State of the Rainforest 2014

Central Africa’s rainforests

Managing rich forest resources to benefit poor communities challenge

stone towards a legal and formal recognition of the rights of forest communities to customary land. 24 Recently, a law on basic principles of the rights of Indigenous Pygmies Peoples was submitted to the National Assembly in DRC. The law was drafted by a group of 50 parliamentarians with support from civil society organizations. 25 The challenge for the Congo Basin rainforest countries is to build on these positive achievements, and establish forest policies that can hinder the increase in deforestation predicted for the coming years. Varied ecology The Congo Basin comprises a variety of ecosystems. The northern forests have a hot, dry season, whereas the forests of the western parts of the region have a cooler, dry season. Rainfall and temperature patterns vary greatly. The Congo Basin rainforests generate between 75% and 95% of their own rainfall: if the forest cover is significantly reduced, the local climate will be dramatically affected. The region’s

The Congo Basin rainforest in Central Africa is the second largest rainforest in the world and most of the 90 million people living in the region depend upon it for their livelihood. Deforestation in the Congo Basin has historically been relatively low, compared to other major rainforest regions, partly because decades of conflict have kept the forests off limits for major industrial exploitation. According to most sources, deforestation has been relatively stable the last few years in the region as a whole. There has been some recent positive development with regard to forest policy. A moratorium and a review on logging concessions in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), strongly advocated by civil society, has slowed down the expansion of industrial logging. There are also signs of increased attention to the role of local communities in forest management. In August 2014, a long awaited decree granting forest concessions to local communities was signed in DRC. This is considered a mile-

Tropical forest in Central Africa

C AMEROON

C ENTRAL A FRICAN R EPUBLIC

E QUATORIAL G UINEA

G ABON

R EPUBLIC OF C ONGO

Lake Victoria

D EMOCRATIC R EPUBLIC OF THE C ONGO

Other forest cover Intact forest landscape*

A NGOLA

*defined as an unbroken expanse of natural ecosystems within the zone of current forest extent, showing no signs of significant human activity and large

enough that all native biodiversity could be maintained Source: based on Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, 2013

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014

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