Brazzaville, 30 October 2023. The official launch of the activities of the France - Gabon Co-Facilitation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) took place on Thursday 26 October 2023 in Room 6 of the Kintele Conference Centre in Congo Brazzaville. Please download the roadmap of the Co-Facilitation...
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Under the theme "Healthy and abundant forests, Sustainable value chains, Scientific cooperation", the meeting held at the summit of the world's three major tropical forest basins had the objective of presenting the strategic lines of the CBFP Roadmap in a simplified and operational format for the period 2023-2025, while emphasising a partnership approach based on synergy.
More specifically, the meeting aimed to identify actions to promote sustainable value chains, limit deforestation in the Congo Basin and create synergies to better develop its actions on the ground as part of the implementation of the Co-Facilitation Roadmap.
The meeting was attended by some one hundred participants representing Central African countries, regional organisations (ECCAS, COMIFAC, OCFSA), financial partners, national and international organisations, CBFP colleges and representatives of the other two tropical forest basins present at the Summit.
During the opening ceremony, the meeting was graced by the presence of a number of prominent figures, including the current Chairman of the COMFAC Council of Ministers and Minister of Burundi, H.E. Mr Prospert Dodiko; the Commissioner for the Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development of the ECCAS Commission, H.E. Mr Honoré TABUNA; the Managing Director of the AfDB for Central Africa, Mr Serge N'Guessan; and the President of BDEAC (Development Bank of Central African States), Mr Dieudonné EVOU MEKOU.
As scheduled in the agenda, the official ceremony to launch the activities of the CBFP Co-Facilitation was structured around two segments moderated by Ambassador Christophe Guilhou, Co-Facilitator of the CBFP for the French Republic.
The first segment, in the form of an introductory session, was marked by opening remarks from the CBFP, COMIFAC and ECCAS.
The second segment was a round table on the theme " Synergies to better develop actions on the ground in the implementation of the roadmap ".
The high-level round table was attended by representatives of the CBFP colleges. The college of donors was represented by Mr Rick Duck, Special Climate Envoy of the President of the United States, and Ms Maggie Charnley, Forest Director of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office(FCDO) of the United Kingdom and CAFI; the college of the private sector by Mr Benoit Dubal, Managing Director of ATIBT; the college of civil society by Ms Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet, Earth Champion 2022, Forest Chanpion 2022 and Co-leader of the College of CSOs, President of REFACOF; and the college of international NGOs by Mr Michel Masozera, Policy Director of WCS.
The panelists at the round table detailed the CBFP Co-Facilitation Roadmap, which focuses on five (05) strategic areas, namely
- Promoting dialogue and scientific cooperation on the forests of the Congo Basin;
- Consolidate land-use planning and sustainable agricultural value chains;
- Accelerate the development of innovative financing mechanisms
- Continue to raise the profile of the Congo Basin internationally
- Continue to strengthen dialogue and synergies with CBFP partners, in particular China and the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI).
Emphasis was placed on promoting the activities of the various players working to implement the COMIFAC Declaration of Commitment, the financial commitments made at COP 26, and the promotion of a fair and equitable agreement for the protection and sustainable use of Central Africa's forests.
At the end of this major meeting, participants agreed on a simplified and operational format for the Co-Facilitation Roadmap.
The Co-Facilitation undertook to work towards strengthening scientific cooperation, combating environmental crime and promoting the activities of the colleges of the CBFP.
Ambassador Christophe Guilhou, Co-Facilitator of the CBFP for the French Republic, emphasised that "together we can achieve this".
The meeting, which comes eight months after the One Forest Summit in Libreville and three months after the handover of facilitation from Germany to France and Gabon, was organised in close collaboration with the Economic Commission for Central African States (ECCAS), the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and the leaders of the CBFP colleges, on the sidelines of the Summit of the Three Basins s which brought together the leaders of the countries of the Amazon basin, the Congo basin and the Borneo-Mekong-South-East Asia region in Brazzaville from 26 to 28 October 2023.