Forests capture carbon and release oxygen. The forests of the Congo Basin are, along with the Amazon, the planet’s main green lung.
The 240 million hectares of tropical forests in Central Africa, which cover 11 countries, constitute one of the last primary forests in the world. These carbon sinks sequester the equivalent of several decades of CO2 emissions.
These humid forests are also the water tower of all of East Africa and an exceptional reservoir of biodiversity, with more than 10,000 identified plant species.
This forest is threatened today: more than 3 million hectares disappear on average each year, 10% of its surface is given over to mining (gold, copper, cobalt, diamonds) which causes permanent destruction of the soil.
The forest is also declining as a result of illegal logging, the expansion of urban areas and population growth. This decline represents a threat to our survival, since with the plankton of the oceans, the forest is at the origin of our atmosphere.
However, responsible forest management remains possible, said several of the speakers who met on October 6 in Paris. That means “to exploit without destroying, to take only what the living is able to reproduce. “Some avenues have been explored by experts such as “buying certified wood, even if the certification is not yet rigorous enough, which guarantees a sustainable renewal of the forest. That Europeans only import certified wood, zero deforestation, would be a first step” said Alain Karsenty, researcher at CIRAD.
It is undoubtedly necessary to review certain agricultural practices, if slash-and-burn cultivation was acceptable on empty land and soils capable of reconstituting itself, this is no longer possible today. Therefore, forest conservation must go hand in hand with food security. We must also resist the land grabbing by multinational agribusiness companies. This involves granting land rights to indigenous people, who live on less than $ 2 a day, to take care of their land. Involving communities in the preservation of these forests is an imperative, explained several African NGOs.
We need protected areas that can also be inhabited, as Gabon has been doing for several years. “The country has pledged that 30% of these lands will be placed under protection in order to stop the dramatic decline of species … Gabon is also the first country in the region which Norway has chosen to reward with a payment of $ 150 million over 10 years. “ Lee white clarified, Gabonese Minister of Water, Forests, Sea and Environment. Gabon sells a kind of carbon credit to multinationals to compensate for their rights to pollute.
“A standing tree is worthless. If you cut it, it’s worth something, but not for the planet. So you have to give it a value, invest and pay to get a result: that the trees are still standing“, summarizes Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, head of the Global Environment Facility, a specialized multilateral funding body.
“Without the Gabonese forest, there would be no more rain in parts of Africa, and without the Congo Basin forest we will never be able to reach the target of 1.5 degrees” of maximum warming set by the Paris climate agreement
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Patron of the Global Environment FundFrance Info Africa
For several speakers “today we need awareness”, “to put an end to this lack of foresight, this overconsumption, this greed”, “We need a circular economy that saves wood and reforests massively and systematically. Our survival is at stake.“