Surnamed “the deuxième poumon de la planete” après l’Amazonie, the Congo basin puts pressure on 200 million hectares of tropical forest, i.e. 70% of the couverture forest in Africa. There is a role you play in regulating the fluff cycle, storing carbon and sustaining the livelihoods of millions of people. As a result, the 1 to 5% decreases, becoming the victims of forest exploitation and illegal minire.
In one of the last years of the African Strategic Center, illegal activities among the criminals, who are complicit with the local actors, have been cleared of $17 billion on the continent. Looting the biodiversity and vital resources of local populations.
Les enjeux pour les pays riverains
Six focus on the majority of forests: Cameroon, Central African Republic (RCA), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo. Where existing initiatives exist to strengthen governance and trade in the forest sector, illegal practices continue, with the authoritarian forest rarely exporting more than China.
Le Gabon, for example, 90% of its territory has been recovered from forests, suggests the major conservationists. Marc Ona Essangui, executive secretary of the ONG Brainforest and member of the Senate office for the transitional state of Gabonaise, emphasizes the importance of preserving heritage to guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples and combat the rampant deforestation.
Local initiatives can combat illegal exploitation
In RDC, the authorities of Ituri announce the creation of parks in the forest of Mahagi and Aru, on the Uganda border. This infrastructure can chronically limit the illegal exploitation and export of forests in a regional market due to insecurity to extortions from Democratic Allied Forces (ADF) insurgents.
At RCA, the situation is one of the most common problems. The political crisis favors the prize for the control of the forest resources and minières of the armed groups. When it comes to reducing effective governance, make biodiversity pay at the mercy of information-destroying exploitation.
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