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Kinshasa, DR Congo: On the sidelines of the 20th Meeting of the Parties to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), representatives from countries in the region, UNDP, and the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) led a side event to discuss a new cooperation platform between countries that are home to the world's most important tropical forests.
For the UNDP Resident Representative in DR Congo, Mr. Damien Mama, who chaired the session, this co-construction initiative aims to promote financial instruments for the conservation and sustainable management of forests and agroforestry ecosystems. The platform will enable information and knowledge exchange on payment mechanisms for environmental services, innovations in the bioeconomy, and digital applications.
This South-South cooperation initiative builds on recent political agreements between countries in Central Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia on tropical forest conservation and climate action, including the "United for our Forests" manifesto adopted in Brazil last year, and the "Joint Declaration on Tropical Forest Cooperation and Climate Action" approved in Indonesia in 2022. In this vein, the Ambassador of the Republic of Gabon for Climate, Sustainable Development and the Environment, who is also the Co-Facilitator of the CBFP, Dr. Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo, hailed its importance in these terms: "This is a strategic initiative that will work towards capacity building and technology transfer, and its South-South cooperation framework will tangibly help the countries of the Congo Basin".
The initiative aims to strengthen cooperation between countries with tropical forests to develop national systems for channeling climate finance, including the transfer of economic incentives to local communities to stimulate and recognise their climate actions. The initiative will also incorporate digital applications to improve the efficiency and transparency of this type of financial instrument.
According to the Head of the CAFI Secretariat, Ms. Berta Pesti, the experience of countries with rich forest ecosystems, such as Costa Rica, demonstrates the usefulness and effectiveness of financial instruments for deploying innovative and inclusive policies for the climate, forests, and sustainable local development.
The Secretary General for the Environment, Mr. Benjamin Toirambe Bamoninga, representing the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the DRC, appealed to the countries of the Congo Basin to strengthen cooperation, while capitalising on existing platforms. He also reminded government players of the importance of transparency in information sharing.
The new cooperation platform is in the final design phase. UNDP has begun consultations with a number of interested countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Gabonese Republic, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Indonesia. It will act as host and convenor of the initiative, given its international experience in the field and its active presence in each of the participating countries. CAFI, for its part, intends to contribute financially to the launch of the platform. A stakeholders’ workshop to consolidate and launch the platform is scheduled for later this year.