AFD’s 30 years of Action for Congo Basin Forests

It has now been more than 30 years since AFD has been working to protect the world’s forests, with a focus on the Congo Basin in particular. This commitment began in the mid-1980s, in Central Africa. At that time, logging companies were hardly concerned about the sustainable management of their operations. Once a plot of land had been harvested, they would usually move on to the next one without considering the environmental impact, to say nothing of taking remedial measures.   

To address this, the French Ministry of Cooperation decided at the time to support a pilot project in the Central African Republic. Its purpose was to adapt the sustainable forest management plans in force in Europe to the context of the tropical forests of Africa. 

The Earth Summit

The project appealed to a Gabonese forestry operator who, a few years later, implemented the first forestry management plan in Gabon, thanks to our support. The operation stirred up interest within AFD and led to the creation of a financial tool that helped us to support more projects of this type.

As AFD biodiversity advisor Christophe du Castel recalls, “Our goal was to stabilize forest use in a given area in the Congo Basin. Companies had to rationalize their practices, but at that time we thought only about the economic aspect.” Meanwhile, the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 drew the world’s attention to the importance of protecting the world’s forests for present and future generations. It’s from that time that NGOs started putting forward the idea that a forest management plan should also integrate environmental constraints.

Forestry standards

The initial experiences in the Central African Republic and Gabon incited governments to adopt laws and standards set out in the first management plans. “We then gradually integrated biodiversity protection into our forest management plans,” says Christophe du Castel. This is how our support for the sustainable use of the Congo Basin rainforest was launched.

In the early years, we were taken to task for this commitment. At the time, we were indeed the only donor to deal with private forestry operators, who were the target of criticism by international public opinion at the time.

“AFD took a stance in favor of financial support in the form of interest-free loans to the forestry industry, as well as of grants for small-scale concession operators who undertook to adopt forest management plans as part of contractual agreements with the State,” recalls Mathieu Auger-Schwartzenberg, Project Team Leader in AFD’s Agriculture, Rural Development and Biodiversity Division.

Realizing the importance of sustainability

By funding part of the cost of the forest inventory, which is a prerequisite stage for sustainable exploitation of forest concessions, we hoped to incite companies to comply with sustainable management, even though not all their competitors were required to do so.

As Mathieu Auger-Schwartzenberg explains, “The projects financed by AFD were a great help in making the private sector realize the importance of sustainable forest management. The companies enjoying direct support were the first to adopt forest management plans and the only ones to respect them and subsequently obtain the FSC label, one of the certifications with the highest standards.”

See also: €2 million for climate change adaptation in the Congo Basin

Since the 2000s, we have been encouraging operators to embark on a sustainable-wood certification process. We are carrying out this work with several NGOs, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). At the same time, we are working to develop the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) program, a European Union initiative to combat illegal forest exploitation.

Improving governance

But a huge task still remained. In the 2000s, the parties on the ground were still developing within a weak institutional environment. For example, some States faced difficulties in punishing logging companies that did not uphold their commitments. And the sheer scale made monitoring difficult: some concessions exceeded 1 million hectares. Thus, one of our main objectives in the Congo Basin became helping our partners ensure compliance with the rules in force.

“From the 2000s onwards, the debt cancellation mechanism enabled us to support States in strengthening their legal apparatus and their checks on the ground,” says Christophe du Castel.

“The rate of deforestation is now 10 times lower in the Congo Basin than in the Amazon.”

 Thirty years later, 33 projects and more than €130 million have been put into action to protect the region’s forests, and the results appear to be commensurate with our efforts. “The rate of deforestation is now 10 times lower in the Congo Basin than in the Amazon. What’s more, the region is home to most of the FSC-certified tropical forest concessions,” says Christophe du Castel.

Our choices have helped both to make forest management impossible to avoid in the Congo Basin countries and to put an end to mining-type operations. The successful operations with the pilot companies have had a knock-on effect on other companies, some of which have been able to obtain the eco-labels required in the most profitable markets.

Convincing the rest of the industry

However, much remains to be done to protect the Congo Basin rainforest. Environmentally responsible practices are still far from being the norm. “Small-scale concession operators and Asian-owned companies make up the bulk of the forestry and wood industry, but we haven’t yet succeeded in having them come onboard,” says Mathieu Auger-Schwartzenberg. “As for forest governance, it remains rather weak in the region. The government administrations lack the resources to carry out their duties, such as the approval, monitoring, and control of management plans.”
Given our experience, the trust that the various stakeholder groups have in us, and the wide range of our financial tools that can help guide change, we still have a leading role to play in the region. 

Supporting the fight against poaching

At AFD, a new action policy is taking shape that will take better account of the protection of biodiversity. Among other actions, we will continue to support the Congolese forestry administration in implementing management plans and combating poaching, through 2024. 

See also: TerrAmaz: €9.5 million to fight deforestation and to promote sustainable development in the Amazon

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the other side of the Congo River, we will support the government in developing a forestry policy up to par with the challenges facing the country. In particular, our funding will help the National Forestry Advisory Council carry out several tasks: approving the country’s forestry policy; overseeing its implementation; and providing for better involvement in it by Congolese civil society, international organizations, and the private sector.

“We can help governments determine which areas to allocate to sustainable exploitation and which ones to allocate to agriculture, by using sound regulatory schemes,” says Christophe du Castel. “We can also assist them in determining what value to put on their forests. Additionally, we can provide them support for better compliance with the laws and regulations in force.” 

Our policy is also aimed at other regions of the world threatened by deforestation, such as the Amazon, where we recently supported the TerrAmaz initiative via a €9.5-million grant. This four-year program will make it possible to finance the monitoring of deforestation locally, develop territorial charters, disseminate sustainable agricultural practices to achieve certified zero-deforestation products, and support studies that will benefit stakeholders in these regions.