Belgium to take over the Facilitation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership in 2018-2019

 

 

For more Information, please consult the following PDF Documents:

Press Release.Belgium to take over the Facilitation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership in 2018-2019.pdf

 

 

Press Release

Brussels, 1  March 2018

 

 

 

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) comprises 105 members, including 10 countries in Central Africa and close to a hundred partners concerned with the forest ecosystems of the Congo Basin (ECCAS, COMIFAC, partner countries, civil society of the Congo Basin, international NGOS, multilateral organizations, research and training institutions, private sector actors).

 

 

Belgium, a member of the partnership since the initiative was launched in 2002, has just announced that it will be taking over the facilitation of the initiative for the next two years (2018- 2019). Mr. François-Xavier de Donnea, an Honorary Member of Parliament and Minister of State of the Kingdom of Belgium, will act as CBFP Facilitator during these two years.

 

 

"It is both an honor and a challenge for me to lead an initiative such as the CBFP" said the new Facilitator, who had previously served as Minister of Development Cooperation, Minister of National Defense, and Minister-President of the Region of Brussels-Capital throughout his long career in the service of the Belgian government.

 

"It is crucial, for Belgium and the other CBFP partners, to support the efforts the Central African countries are making to exploit their natural resources in a sustainable manner. Sustainably valuing the incredibly beautiful forests that are sheltered by these countries is one of the keys to their future development. Preserving their unique biodiversity and controlling the carbon stocks they contain are also global challenges, which call for global solutions. If these solutions are to materialize, actors need to work together and come up with relevant strategic guidelines that will be translated into action. That is why the CBFP matters".

 

 

The new Facilitator is pleased to note that the outgoing Facilitation, provided by the EU in 2016 and 2017, worked with partners to provide the partnership with an updated cooperation framework, which now helps to foster more effective policy and technical dialogue among the partners. "Of course, the Belgian Facilitation will be building on the results achieved by the European Facilitation," said the Minister of State.  “My aim will be to mobilize the political actors to ensure that they take better ownership of the guidelines discussed within the CBFP, and thus strengthen the impact on the ground in terms of conservation of biodiversity, sustainable management of ecosystems and the fight against climate change".

 

 

One of our priorities for 2018 will be the fight against illegal trafficking in wild species. "The operations of organized poaching networks have devastating impacts, especially on some iconic species and endangered species such as the elephant. They disrupt local communities’ living environment and pose major security threats in some of the Congo Basin’s cross-border regions. Concerted responses to these issues are now urgently needed and the PFBC provides the right framework for devising them”.

 

 

 

A roadmap of the Belgian Facilitation is currently being finalized. It will be shared with the partners and will equally be made available on the CBFP website in the next few weeks.

 

 

For more Information, please consult the following PDF Documents:

Go back

CBFP News

WWF: Rainforest deforestation more than doubled under cover of coronavirus -DW

Tropical rainforests shrank by 6,500 square kilometers in March — an area seven times the size of Berlin. Criminal groups are taking advantage of the pandemic and the unemployed are getting desperate, the WWF said.

Read more …

Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park Monthly update April 2020

"At a time when many countries are beginning their gradual deconfinement and when there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon of returning to normal life, I wanted to share with you some good news that also fills us with hope for the future of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park."

Read more …

Resources and follow-up from the virtual FAO-EcoAgriculture Partners Roundtable

Last April 30th FAO and EcoAgriculture Partners organized a virtual Roundtable on Territorial Perspectives for Development, in which over 170 people participated.

Read more …

ATIBT -CBFP: Private Sector mobilized around the CBFP Facilitator of the Federal Republic of Germany

ATIBT co-facilitated the mobilization of the private sector of the timber sector to participate in the first meeting of the private sector college of Congo Basin Forest Partnership with the new facilitator Dr Christian Ruck and his team German Facilitation.

Read more …

Development and institutionalization of a PAFC certification system for the Congo basin: opening of the second public consultation on Sustainable Forest Management Certification Standard, 23 May 2020 - 22 June 2020

This second public consultation will be open for a period of 30 days from tomorrow Saturday the 23rd of May 2020 and will be closed on Monday the 22nd of June 2020. The public consultation is open to all stakeholders of forest management in the Congo Basin interested in participating to the PAFC Congo Basin certification standards development process.

Read more …

Forest defenders on the COVID-19 frontline stand ready to assist the global EU response – Fern

These efforts go hand in hand with ensuring continued responsible management of natural resources and preventing unsustainably and illegally sourced forest commodities. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, forest-monitoring organisations Observatoire de la Gouvernance Forestière (OGF) and Réseau des observateurs indépendants des ressources naturelles (RENOI) are set to carry out COVID awareness-raising in at-risk forest areas, and will also assess COVID’s impact on forest management and governance commitments under the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI). Across the Congo Basin, fears that a proper lack of oversight may put forests and forest peoples in danger are looming despite emerging initiatives.

Read more …

22 May 2020 International Day for Biological Diversity

The theme of the 2020 International Day for Biological Diversity is “Our Solutions are in Nature”. It shows that "Biodiversity remains the answer to a number of sustainable development challenges that we all face. From nature-based solutions to climate, to food and water security, and sustainable livelihoods, biodiversity remains the basis for a sustainable future."

Read more …

CBFP News Archive

2024

There are no news items for this period.