The third summit of heads of state and government of the member countries of the Commission for Central African Forests (Comifac) will take place in the first quarter of 2021. It will be devoted, among other things, to the revision of the treaty on the conservation and sustainable management of ecosystems, including assessment of the level of partnerships and funding.
The leaders of the ten countries concerned will attempt to revisit the treaty establishing Comifac fifteen years after its establishment in February 2005. Through this text, the Heads of State and Government have made a commitment to develop forestry taxation, create new protected areas, increase the participation of rural populations in biodiversity conservation plans and carry out the priority actions contained in the Comifac convergence plan.
Indeed, this convergence plan is a frame of reference and coordination of interventions in the conservation and sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa. After the 2005-2014 plan, a second edition (2015-2025) was developed covering six priority areas, namely the harmonization of forest and environmental policies; sustainable management and development of forest resources; conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity; the fight against desertification; socio-economic development and multi-actor participation; sustainable financing.
The last axis related to sustainable financing will hold the attention of the participants in this third summit of heads of state and government. We can discuss the implementation of the 2020-2021 roadmap, as part of the facilitation of the Partnership for the forests of the Congo Basin (CBFP) provided by the Federal Republic of Germany.
This roadmap intends to focus on the promotion and strengthening of intensive cooperation for transparent and concerted leadership between the various stakeholders (public authorities, civil society organizations, development partners, rural communities ). The German facilitation insists in particular on the relevance of the forests of the Congo Basin in the global efforts of biodiversity conservation and the pursuit of the identification of the possibilities of long-term financing of the plan of conservation of the forest resources.
It should be remembered that the announcement of the holding of the summit of heads of state was made recently by Comifac, which quoted the Congolese Minister in charge of the Environment, Claude Nyamugabo Bazibuhe. This meeting, the date of which remains to be specified, will be held under the leadership of Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
