Kinshasa, November 15th, 2026 (CPA).- A joint report by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and the Rainforest Foundation Norway, launched at COP 31, has confirmed that deforestation in the Congo Basin has stabilised significantly over the past five years, according to a press release consulted on Saturday by CPA.
“Over the last five years, deforestation in the Congo Basin has stabilised. Since 2020, deforestation has not been rising sharply,” it is read. According to the source, this regional study has been presented at the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ‘Pays Solutions’ pavilion by Dr Chadrack Kafuti, technical adviser at the CAFI secretariat.
This scientific document constitutes a regional expansion of a global study initially presented in London.
Although the slowdown in forest loss has been confirmed at sub-regional level, experts emphasised that the overall rate remains high in absolute terms and masks significant disparities between countries.
Whilst the Republic of the Congo and Gabon have the lowest rates of deforestation, DRC, Cameroon and the Central African Republic are experiencing an alarming increase in the loss of their forest cover.
The study also highlights a change in the factors contributing to ecosystem degradation. Shifting cultivation remains the primary driver of deforestation in the region, although its relative impact has fallen by 5%.
At the same time, permanent agriculture linked to cash crops such as coffee and cocoa is expanding rapidly, with an 11% increase over the last five years, accompanied by an exponential rise in mining and wildfires.
Faced with these challenges, the Ministers in charge of the Environment and Forests in Central Africa have welcomed the support provided by Norway, CAFI and the RFN, whilst calling for an urgent overhaul of international financial mechanisms to ensure fair remuneration for the region’s ecosystem services.
This previously unpublished report was officially unveiled at a high-level ministerial meeting bringing together the ministers in charge of the environment and forestry from Central African countries.
This strategic event took place on the fringes of COP 31 to provide a detailed assessment of the state of the world’s last major carbon sink – whose peat lands store nearly 30 billion tonnes of CO₂ – with a view to setting priorities for future action. ACP/