AWF Promotes Congo Basin Forest Conservation

Africa’s forests are diverse, host exceptional biodiversity, and are particularly important for communities, providing essential safety nets in times of hardships. Timber and non-timber forest products are an integral part of rural life and provide a substantial role in household economies across the continent.

Forests have direct and indirect value and benefits for people, society and wildlife:

Biological diversity Habitat Climate mitigation Fuel wood/energy Cultural needs Hydrological and watershed services

Employment Home/shelter Food Pollination Medicine Utensils/construction materials

The Congo Basin forest covers nearly 200 million hectares in area and accounts for 30 percent of the plant cover on the African continent and 19 percent of the world’s tropical rainforests. As the second largest tropical forest in the world, the Congo Basin forest is a global conservation priority and a focus of AWF. Remoteness, expense, corruption and logistical challenges make conservation of this area difficult; however, significant progress is being made.  

While the global rate of deforestation is still alarmingly high, it is decreasing. However, the rate of deforestation is increasing in Africa and is higher than the global average. Africa is second only to South America in forest loss, losing on average 3.4 million hectares annually. The Congo Basin forest has a deforestation rate of nearly 10,000 sq. km per year.

Less than 14 percent of Africa’s forest area is in some form of protected area; however, over the past three decades this number has increased. More than 95 percent of Africa’s forests are owned by the government, including federal, state and local governments. There is strong evidence indicating that a lack of forest rights is a cause of over-exploitation. When communities have rights and tenure over forests, these resources tend to be better managed.

The Basin is home to some of Africa’s most unique wildlife, including four great ape species. These are the bonobo, chimpanzee, eastern gorilla and western gorilla. Because of bushmeat trade, forest loss, disease transfer from humans and the illegal live animal trade, all African ape subspecies are endangered or critically endangered. Over the last 20 years, 200,000 sq. km of ape habitat has been lost. Forest elephants are under similar threat, with less than 5,000 estimated in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The region is facing large scale land conversion from agriculture and plantations, such as palm and rubber plantations. In addition, oil, gas, mineral and other types of resource extraction are also putting pressure on this landscape.

AWF’s vision for the Congo Basin is clear.

We envision Africa’s governments and people as champions for the conservation of the Congo Basin forest for current and future generations.

We envision an expansive and well-managed network of protected areas, community forest concession areas and forest reserves that supports viable populations of wildlife and protect the integrity of ecosystems and ecosystem services. We envision peace and security enhanced through trans-boundary parks and community conservancies.

We envision Africa’s wildlife—from chimpanzees and forest elephants to bonobos and bongos—thriving in the Basin. We envision an intact and protected Congo Basin forest supporting communities through carbon and ecosystem service revenues. We envision the protection of Africa’s primary forests as reservoirs of biological diversity, as well as the recovery and restoration of degraded forest.

We envision communities, alongside protected area authorities, owning, running, accessing and engaging in conservation. We envision forest dependent communities living with wildlife with access to quality schools and education. We envision a food secure population, resilient to climatic shocks and substantially benefitting from forest conservation.

We envision a region that demonstrates that good development does not come at a cost to good conservation.

AWF calls on all partners to work to:

• Increase natural forest cover
• Increase the percentage of forest in protected areas, including all remaining primary forest
• Enhance and enforce forest and wildlife protection laws
• Ensure no additional net loss in the Congo Basin forest
• Maintain and expand key species’ protected habitat in the Basin
• Reverse the poaching and bushmeat trends and halt trade of live wildlife and their body parts
• Ensure protected areas are well managed
• Formalize commitments by all heads of state to respect protected areas for their designated purposes and prohibit degazettement, encroachment and natural resource extraction
• Ensure trans-boundary protected areas and ecosystems in the Basin are well connected and managed in a coordinated manner
• Engage and empower communities in forest management and ownership in a way that improves their lives

---

AWF is working with partners towards these goals in various programs. In the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba landscape in DRC, AWF works with a diverse range of partners to protect wildlife, including the bonobo and forest elephant; combat climate change through forest protection and REDD+ initiatives; and stem the bushmeat trade by strengthening the scout networks on the ground. Additionally, AWF supports species protection and protected area management in the Dja Faunal Reserve through our work with the protected area authority.

AWF is accessing its Emergency Response Fund to support partners to stop poaching, trafficking and demand of illegal wildlife products. Forest species that have been targeted for protection through AWF’s Emergency Response Fund include great apes and the African elephant. Additional support will go toward sniffer dogs at the Kinshasa airport, developing inspection guidelines for illegal trafficking, and conducting judiciary trainings.  AWF is providing further funding to Bili Uele in northern DRC, home to one of the largest populations of chimpanzees and approximately 20 percent of DRC’s elephant population, and technical support to the Dja Faunal Reserve. In the Dzanga protected areas of the Central African Republic, AWF, through its partners, is supporting elephant protection. 

​AWF’s African Apes Initiative (AAI) is another collaborative approach to conservation that is transforming the situation on the ground for representative populations of the nine subspecies of apes on the continent. AAI is enabling practitioners in ape conservation to come together regularly to share lessons and experiences in the field in order to improve interventions and collaboration. The program, launched in 2012, is investing in partners at target sites. With the support of the Arcus Foundation and the Great Apes Survival Partnership, these partners and other stakeholders gathered at a meeting in DRC in 2014 to exchange information on protected area management and to conduct field exercises in ecological monitoring using CyberTrackers. A key outcome of that gathering were work plans for each of the target sites for improving collaboration over the next 12 months. The next gathering will take place in Cameroon in 2015. 

Written by AWF's VP of Conservation Strategy, Kathleen Fitzgerald, during a recent meeting of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership in Brazzaville, Congo.