Project description

Title: Support for the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Africa (transnational)
Lead executing agency: Commission des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale (Central Africa Forests Commission, COMIFAC), with headquarters in Cameroon
Overall term: 2007 to 2009

Context

To conserve the Congo Basin forest as a globally important ecosystem and make sure it is managed and harvested sustainably for the purpose of poverty reduction in the region calls for the coordination of national policies. By signing the Yaoundé Declaration (1999), the heads of state of the Congo Basin countries (Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic) announced their will to cooperate.

Forestry ministers are now monitoring the declaration’s implementation, having set up a coordination mechanism, the Central Africa Forests Commission (Commission des Forêts d'Afrique Central, COMIFAC), specifically for this purpose. In addition to the six founding members, COMIFAC has now taken four more countries on board, namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ruanda, and Sao Tome and Principe. COMIFAC’s executive secretariat headquartered in Yaoundé, Cameroon, is designed to steer the intergovernmental coordination and implementation process required to realise the transnational Convergence Plan and to shape dialogue between all civil society and government stakeholders.

COMIFAC is a member of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) between Central African states, industrialised countries, international and bilateral development institutions as well as international environmental organisations that was launched in 2002. CBFP offers a communication and coordination platform for around forty partners engaged in countries in the Congo Basin. From 2008 to 2010, through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany will be overseeing CBFP facilitation.

Objective

The regional Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and its executive secretariat (CES), along with relevant actors from national forest programmes, ensure implementation of the Convergence Plan and the introduction of sustainable management practices for forest and natural resources, in line with the priorities set jointly for German coordination of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.

Approach

GTZ provides support to the COMIFAC Secretariat and to regional partner institutions and ministries in an effort to help them implement the regional Convergence Plan, and to create the necessary operative mechanisms and secure their long-term financial sustainability.

The focus is on achieving sustainable management practices, including the management of representative protected areas. Thus, intensive dialogue has to be encouraged between all actors at national and regional level and mechanisms set up to allow participation and monitoring.

Germany and France are cooperating closely here (COMIFAC Support Office). Complementarity with German bilateral projects in the region and GTZ’s technically specialised, overarching consultancy projects are all helping to foster joined-up development cooperation.

Results achieved so far

The overarching coordination of national policies to conserve the Congo Basin forest is a reality. Internationally, the region now speaks with one voice and COMIFAC is accepted as an official negotiation partner.

Member States, regional initiatives and international actors all accept the regional Convergence Plan, with its binding objectives and agreed implementation strategies, as the framework for action and gear their inputs accordingly.

Representatives from the fields of politics, industry, science and environmental protection engage in constructive debate and work towards joint solutions, also without ongoing support by development cooperation organisations.

Sensitive issues, such as poor governance and corruption, are discussed openly and independently at various political levels.

Reforms have been initiated to strengthen the institutions concerned and to give them the financial backing they need. The framework conditions needed for effective civil society participation in decision-making processes have been established.

Regional forest reports providing a basis for joint analysis of the ecological, economic and social developments in the Congo Basin are published every two years.

Download

• The Forests of the Congo Basin
  State of the Forest 2006
  en-state-of-forests-congo-basin-2006.pdf, 6.74 MB (English)

Further information

• Central Africa Forests Commission
  Commission des Fôrets d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC)
  www.comifac.org
• Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP)
  Partenariat pour les Forêts du Bassin du Congo (PFBC)
  www.cbfp.org
• Central Africa Protected Areas Network
  Réseau des Aires Protégées d’Afrique Centrale (RAPAC)
  www.rapac.org