Towards a New Vision for the Forest of the Congo

A Roundtable meeting “Towards a New Vision for the Forest of the Congo” took place in the Board Room of the World Bank, Washington DC, on April 14, 2007, as a side event of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings. This roundtable was co-hosted by the Governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, and the President of the World Bank. It was attended by about a hundred representatives of key-donor countries, multilateral agencies, Congolese civil society, private sector, and leading international NGOs including Greenpeace and Global Witness. This discussion was a follow up to the International Conference on Sustainable Management of the DRC Forests, held in Brussels on February 26-27, 2007.

The discussion built upon the consensus that had emerged at the Brussels Conference in support of the DRC’s forest reform agenda. It raised the political profile of the agenda and fostered international community’s commitment to support. It also highlighted the importance of the Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) the Réseau des Parlementaires (REPAR) and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) as key regional collaborative frameworks.

The Roundtable noted that: i) the forests of the Congo Basin are critical to the livelihoods of some of the world's poorest people and to the conservation of the global environment; ii) that post conflict in the DRC offers a unique opportunity to develop innovative forest management models that give priority to forest-dependent people and to the global environment; iii) that the forest reform agenda put forth by the DRC Government, including a moratorium on new logging rights and a legal review of existing ones, is essential to lay the foundation for such innovative approaches. The Roundtable also noted that the post-conflict challenge of rebuilding the country and preserving the environment is enormous, and that the international community must help. It endorsed the recommendation made at the Brussels Conference that the DRC forest agenda should be raised at the upcoming G8 Summit in Germany, June 2007.

The President of the World Bank also proposed that the Roundtable should reconvene at the next session of the Annual Meetings, in October 2007 in Washington D.C., to assess progress made on the forest governance agenda, and to discuss proposals for new operational instruments and financing tools that give priority to local people and to protecting the environment, and that combine large-scale protection, the maintenance of traditional rights, and economic development.

Statements delivered during the Roundtable are available below. Also attached is a joint report  by teams of the World Bank, research centers and Congolese and international NGOs that was launched at the Brussels Conference.

Delegation Statements
DRC
Belgium
France
DFID
European Commission (coming)
Germany
Congolese NGOs
Greenpeace
Global Witness
IFIA  
Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC)