The Congo Basin and its forest ecosystems
The forest ecosystems of the Congo basin span across much of Central Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf of Guinea to the mountains of the Albertine Rift in the east. With over 251 million hectares they constitute the second largest area of contiguous moist tropical forest left in the world and represent approximately one fifth of the world's remaining closed canopy tropical forest.
The Congo basin forests do not only play a critical role for global biodiversity conservation (they are home to three of the world's four species of great apes), they also provide vital regional and global ecological services as carbon sink and catchment basin.
Even though much of the forest areas currenty remain intact, the regional forest ecosystems continue to be at risk from a complex set of important threats - such as unsustainable timer and mineral extraction, bush meat trade and weak governance - that call for concerted global action.
In this context, we want to cite a prime example of CBFP's collaboration efforts: "The Congo Basin Forests 2006" is the first comprehensive report on the state of the Congo basin forests, published in collaboration with COMIFAC.
State of the Forest 2015 available online - The Forests of the Congo Basin - Forests and climate change
Download:
Full Report: State of the Forest 2015
The 2015 edition of the State of the Forests of the Congo Basin is a number issued specifically for the 21th Conference of Parties in Paris. Indeed, it is envisaged that during the conference a global climate agreement could be reached by the internationl community.
To support their participation in the Conference, the countries of the COMIFAC had planned several activities during the year 2015. Among these activities, it was decided to publish a special report on forests and climate change in Central Africa. This report comes thus to support for the negotiations in Paris and focuses on the role of the rain forest in mitigating climate change and the impacts of these changes on the adaptation of populations and ecosystems in Central Africa.
This special report has benefited from a major financial support of the European Union, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the French Development Agency (AFD). The Coordination of the redaction has been entrusted to the Executive Secretariat of COMIFAC and OFAC with support from CIFOR and CIRAD. More than thirty authors have participated in the drafting of the six chapters that make up this report.
Suggested citation is:
The Forests of the Congo Basin - Forests and climate change. Eds : de Wasseige C., Tadoum M., Eba’a Atyi R. and Doumenge C. – 2015. Weyrich. Belgium. 128 p.
Legal deposit: D2015/8631/42
ISBN: 978-2-87489-355-1
For more information, please kindly consult the official Website of OFAC: Full Report: State of the Forest 2015
State of Protected Areas in Africa -2015 report
Please donwload the Complete Report : HERE
For the first time, the State of Protected Areas in Africa is showcasing all the protected area networks of the Central African countries. The data presented and more so, the gaps in these data, should be the subject of renewed interest on the part of the services in charge of protected areas so that the next EdAP would provide a more complete review.
Please download the Report: States of Protected Areas in Central Africa
For more Information, please consult the official website of the OFAC and download the Document: L’Etat des aires protégées d’Afrique
2013 OFAC-COMIFAC: A partnership's success story! Discover to learn more about the Forests of the Congo Basin - State of the Forest 2013 online / Etat des Forêts 2013 (EDF) en ligne
State of the Forest 2013
This new edition of the “State of the Forest” could not have seen the light of day without the contributions of numerous authors and readers who have devoted considerable time and energy to refining it. Financial contributions of the European Union, Norway, the United States of America, Germany, France, Canada and FAO must also be underlined.
The report represents the collaborative effort of over 150 individuals from a diversity of institutions and the forestry administrations of the Central African countries. Part of the data reported on in the SOF 2013 is collected by national groups (four to ten individuals working within the forestry administrations). The data are usually validated during national workshops attended by government officials as well as representatives of environmental NGOs, the private sector and development projects. The data provided an important basis for the authors of the 10 chapters of the 2013 Edition. The chapters were reviewed and commented by a large panel of experts (notably during the workshop that was held 21-22 March, 2013 in Douala).
The required citation is:
Please download the State of the Forest 2013
The Situation Of Forests In the Amazonian, Congo And South-East Asia Basins
FAO and OIBT stresses in this report that the potential value of various goods and services provided by tropical rainforests is much greater than the benefits likely to be derived from almost any other land use. “Following studies carried out recently, for example, the value of services rendered by tropical forests (such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and soil and water protection) may reach many thousands of dollars per hectare”, said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Sub-Director General of FAO Forest Department and Emmanuel Ze Meka, OIBT Executive Director, in the present report launched at the Summit. In fact, the three tropical forest basins heads of states gather in Brazzaville from 29 May to 3 June in order to establish new ways of strengthening technical cooperation in forestry. The “Three Tropical Forest Basins Summit” gathered governments and partners who care for these crucial matters in order to improve on the management and the conservation of important forest resources found in the Amazonian Basin, the Congo Basin and in South-East Asia.
Please download the The Situation Of Forests In the Amazonian, Congo And South-East Asia Basins
The State of the Forests in the Congo Basin 2008
This report which comes after the "State of the Forests 2006" gives more insight into the forest ecosystems of the Congo Basin and highlights the challenges to be faced in guaranteeing a sustainable and equitable management of these forests. The report equally takes a more targeted approach as it portrays intervention strategies as well as forest monitoring from the social, economic and ecological perspectives. The "State of the Forests 2008" is a progress report on the condition of the Central African rainforests and covers all the Central Africa countries that are members of the CBFP namely: Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Central African Republic. The report is divided into three major sections: national and regional syntheses; cross-cutting chapters outlining the environmental services provided by the forests; and chapters providing detailed information on the forest landscapes.
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| View Chapters for Download |
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| Voir Chapitres pour Téléchargement |
State of the Congo Basin Forests 2006
As stated in the preface of the report, little objective information on the condition and extent of this vast natural resouce which are the Congo Basin forest ecosystems, was available to decision-makers and stakeholders, making a concerted international plan of action, in the framework of the CBFP, difficult to establish. The 2006 State of Forests aimed to present the "base-line"state, a starting point from which subsequent reports could be compared. As such it was a working document that serves as both a monitoring tool and a coordination instrument for the CBFP.
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| The Forests of the Congo Basin: State of the Forest 2006 |
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| Les forêts du Bassin du Congo: Etat des Forêts 2006 |
The Forests of the Congo Basin: State of the Forest Report 2005
This report on the state of forest in the Congo Basin (2005) is a preliminary assessment. Its intended purpose is to highlight the main challenges and emerging threats to the sustainable management of the Congo basin rainforests. The document is available for download: State of the Forest Report (2005) (Size 2.0 MB).
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| The Forests of the Congo Basin: A Preliminary Assessment |
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| Les forêts du bassin du Congo: évaluation Préliminaire |