Purpose of Initiative:

Websites: http://carpe.umd.edu http://www.cbfp.org

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), an international association of over thirty governments, international organizations, private sector and civil society representatives, is designed to enhance the sustainable management of the Congo. The partnership promotes economic development, poverty alleviation, and improved local governance through natural resource conservation and improved resource management, including control of illegal logging and wildlife poaching and trafficking, governance, and natural resource conservation. The CBFP, established at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, operates within the framework of the Council of Ministers in charge of the Forests of Central Africa's (COMIFAC) Convergence Plan to protect biodiversity and resources of the Congo Basin.
The U.S. objectives for this partnership are to reduce the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity through increased local, national, and regional natural resource management capacity, including broader application of sustainable natural resources management practices, the institutionalization of natural resources monitoring, and the strengthening of natural resources governance (institutions, policies, laws). U.S. partnership actions initially focused on 11 ecologically sensitive and biologically diverse areas and wildlife corridors - called forest landscapes - viewed as the most vulnerable to deforestation and other threats to biodiversity. In 2006, the Virunga landscape in the DRC and Rwanda became the 12th landscape. Together, these landscapes comprise more than 80 million hectares of critically important tropical forest in Central Africa. These 12 Congo Basin forest landscapes are:

• Monte Alen - Mont de Cristal Inselbergs Forest Landscape (Equatorial Guinea & Gabon)
• Gamba - Conkouati Forest Landscape (Gabon, Congo & (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Lope - Chaillu - Louesse Forest Landscape (Gabon & Congo)
• Dja - Minkebe - Odzala Tri-national Forest Landscape (Cameroon, Congo & Gabon)
• Sangha Tri-national Forest Landscape (Cameroon, Congo, (Central African Republic)
• Lac Tele - Lac Tumba Swamp Forest Landscape (Congo & Democratic Republic of Congo
• Bateke Plateau Forest Savanna Landscape (Congo & Gabon)
• Maringa/Lopori - Wamba Forest Landscape (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Salonga - Lukenie - Sankuru Forest Landscape (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Maiko - Lulunguru Tanya - Kahuzi Biega Forest Landscape (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Ituri - Epulu - Aru Forest Landscape (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Virunga Forest Landscape (Democratic Republic of Congo & Rwanda)

Partners:
Governments : Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, European Commission, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Germany, Japan, Republic of Congo, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

International Organizations : IUCN- The World Conservation Union, World Bank, International Tropical Timber Organization, World, Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, UNESCO and COMIFAC.

Civil Society :
Jane Goodall Institute, Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund U.S., World Wildlife Fund International, World Resources International, Forest Trends, Society of American Foresters, American Forest and Paper Association, Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux, Center for International Forestry Research

Partnership Targets:
The United States engagement focuses on the following objectives:

• Enlarge forest areas under sustainable management;
• Increase livelihood benefits and/or incomes of communities generated by improved natural resources management;
• Broaden areas monitored for forest condition/degradation;
• Boost number and types of forest resources monitored;
• Improve forest information dissemination to decision makers and advocacy groups;
• Strengthen policies and laws supporting protected areas;
• Increase community-based natural resources management;
• Improve regulation of logging concessions;
• Boost civil society advocacy in sustainable natural resources management; and
• Increase institutional capacity of NGOs and target government agencies.

Progress Toward Targets:

CBFP partners utilize broad-based conservation consortia throughout the 12 landscapes. United States support has contributed to:

• Adoption of voluntary operating standards by IFIA, a logging company trade association, focused on legality and sustainable forest management;
• A major timber company operating in Central Africa (CIB) has adopted a sustainable forest management program certified under a global system, the first in Central Africa. The program includes reduced impact logging, wildlife protection and community support in a 1.3 million hectare concession. This heretofore unprecedented effort has led other organizations in the region to adopt similar practices.
• Improved management of 44 million hectares of tropical forest in the Congo Basin by the end of 2006.
• Publication and distribution of the "State of the Forest Report, 2006," an unprecedented publication containing information gleaned through the efforts of all the CBFP partners with baselines and indicators to follow progress and monitor achievements.
• More than 3,000 trained individuals from local communities, governments, and civil society organizations throughout Central Africa in a variety of conservation and livelihood methods and subjects as of the end of 2006.
• CBFP partners meeting in June 2006 to take stock of the partnership's progress and areas that needed additional support with a special emphasis on ecotourism as a means to generating revenue for conservation.
• In February 2005, the heads of Central African states recommitted themselves to the objectives of environmental stewardship and conservation of the Congo Basin tropical forests. Outcomes of the meeting included signing of a now ratified regional treaty with a supporting convergence plan to harmonize forestry and biodiversity policy in the region, and the government of France formally accepted the role of the partnership's "facilitator."
• An increased emphasis on forest and wildlife law enforcement in the Congo Basin, leading to the completion of several successful prosecutions.
• Two new protected areas in The Republic of Congo (2004) and two in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2006);
• The Partnership held its first meeting in Paris in January 2003. Outcomes of this session included agreement on basic organizational principles for promoting collaboration and cooperation among all the partners, naming a facilitator and recognizing COMIFAC as a central political, technical, and decision-making body for the preservation of forests. The CBFP met again informally on the margins of the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance meeting in Yaoundé in October 2003. At this meeting local NGOs and civil society representatives had their first opportunity to discuss collectively their interests and goals with representatives of the Council of Forest Ministers in Central Africa.
• CBFP received the first Jackson Hole Wildlife Conservation Action Award, honoring the partnership's environmental accomplishments.

United States Government activities include:

• CARPE has launched a small grants program to foster local conservation civil society organizations in nine Central African countries.
• A USG- funded Study Tour program, in 2003, brought 10 Congo Basin forest and park officials to the United States. The purpose of the tour was to jointly explore how U.S. experience can assist Central African countries address similar issues of forest, protected area, and community concerns in the Congo Basin.
• The National Aeronautic and Space Administration, through the University of Maryland, distributed satellite imagery of Central Africa for use throughout the basin (www.osfac.org).
• U.S. Forest Service agreement to work with host country government agencies on capacity building, reduced impact logging, multiple use landscape management, forest monitoring and technical assistance support and training;
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) support to the Elephant Conservation Fund, the Great Ape Conservation Fund, and the CITES Bushmeat Working Group (CBWG), including developing a wildlife monitoring and database management training strategy for the region;
• U.S. National Park Service support to Gabon's National Council on National Parks to develop legislation for a new national park service and, in conjunction with the Forest Service, helped the Gabonese Park Service develop the management plan for Loango and Lope National Parks.
• A Smithsonian Institution education program in Cameroon and establishment of forest plots in North-East Congo in 2004.
• Following a trade mission to Gabon, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency proposed a program to Gabon's National Parks Commission on eco-tourism infrastructure development focusing on air and land access to five of Gabon's national parks.
• Mapped forest cover changes across nine of the 12 landscapes, completed in 2006-2007, using a base period of 1990-2000 rate of change of canopy cover as a base-line reference for continued monitoring of forest loss trends.
• Finally, detailed descriptions of the CBFP projects developed by U.S.-based civil society partners operating in each of the 12 forest landscapes are available at visit: www.cbfp.org and at http://carpe.umd.edu.

Next Steps: The United States looks forward to participating in a meeting of the partnership in 2007.

Resources:
The U.S. Government committed to spend up to $53 million over 2002-2005, including an unprecedented $36 million increase for USAID's Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). In FY 2003, USAID's Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) obligated about $15 million in Development assistance for projects focused on improving forest and natural resource management, including efforts to address illegal logging and support for protected areas and biodiversity in 12 key landscapes within the region. Since the initial FY 2003 CARPE obligation, the USG through CARPE has obligated over $62 million with an additional $5.0 million allocated to the CBFP through the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

USG Primary Points of Contact:

Department of State:
Ellen Shaw (Phone: 202/736-7113; E-mail: shawem@state.gov)

U.S. Agency for International Development:
John Flynn (Phone: 202/216-6240; E-mail: joflynn@usaid.gov )

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