Final statement and recommendations

“From Kinshasa to Douala heading to Belém - Sustainable Value Chains in Central Africa: Challenges, perspectives and strategies! ”

The French and Gabonese co-facilitation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) jointly, with the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) organised a regional workshop on sustainable value chains from 16 -18 December 2024 at the Akwa Palace Hotel in Douala, Cameroon.

This regional workshop was organised in close collaboration with the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEEAC), the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and the support of the Cameroonian government. 

It was organised with the financial support of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEFA) and implemented by the French Development Agency(AFD) and Expertise France.

This regional workshop gathered about 200 participants including high-level officials of  Central Africa, financial partners, international organisations, NGOs, civil society, representatives of research institutions and of the private sector. It was marked by the presence of H.E. Jules Doret Ndjongo, Cameroon’s Forestry and Wildlife Minister, who as his usual contributed to the success of the workshop.

Based on decisions taken at the thematic workshop on the CBFP 20th Meeting of Parties on sustainable chain values, this workshop aimed, on the one hand, to promote the development of sustainable economic sectors fighting deforestation in the Congo Basin. And, on the other hand, to lay of political, strategic and pragmatic foundations of sustainable value chains thereby answering the urgent need to speed-up the creation of  local added values against the 30th session of the Conference of Parties at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (CoP 30 Climate) that shall hold in Belém,Brazil, 2025.

To this effect, according to the programme, the opening ceremony was chaired by H.E. Mr Jules Doret Ndongo Cameroon’s Forestry and Wildlife Minister with addresses from the following:

• Ambassador, Dr Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo, CBFP Co-Facilitator of the Republic of Gabon;
• Ambassador, Mrs Salina Grenet-Catalano, French Co-Facilitator represented by Mr Christophe Ducastel from the French Development Agency (AFD);
•  Mr Daniel Claude Abaté, Vice Chairperson of the Central African, High business council.
• Dr Francial Giscard Baudin LIBENGUE DOBELE-KPOKA, Commissioner of the Department of Infrastructures and Sustainable Development, represented by Mr Grégory Lionel BEYINA, Director of Industrial Development, Mines and Tourism and of the Department of Infrastructures and Sustainable Development of the CEMAC Commission.
• Dr Hervé Martial Maidou, Executive Secretary of the COMIFAC
• His Excellency Mr Jules Doret Ndongo, Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Cameroon 

The opening ceremony was followed by nine sessions on:

• Introductory session on Sustainable Value Chains: Stakes, opportunities, prospects, strategies and transversality, facilitated by ATIBT;
• Session 1- Resource mobilisation and development model, facilitated by ATIBT;
• Session 2-log export ban facilitated by ATIBT
• Session 3- Industrial model, facilitated by ATIBT;
• Session 4a: Promoting ecotourism in the Congo Basin, facilitated by TETRATECH and USAID;
• Session 4b: Natural capital of Congo Basin forests, facilitated by the FAO; 
• Session 5a - PFLN - Bioeconomy - Bio innovation – NCE, facilitated by the FAO; 
• Session 5b - social forestry/Participative, facilitated by the FAO; 
• Session 6 - European Union’s Deforestation Regulations (EUDR);
• Session 7- Planning, land tenures, facilitated by the CBFP Co-Facilitation;
• Session 8 - Sustainable territories and commodities, facilitated by Rainforest Alliance;
• Session 9-landscape restoration, facilitated by the UICN.

After the intensive sessions, a plenary session was organised around 4 panels dealing with major recommendations of the various sessions, namely;

• Restitution Plenary 1 - Panel of facilitators and Rapporteurs from sessions 0, 1, 2 and 3, by Francois Van de Ven, ATIBT and Francois Busson as Resource Persons
• Restitution Plenary 2 - Panel of Facilitators and Rapporteurs from sessions 4a, b, 5a, b by  DrJeremie Mbairamadji, Coordinator of Central African Forests, FAO
• Restitution Plenary 3 - Panel of Facilitators and Rapporteur of Session 6, by the European Union, by Stephen.PEEDELL, Minister Counsellor of the EU Delegation to Cameroon
• Restitution Plenary 4 - Panel of Facilitators and Rapporteurs for sessions 7, 8 and 9 by Ms Nadege Zoyem, Senior Regional Director, Rainforest Alliance.

All these recommendations are available in appendix A of this press release.

Participants expressed their gratitude to the Session Facilitators and all efforts made in organising this workshop. This undoubtedly reveals and attests of the spirit of partnership within the CBFP. These are contributions towards greater synergies and merging partners' initiatives, with a view to increasing the efficiency of the later and operations for the preservation and sustainable management and community development in Central Africa.  Named her are the session facilitators: ATIBT for 4 sessions, FAO for 3 sessions, the European Union, Rainforest Alliance and IUCN for one session each.

The workshop on sustainable value chains held simultaneously with “an informal technical meeting on lessons learned from Congo Basin Pledge 1.0 (2021-2025), existing initiatives and financing mechanisms, and brainstorming on Congo Basin Pledge 2.0 Post-2025”. This side event was organised by the co-Facilitation of the CBFP Republics of France and Gabon, COMIFAC and the co-facilitators of the MoP20 of CBFP Finance Thematic Workshop (AfDB, GIZ). The meeting, which brought together representatives of the CBFP Governing Council and COMIFAC countries, was co-chaired by the CBFP Co-Facilitator for the Republic of Gabon and the Deputy Executive Secretary and Technical Coordinator of COMIFAC. Including about twenty participants. This meeting was held in two phases; 16 & 17 December 2024. The minutes are annexed B1.2 to this final communiqué.

The closing ceremony brought to a close the works of the Regional Workshop - Sustainable Value Chains 2024 (SVC 2024): “From Kinshasa to Douala heading to Belém - Sustainable Value Chains in Central Africa: Challenges, perspectives and strategies! ” It was structured around the following speeches:

• Ambassador, Dr Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo, CBFP Co-Facilitator of the Republic of Gabon;
• Reading of the workshop’s final Communiqué
• Ambassador, Mrs Salina Grenet-Catalano, French Co-Facilitator represented by Mr Christophe Ducastel from the French Development Agency (AFD);

• Closing remarks of Dr Hervé Martial Maidou, Executive Secretary of the COMIFAC

The participants expressed their gratitude to the Cameroonian authorities for their warm welcome, which shows the commitment of Cameroon and countries of ECAAC/COMIFAC region to the issue of sustainable management of the Congo Basin forests.

                                                           Done in Douala (Cameroon), December 18, 2024

                                                                                                                        Participants