance in international & regional fora • Free dissemination of information obtained using modern technology

35. Key gaps remaining • Agriculture – forest interface • Macroeconomic policy implications of findings • Strategies for environmental education • Mechanisms for regional integration • Implications of regional instability • Need for human resource development

36. CARPE II – 605-001 • Evaluation recommended expansion on the ground • Need to move from learning to applying what was learned • Management needs to be in Africa • Political support generated by major environmental NGO’s and State Department

37. “...results oriented partnerships among governments, the private sector, the scientific community, conservation groups and the organizations of civil society, all coming together to mobilize the resources we need to meet our ambitious goals.” --Secretary Powell

38. Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) • Announced at WSSD, Sept. 2002 • 29 partners drawn from African governments, donors and non-governmental organizations • Committed to bring new resources to bear on Congo Basin Forest issues • Flexible, collaborative relationships

39. Congo Basin Forest Partnership Eleven key landscapes in six Central African countries: • Cameroon • Central African Republic • Democratic Republic of the Congo • Equatorial Guinea • Gabon • Republic of Congo

41. Strategic Objective Reduce the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity through increased local, national, and regional natural resourcemanagementcapacity.

42. Intermediate Results • IR # 1: Implementing sustainable forest and biodiversity management practices • IR # 2: Strengthening environmental governance • IR # 3: Monitoring forests and other natural resources throughout the region. Right-of-way transect (approx. 500 meters inland from beach crossing)...

43. African involvement • Capacity building at regional, national and local levels • COMIFAC includes positive elements of both CEFDHAC and ATO and can serve as interlocutor for region within CBFP • National focal points active in many environmental networks • Indigenous environmental NGO’s advocacy capacity strengthened • Participatory mapping activities empower local communities toward managing forest resources

44. CARPE Partner involvement • Need to be active in the Congo Basin • Bring additional resources for implementation • Collaborative style with open sharing of information • Immediate involvement of African partners with objective of devolving responsibility • Solid, peer-reviewed science • Complementarity rather than competition

45. In Conclusion • Challenge is to simultaneously conserve the unique aspects of the dense humid forest ecosystem of the Congo Basin, while striving to impart enhanced management capacity and afford improved living standards for its people