Tracking progress against forest goals in the Congo Basin Follow us on :

 Website: http://www.climatefocus.com/
 forestdeclaration.org

 Twitter : @climate_focus_
 @Forest_Assess

 LinkedIn : climate-focus-b.v.

1. Regional assessment 2022
Tracking progress against forest goals in the Congo Basin

2. A regional assessment in the
Congo Basin
Two streams
of activities
Providing expertise,
developing key messsages
and communication
activities
Applying the indicators
across four themes
An informal
network of civil
society experts
Partner meetings,
discussions on research
priorities, opportunities to
develop products that are
useful for local civil society
A first
assessment
report
A full assessment report
published at COP27
A new approach in
2022:
Working with civil society
at the local level

3. Historically low deforestation rates but worrying trends
• A decreasing trend in deforestation between 2015 and 2020 but 2.2
million hectares of forest loss and 1.5 million hectares of degraded
forests (Shapiro, et al., 2022)
• Between 2000 and
2016, the share of
intact forests in the
region went from 78%
to 67%, representing
23 millions hectares of
degraded forests
(Shapiro, et al., 2021)
Regional
assessment
in
the
Congo
Basin
• An increase in deforestation of nearly 30 000 ha (4.9%) in 2021
compared to the average of 2018-20, to reach a total of 636 000 ha

4. The challenge of aligning development goals with forest pledges
• Forests support important sectors of the economy for countries in the region, in
particular forestry.
• The lack of tenure security of local
communities in the Congo Basin and
overlaps between land use regimes
are the main underlying drivers of
forest disturbance.
• There are multiple drivers of deforestation at the local scale. A combination of small
scale agriculture and the construction of roads and buildings (« the rural complex »,
Shapiro et al. 2022) is the greatest contributor to deforestation and forest degradation
in the region.
• Industrial mining, forestry and commercial agriculture pose the greatest risks for
central intact forests.
Regional
assessment
in
the
Congo
Basin

5. Governments of the Congo Basin are putting in place important efforts to
fight agains deforestation in the region
• Countries have legal frameworks in place to oversee forest management
and protection. They also have land management laws, that regulate the use
of land and limit forest loss in the region.
• Strengthening tenure security and the recognition of community rights of
Indigenous people and local populations have been at the centre of many
public policy reforms.
• Gender considerations are increasingly
taken into account in forest policy.
• Despite this progress, implementation
and enforcement of these laws have
been slow and there is a lack of
coherence between sectoral policies.
Regional
assessment
in
the
Congo
Basin

6. Improvement opportunities to reach forest objectives
1. Congo Basin countries have ambitious economic development plans that
are anchored in industrial economic activities and large-scale
developments that can have a negative impact on forests.
Regional
assessment
in
the
Congo
Basin
2. Weak forest governance exacerbates encroachment into primary forests
and increase the presence of illegal activities in the forest sector.
3. Securing tenure regimes for forest communities is essential to fight
deforestation and some Congo Basin countries have taken promising
measures. Strengthening the rights of local actors and their participation
in forest governance can improve results in this area.

7. Improvement opportunities to reach forest objectives
4. Private sector actors have increasingly made commitments to address
deforestation from their primary products supply chains but their efficiency
in terms of reducing deforestation is debated.
Regional
assessment
in
the
Congo
Basin
5. Despite being the greatest global carbon sink, efforts to reach forest goals
in the Congo Basin remain under-financed by governments and the private
sector.

8. The need for a continuous evaluation of progress on the ground
• Civil society plays an important role in holding government and private
actors to account and support the inclusion of vulnerable groups into forest
decisionmaking, job creation, and revenue generation from sustainable
forest management.
• Putting in place progress indicators to track deforestation and the impact of
public policy is necessary. The caracterisation and harmonisation of
terminologies around forests and deforestation will support this tracking.
• These indicators and their analysis will enable assessments of the
implementation of policies, strategies and tracking mechanisms, of their
means, and of their results. Assessment frameworks such as that of the
Forest Declaration Assessment can support this regular updates and
tracking of progress.
Aligning forest objectives with other policy priorities does not
mean that all deforestation can be halted. It means that
evaluating and taking into account the contributions and
services of forests towards present and future generations ne
signifie pas que l'on puisse arrêter toute déforestation.
Regional
assessment
in
the
Congo
Basin

9. Follow us on :
Website: http://www.climatefocus.com/
forestdeclaration.org
Twitter : @climate_focus_
@Forest_Assess
LinkedIn : climate-focus-b.v.
Regional assessment 2022
Tracking progress against forest goals in the Congo Basin