Nairobi, 16 April 2015 -Organized crime and the illegal trade in natural resources continues to increasingly fuel the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) , according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners...Read more …
The Conference of ECCAS Ministers on the validation of Emergency Action Plans against Poaching in Central African forest and savannah zones took place on April 28, 2015 in Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo). The meeting was chaired by His Excellency Mr. Henri DJOMBO, Minister of Forest Economy and Sustainable Development. Kindly download the final communique...Read more …
Brazzaville, Congo, May 2015—African leaders meeting last week in Brazzaville issued a strong Declaration urging co-ordinated regional and international action against wildlife crime at the end of a four-day meeting on illegal exploitation and illicit trade in African wildlife products...Read more …
Available for download: (1) BÊKOU EU Trust Fund for the Central African Republic (2) Descriptive Note - International Conference on the Central African Republic (3) Bêkou Trust Fund - Concept note — EcoFaune II ...Read more …
INTERVIEW. The Director of the Green Climate Fund answered questions from ‘Point Afrique’ on possible financing through her organization. A former head of the ADB’s Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department, Hela Cheikhrouhou has been serving as Director of the Green Fund since 2013. She travelled to Bamako to raise awareness among Finance Ministers of the Free Zone gathered in Mali’s capital city...Read more …
The awardee will receive a cash prize of USD20,000 along with international recognition of their outstanding contributions to preserve, restore and sustainably manage forests and to raise awareness of the key role forests play in supporting local communities, rural livelihoods, women and the environment...Read more …
The Guardian Thursday 30th April, 2015: Denis Sassou Nguesso sets pile of elephant tusks ablaze as conservationists urge Africans to ‘get angrier’ about impact of poaching... Read more …
The International Experts Workshops on Carbon Management and its Implications took place from 27-30 April 2015 in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The workshop, organized by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and Saudi Aramco, took place in two parts: the 1st Global Methane Initiative (GMI) for Oil and Gas Sector Workshop and Exhibition in the Middle East convened from 27-28 April; and the International Experts Workshop on the Adverse Social and Economic Impacts of Mitigation Measures, from 29-30 April... Read more...
The second drafting session of the outcome document of the third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) took place at UN Headquarters, New York, from 13-17 April 2015. Throughout the week, delegates commented on a zero draft of the outcome document, the Addis Ababa Accord, circulated by Co-Facilitators George Talbot, Permanent Representative of Guyana, and Geir Pedersen, Permanent Representative of Norway. Read more...
25 July 2012 - The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), of which UNODC is a member, has launched its Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit and announced that it has secured $600,000 for the current fiscal year through the World Bank Development Grant Facility (DGF) to strengthen national enforcement capacities to fight wildlife crime. Read more...
Limbe, Cameroon, April 2015—Wildlife law enforcement officers and other agencies involved in law enforcement including police, Customs, gendarmerie and magistrates from five Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) countries—Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo—participated in a three day workshop earlier this month in Limbe, South West Region, Cameroon, to learn about the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS). Read more...
Cambridge, UK, 21st April 2015—An iconic building in the centre of Cambridge is being named the David Attenborough Building, in honour of Sir David’s pioneering work in bringing the wonders of our natural world to our screens. Read more...
Doha, Qatar, 16th April 2015 — With the world facing a poaching crisis and an unprecedented surge in illegal wildlife trade, the UN Crime Congress this week has taken a significant step to boost global efforts to tackle transnational organized environmental crime. Read more...
The Education for Nature Program (EFN) at WWF-US is opening the 2015 applications for short-term training and diploma training for women conservationists from Cameroon, DRC, CAR, Gabon, and Republic of Congo. There are two opportunities available for women working in the Congo Basin... Read more...
Bonn, 30 March 2015 - Each year on the second weekend in May, dedicated organizations, governments and people around the world plan events to mark World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) celebrating migratory birds and raising awareness about the need for their conservation. Since World Migratory Bird Day began in 2006, events have been held in 130 countries and this year we hope to reach even more people and organizations to connect and work together towards conserving migratory birds and their habitats worldwide. Read more...
Deforestation and forest degradation result in biodiversity losses and are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In an effort to delink agricultural production from deforestation, a growing number of companies and national governments are making public commitments to purchasing products which do not cause deforestation. Read more...
The Central Africa region is dealing with an unprecedented spike in illegal wildlife trade, threatening to unravel the many social, economic and conservation gains that the governments has accomplished through decades of development cooperation. Read more...
The European Union (EU) has awarded Gabon 10 billion CFAF in funding to bolster the management of its 13 national parks, which cover 11% of the country’s territory, according to an announcement at a press conference Monday in Libreville, by the Head of the Management Department at the National Parks Agency (ANPN), Jean Baptiste Squarcini. Read more...
FAO in collaboration with Norway is developing a project to facilitate countries' access to important observation data and satellite imagery, as well as offering a User-friendly platform to both interpret and evaluate that data...Read more...
he Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the first REDD+ target countries due its huge forest ecosystem potential. Since 2011, the country has been creating key pieces of legislation as well as implementing REDD+ readiness activities and making pilot investments to mitigate some of the key drivers of deforestation and forest degradation identified in the country. Despite this progress, the country’s poor governance climate creates a significant challenge in future progress towards implementing REDD+. Endemic poverty, weak state authority, and widespread corruption characterize the DRC’s current political environment. It is within this socioeconomic and political backdrop that the REDD+ mechanism is expected to be implemented in the DRC. Read more...
16 April 2015 (Bonn, Germany) – FSC confirms the lifting of the suspension of an FSC certificate owned by Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), a subsidiary of Olam International, for its Pokola and Kabo forest management units in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). The certificate was reinstated on 30 March 2015 following a temporary suspension. Read more...
The Management and Business Plans of the Korup National Park, Cameroon goes under review. This task will be performed by CLIM-DEV-CAM which recently completed Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Non Timber Forest products in the same Park. The Korup National Park is managed as part of the Government Program for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources [PSMNR]. Read more...
On Friday, delegates discussed how to take forward the proposed themes for the interactive dialogues at the September summit, the indicator framework, and how to deal with proposed tweaks to targets in the OWG proposal on SDGs. In their statements, many countries stressed that the OWG proposal should not be reopened, though they considered the possibility of some work limited to targets that still contained unspecified X% values. Read more...
Much attention and millions of dollars have been paid to determine how to mitigate and adapt to climate change in Central Africa’s Congo Basin. Now, there is a research facility worthy of that investment, the first of its kind in the region that will enable scientists to conduct greenhouse gas research specific to Central Africa. The new laboratory follows on the heels of a newly opened lab in Kenya—another first... Read more...
Human impacts on natural tropical forests in Central Africa are to a large extent linked to shifting cultivation and fuelwood extraction in peri-urban areas. This is especially true around the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is why research was conducted in 2010 by the Makala Project in the city’s fuelwood supply basin. Read more ...
The CBFP Facilitation is pleased to inform you that the 15th CBFP Meeting of Partners (MoP) will hold in Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroun, from June 17 to 19, 2015, under the theme “Congo Basin Ecosystems: a source of natural capital, producer of economic value and driver of green growth for the well being of its people”. It will be organized with financial support from the governments of Norway, the United States, Germany, France and the technical support of IUCN... Read more...
In the discourses on who should benefit from national REDD+ implementation, rights-based approaches are prominent across various countries. Options on how to create viable property rights arrangements are currently being debated by scholars, policy makers and practitioners alike... Read more...
In this edition of March 2015, ATIBT outlines the tropical timber "Made in Italy" and Tropical Woods towards EXPO Milan 2015. To celebrate the International Forest Day, ATIBT sketches the portrait of tropical forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the marketing of certified African woods. ... Read more...
KASANE, BOTSWANA - The Kasane Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade concluded in Botswana with the adoption of a statement which galvanises the high-level political commitment to combat the “scourge of illegal wildlife trade“... Read more...
he ninth meeting of the Green Climate Fund Board (GCFB 9) convened in Songdo, Republic of Korea, from 24-26 March 2015. The meeting was a crucial step towards the goal of operationalizing the Fund and taking decisions on programme and project proposals by October 2015. To this end, Board members accredited seven entities, opening the door for them to begin developing and submitting project proposals for consideration at GCFB 11. Read more...
Bonn, 1 April 2015 – Gabon has submitted its new climate action plan to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the first African country to do so... Read more...
