Updated: March 24, 2009
In line with the lessons learnt in other Congo Basin countries, the World Bank realized early on that incremental strategies, gradual approaches, and technology improvements alone, would not be sufficient to address DRC's long-standing governance and institutional issues, and that bold policy reforms and targeted investments were needed. It also realized that its portfolio of interventions needed to include both traditional forest capacity-building and investments, as well as new innovative approaches in helping DRC use its forests more holistically and position itself in the emerging market for global environmental services.
In the DRC, the Bank first worked closely with the Government and other partners to develop a comprehensive forest sector priority agenda. As soon as conditions for new investments were met, the Bank put together a diversified set operations, some of which are already operational, others soon to become operational. These Bank-managed operations work in synergy, and complement other initiatives financed by other donors contributing to the PNFoCo, the DRC's National Forest and Nature Conservation Program (PNFoCo).
The Forest and Nature Conservation Project
This project is the main vehicle through which the World Bank will support the DRC’s National Forest and Nature Conservation Program, a US$250 million multi-donor p rogram developed by the Government and supported by the EU, USA, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the African Development Bank, GEF/UNDP and UNEP and voluntary contribution to national and international NGOs.
This project totals US$70 million in grants, US$64 million of which will come from the International Development Association (IDA), and US$6 million from the Global Environmental Facility. The project’s approval has been scheduled for April 2, 2009.
The project aims to increase the capacity of the Ministries of Forests and Nature Conservation and the collaboration among government institutions, civil society and other stakeholders to manage forests sustainably and equitably for multiple uses in selected pilot areas of DRC. At the same time, the project will test community-based approaches for managing forests holistically in ways that benefit forest and indigenous populations, the local and national economy, and the global environment. A third component will improve the management of protected areas and strengthen capacity at the head offices of Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT) and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) in Kinshasa, while field operations and management approaches will be piloted in 3 provinces (Bandundu, Equateur, and Orientale), 12 districts, and 53 sub districts (territoires) and at the Maiko National Park.
The project will also secure continued implementation of forestry actions identified in the Management Report’s Action Plan.
The project's Project Implementation Document and Environmental Assessment documents can be found at this link in the Projects Database.
Consultations
Consultation on this project started in 2007 when the Terms of Reference of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) were disclosed. They involved information sessions in all provinces and in depth consultations in the Orientale, Bandundu and Equator Provinces where the project will concentrate. All consultations were carried out in collaboration with networks or national NGOs. Specific sessions were held with the population at large and with indigenous (Pygmy) populations.
The report on consultations with the population at large can be read here in French
The report on consultations with indigenous (Pygmy) people can be read here in French
Summaries of the ESIA were disseminated in the project’s focus provinces in three local languages: Lingala, Swahilii and Tsiluba.
The Rehabilitation of Protected Areas Network Project
Currently there are seven national parks and 57 nature and hunting reserves in the DRC. They include five World Heritage Sites, all of which have been placed on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. These protected areas make up about 7.7 percent of the DRC’s national territory, and the government has made a commitment to increase this coverage to 15 percent of the country.
In DRC, there are several threats and barriers to the conservation of globally important biodiversity:
- the government agency charged with administering protected areas lacks institutional capacity at all levels;
- priority protected areas face specific threats that must be addressed in the short and medium term in order to preserve their ecological integrity;
- the protected area system as it is now is insufficient to protect enough samples of the DRC’s significant biodiversity in the face of anticipated post-war development pressures
The objective of the project, which would receive a $7 million grant from the Global Environment Facility, is to address all three of these threats through the following activities:
- strengthen the financial management, coordination, and communication capacity of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature - ICCN) to manage targeted protected areas
- finance technical studies and consultations to help ICCN identify new protected areas to ensure better representativeness of national biodiversity.
- establish contracts for the management of Garamba National Park and the Mikeno Sector of the Virunga National Park (two of the ten most important, accessible protected areas in the country)
The project's Project Implementation Document and Environmental Assessment documents can be found at this link in the Projects Database.
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