The Conference of Ministers of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) slated for October 30 in Kinshasa, will establish the Central African Green Economy Fund (Fevac), said on Monday, Bavon N'Sa Mputu Elima, Congolese Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism, at the opening session of the technical segment held ahead of the meeting.

 
According to N'Sa Mputu, the ECCAS Ministers’ conference entitled "Diplomacy, Integration, Governance and the New natural resources economy ", in addition to establishing the fund and drawing up its pre-launch roadmap, aims to discuss the diversification and structural transformation of the natural resources economy in Central Africa excluding the oil and mineral sectors.

 
It further aims to discuss the role of governance, integration and diplomacy in the structural transformation of Central Africa’s timber economy and discuss conditions for putting in place and implementing a natural resources diplomacy in general and timber diplomacy in particular.

Speakers, Minister N'Sa Mputu underscored, would also dwell on the new requirements of timber markets, opportunities (VPA and CITES) to comply with these rules and accelerate their implementation in the States as well as adopt resolutions on the functioning of sectoral and strategic programs related to the development of the green economy, their location and associated promotion tools in the respective States.

The ECCAS Secretary General’s representative, Mr. Honoré Tabuna, for his part, indicated that the conference was being held as part of the implementation of the Fragile Ecosystems of Central Africa Program (Ecofac V) through two main components of the financing agreement signed by the EU Commission and Central African countries.
 
These include forest governance, notably the VPA / FLEGT process (Voluntary Partnership Agreement on forest law enforcement, governance and trade) and capacity building of ECCAS on natural resources through structural transformation of the timber economy and the green economy system in Central Africa, including the Central African Green Economy Fund.
 
The President of the Civil Society Network for the Green Economy in Central Africa (Roscevac) Moulombi Nicaise, , for her part, expressed the wish that ECCAS would set up two technical departments within its system namely, a Department of the Environment  and Scale-up of Natural and Mining Resources and a Department of Agriculture and Food Security Management, to support the operationnalisation of the green economy system in Central Africa. 

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