Kinshasa, November 15th, 2026 (CPA).- The local processing of logs and the retention of forestry revenues in rural areas have been presented on Saturday in Antalya, in Turkey, as the cornerstone of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s new forest governance framework, at the ‘DRC, a country of solutions’ pavilion, a press release received on Saturday by CPA has reported.
“DRC has worked in a structured manner on its forestry policy, which enables it to provide strategic guidance on how to manage its forests.
It has also worked on the Forestry Code, which stipulates that logs may no longer be exported without first being processed within the country and, above all, in the area where the timber is harvested, so as to keep the bulk of the revenue in rural and forested areas,” Professor Marie Nyange Ndambo, Minister in charge of the Environment, Sustainable Development and the New Climate Economy has declared, quoted in the press release.
Supporting this sub-regional initiative, the Minister in charge of Forestry in the Republic of the Congo, Rosalie Matondo, has advocated for agroforestry, alternatives to wood fuel and direct access to financial resources.
“Funding must be accessible, equitable and transparent; that is what the countries of the Congo Basin are calling for. (…) Without funding, we will be unable to do anything,” she has added.
For her part, her colleague Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Minister in charge of the Environment, Sustainable Development and the Congo Basin, has highlighted the mobilisation of 3.7 billion dollars via the Blue Fund for the Congo Basin and the role of scientific data.
“The ecosystem services provided by the Congo Basin are demonstrated through science,” she has assured.
For his part, the representative of the Gabonese Ministry of the Environment and Climate, Stanislas Stephen Mouba Oulouna, has called on the international community to link the conservation of the Congo Basin to the socio-economic development of indigenous peoples and local communities.
“The Congo Basin does not need to be taught how to preserve its forest. For our people, the forest will become more valuable once we are able to demonstrate that schools, universities and hospitals have been built with money from the forest,” he has argued.
These various declarations have been made on the side-lines of the official launching of the new joint report by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) on the forests of the Congo Basin.
This document recommends channelling investment towards three strategic priorities in order to sustainably reverse the trend of deforestation, namely: promoting sustainable agriculture in the most affected areas, particularly in DRC; ensuring the sustainability of permanent agricultural sectors such as cocoa and coffee; and providing financial incentives for conservation in countries with low deforestation rates (Gabon, Republic of the Congo) through payment mechanisms for environmental services that directly benefit local communities. ACP/