The Congo Basin forest is the world’s second largest tropical forest, covering 700,000 square miles in six countries and containing a quarter of the world’s remaining tropical forest. This vast area hosts a wealth of biodiversity, including over 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds and 400 species of mammals. It is also home to more than 24 million people, most of whom depend on the forest for their livelihoods. The forest ecosystems of the Congo basin span across much of Central Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf of Guinea to the mountains of the Albertine Rift in the east. Covering 700,000 square miles in six countries, they constitute the second largest area of contiguous moist tropical forest left in the world and represent approximately one fifth of the world's remaining closed canopy tropical forest. This vast area hosts a wealth of biodiversity, including over 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, and three of the world's four species of great apes. It is also home to more than 24 million people, many of which depend on the forest for their livelihoods. The Congo basin forests not only play a critical role for global biodiversity conservation, they also provide vital regional and global ecological services as a carbon sink and catchment basin. Even though much of the forest area remains intact, the regional forest ecosystems continue to be at risk from a complex set of threats that call for concerted global action: unsustainable timber and mineral extraction, bush meat trade for urban and commercial forestry settlement markets, land clearing for agriculture, and weak governance. The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) is an informal association that brings together around 40 governmental, nongovernmental, and international organizations. The CBFP was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002 in response to a call by the United Nations General Assembly in resolution 54/214 on February 1, 2000 encouraging the international community to support the countries of the Congo basin with financial and technical assistance in their efforts toward sustainable management of the forests. As a "type II" partnership ("type I" partnerships are intergovernmental negotiations), the CBFP is a non-binding network based on a voluntary agreement among governments, the private sector, civil society, and development organizations.
The biodiversity of the Congo Basin Forest is of global significance because of both the sheer number of species found in the region, known as species richness , and the number of plant and animal species that exist nowhere else on the planet, known as endemism . The Congo Basin Forest still boasts large interconnected tracts of tropical rain forest with important populations of large mammals: some of the last remaining intact wilderness areas on this planet. The forest harbors the most diverse assemblage of plants and animals in Africa including over 400 mammal species, more than 1,000 bird species, and likely over 10,000 plant species of which some 3,000 are endemic. Only in this region do gorillas, forest buffalo, bongo, and okapi occur in large numbers across large areas of forest. Humans may have originated in Central Africa, which is home to our three closest relatives-gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. The forest also hosts forest elephants, large ecosystem "engineers" that continuously transform the landscape to maintain the ecological functioning of natural systems. By virtue of its sheer size, the Congo Basin Forest serves as a vast carbon sink of global importance for the regulation of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The forest also regulates regional and local weather patterns, and ensures the cycling of water critical for a large area of Africa. It provides a critically important resource base for the livelihoods and well-being of tens of millions of people both in Africa and beyond. Following an unprecedented commitment made to conservation by the Heads of State of all the countries of the region at the Yaounde Summit in 1999, the Conference of Ministers in Charge of Forest in Central Africa (COMIFAC) endorsed and refined the concepts that global- and continental-scale priority setting and landscape-scale implementation offer the greatest chance of conservation success. In 2000, a WWF-sponsored priority-setting workshop in Libreville involving more than 150 national and international specialists concluded that not everywhere in Central Africa could be, or should be, a priority target for conservation. Poaching, urbanization, natural habitat loss, and degradation had left large areas with dysfunctional natural systems, bereft of wildlife and with low biodiversity. Based on goals of representation, population viability, sustainability of ecological processes, and ecosystem integrity and resilience, a suite of large tracts of relatively intact wilderness and other areas of unique ecological importance were identified. These areas, covering about 685,500 km 2 , or about 36 percent of the Congo Basin Forest, capture the majority of essential terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functions of the Congo Basin Forest and also provided a framework for management planning and implementation. These areas, embedded in a matrix of variable human use and frequently crossing political boundaries, form the landscape network of Congo Basin Forest Partnership.
The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) aims to promote the sustainable management of the Congo Basins' forests and wildlife by improving communication, cooperation, and collaboration among all the partners. It does not intend to create new institutions, but through the partnership forum and transparency and information sharing to assist partners and their associates to work better. Principal objectives include the preservation of the biodiversity and ecology of the forest and wildlife, placing their protection and use on a sustainable basis for the long-term benefit of the region's inhabitants. Examples of support contemplated or extended by partners include support for community-based sustainable forest and wildlife management, better timber harvesting and processing technologies, ecotourism, increasing capacity in public and private sectors, improvement of law and law enforcement infrastructures, realizing their contributions to the alleviation of poverty. Target themes are provided by an updated regional master plan being developed by the Conference of Ministers of Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC).The Congo Basin forest is the second largest intact tropical forest in the world. It purifies the air and it catches, cleans, and sends to the ocean the waters from millions of hectares of pristine forests upon which the Congo Basin's inhabitants depend for their livelihood and survival. Within their forests are an incredible number of species of plants, trees, animals, and insects. The forest is a global treasure whose resources must be protected and conserved for the environmental and economic good of the citizens of the Congo Basin, of Africa, and for mankind. The forest is concentrated in six countries in the Congo Basin Region. The framework for the Congo Basin Forest Partnership is the Yaounde Declaration which was agreed to in 1999 by central African heads of State. That framework aims to protect forests through the harmonization of forest policies, protected areas, regulations against poaching and the adoption of practices for sustainable forest use. It recognized the ecological significance of key mixed landscapes which are critical to longer term forest conservation and sustainable management The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) aims to promote the sustainable management of the Congo Basins' forests and wildlife by improving communication, cooperation, and collaboration among all the partners. It does not intend to create new institutions, but through the partnership forum and transparency and information sharing to assist partners and their associates to work better. Principal objectives include the preservation of the biodiversity and ecology of the forest and wildlife, placing their protection and use on a sustainable basis for the long-term benefit of the region's inhabitants. Examples of support contemplated or extended by partners include support for community-based sustainable forest and wildlife management, better timber harvesting and processing technologies, ecotourism, increasing capacity in public and private sectors, improvement of law and law enforcement infrastructures, realizing their contributions to the alleviation of poverty. Target themes are provided by an updated regional master plan being developed by the Conference of Ministers of Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC).
The biodiversity of the Congo Basin Forest is of global significance because of both the sheer number of species found in the region, known as species richness , and the number of plant and animal species that exist nowhere else on the planet, known as endemism . The Congo Basin Forest still boasts large interconnected tracts of tropical rain forest with important populations of large mammals: some of the last remaining intact wilderness areas on this planet. The forest harbors the most diverse assemblage of plants and animals in Africa including over 400 mammal species, more than 1,000 bird species, and likely over 10,000 plant species of which some 3,000 are endemic. Only in this region do gorillas, forest buffalo, bongo, and okapi occur in large numbers across large areas of forest. Humans may have originated in Central Africa, which is home to our three closest relatives-gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. The forest also hosts forest elephants, large ecosystem "engineers" that continuously transform the landscape to maintain the ecological functioning of natural systems. By virtue of its sheer size, the Congo Basin Forest serves as a vast carbon sink of global importance for the regulation of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The forest also regulates regional and local weather patterns, and ensures the cycling of water critical for a large area of Africa. It provides a critically important resource base for the livelihoods and well-being of tens of millions of people both in Africa and beyond. Following an unprecedented commitment made to conservation by the Heads of State of all the countries of the region at the Yaounde Summit in 1999, the Conference of Ministers in Charge of Forest in Central Africa (COMIFAC) endorsed and refined the concepts that global- and continental-scale priority setting and landscape-scale implementation offer the greatest chance of conservation success. In 2000, a WWF-sponsored priority-setting workshop in Libreville involving more than 150 national and international specialists concluded that not everywhere in Central Africa could be, or should be, a priority target for conservation. Poaching, urbanization, natural habitat loss, and degradation had left large areas with dysfunctional natural systems, bereft of wildlife and with low biodiversity. Based on goals of representation, population viability, sustainability of ecological processes, and ecosystem integrity and resilience, a suite of large tracts of relatively intact wilderness and other areas of unique ecological importance were identified. These areas, covering about 685,500 km 2 , or about 36 percent of the Congo Basin Forest, capture the majority of essential terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functions of the Congo Basin Forest and also provided a framework for management planning and implementation. These areas, embedded in a matrix of variable human use and frequently crossing political boundaries, form the landscape network of Congo Basin Forest Partnership.
The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) aims to promote the sustainable management of the Congo Basins' forests and wildlife by improving communication, cooperation, and collaboration among all the partners. It does not intend to create new institutions, but through the partnership forum and transparency and information sharing to assist partners and their associates to work better. Principal objectives include the preservation of the biodiversity and ecology of the forest and wildlife, placing their protection and use on a sustainable basis for the long-term benefit of the region's inhabitants. Examples of support contemplated or extended by partners include support for community-based sustainable forest and wildlife management, better timber harvesting and processing technologies, ecotourism, increasing capacity in public and private sectors, improvement of law and law enforcement infrastructures, realizing their contributions to the alleviation of poverty. Target themes are provided by an updated regional master plan being developed by the Conference of Ministers of Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC).The Congo Basin forest is the second largest intact tropical forest in the world. It purifies the air and it catches, cleans, and sends to the ocean the waters from millions of hectares of pristine forests upon which the Congo Basin's inhabitants depend for their livelihood and survival. Within their forests are an incredible number of species of plants, trees, animals, and insects. The forest is a global treasure whose resources must be protected and conserved for the environmental and economic good of the citizens of the Congo Basin, of Africa, and for mankind. The forest is concentrated in six countries in the Congo Basin Region. The framework for the Congo Basin Forest Partnership is the Yaounde Declaration which was agreed to in 1999 by central African heads of State. That framework aims to protect forests through the harmonization of forest policies, protected areas, regulations against poaching and the adoption of practices for sustainable forest use. It recognized the ecological significance of key mixed landscapes which are critical to longer term forest conservation and sustainable management The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) aims to promote the sustainable management of the Congo Basins' forests and wildlife by improving communication, cooperation, and collaboration among all the partners. It does not intend to create new institutions, but through the partnership forum and transparency and information sharing to assist partners and their associates to work better. Principal objectives include the preservation of the biodiversity and ecology of the forest and wildlife, placing their protection and use on a sustainable basis for the long-term benefit of the region's inhabitants. Examples of support contemplated or extended by partners include support for community-based sustainable forest and wildlife management, better timber harvesting and processing technologies, ecotourism, increasing capacity in public and private sectors, improvement of law and law enforcement infrastructures, realizing their contributions to the alleviation of poverty. Target themes are provided by an updated regional master plan being developed by the Conference of Ministers of Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC).
