On November 2, a group of 12 donors, including the European Commission, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Bezos Earth Fund, collectively pledged at least $1.5 billion in funding for the protection and sustainable management of Congo Basin forests over the next four years. This pledge is part of a larger $12 billion commitment made at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland by 100 leaders to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030, and it received a mixed reception from experts in the region.
The news of the declaration is "very, very positive", said Patrick Saidi, national coordinator of the Dynamique des groupe des peuple autochtones (DGPA), a network of organizations working to assert the rights of indigenous peoples based in Kinshasa in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Saidi said that the DGPA has been fighting for years for the recognition of the conservation practices of indigenous and forest-dependent peoples, and for the establishment of measures to support these practices.
"It's a significant effort," said Alain Karsenty, economist and researcher at CIRAD, the French organization for agricultural research and international cooperation for sustainable development. “It is certainly not enough due to the great needs. »
The promise comes at a critical time. According to a recent study, the degradation of tropical forests in the Amazon and Southeast Asia could soon make them net carbon emitters, likely leaving only the Congo Basin as the last major terrestrial tropical carbon sink. At the same time, the governments of the six Congo Basin countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon) are seeking to develop their economies through infrastructure and resource extraction projects, which risk worsen deforestation if not managed properly.
“What we need to understand is that there is no other way out of the climate and biodiversity crisis…without the Congo Basin forests,” said Armstrong Mba, Advisor on sustainable development for the Sustainability Policy Transparency Toolkit program of the Zoological Society of London, based in Cameroon.
The joint donor statement says they recognize the value of the Congo Basin forests, welcome the leadership of Central African countries on forest management and agree that sustainable management and restoration will require significant funding. At this time, details of the pledge are not known, leaving commentators to evaluate its potential impact on the current situation and past performance.
Although Mba and Karsenty welcome the pledge, they have made it clear that the amount is not enough, given the importance of the Congo Basin in the fight against climate change.
“Although this constitutes a significant move forward, the $1.5 billion amount remains insignificant in comparison to what these same donors pay in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry every year”, Mba said. “Have we really understood the danger we face as a species? ".
Small-scale agriculture is the biggest driver of deforestation in the region, and according to Karsenty, it is a problem that can only be solved with a change in farming systems. Implementing new agricultural practices, especially in rural areas where poverty is endemic, is not easy and will take time for Congo Basin governments to achieve.
Saidi said it is crucial that communities living in forest areas are at the centre of all plans and policies. They must be "the beneficiaries of this funding, but also, and this is the most important element, the actors of this funding", he said.
Improving forest governance, land rights and access to alternative fuel sources to charcoal are also key issues that will need to be addressed and will require significant commitment from Congo Basin governments. In his speech at COP26, President Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC pledged to fight deforestation and protect the rights of indigenous peoples. However, Irene Wabiwa, international project manager for Greenpeace Africa's Congo Basin Forest Campaign, questions the intentions of donors and the DRC government.
“[The pledge is] a real joke,” she said. “Given that she comes into play when those same donors have approved DRC’s plan to lift its 2002 moratorium on new logging titles in a year’s time. »
In June this year, the DRC government approved a new plan for its management of the rainforest, which includes the controversial lifting of a 20-year moratorium on new logging concessions. In an interview with National Geographic, the Minister of Environment, Eve Bazaiba Masudi said that although the government would now be able to grant new logging concessions, that did not mean it would do it. With two-thirds of the Congo Basin's forests in the DRC, the decision is a concern for environmental groups like Greenpeace Africa.
