Protection of the Congo Basin: 30 years after its launch, what assessment for the Ecofac project?
The Congo Basin is home to the second largest tropical rainforest in the world.
Kim Gjerstad/Unesco
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
There are many initiatives to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin, the planet's second green lung after the Amazon.
Launched in 1992 and funded by the European Union, the Central African Forest Ecosystem (Ecofac) project is considered the most avant-garde in terms of environmental protection in Central African countries.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Libreville,
Yves-Laurent Goma
From his office located on the seafront in Libreville, Maxim Nzita, the current coordinator of the Ecofac project, gives a glowing assessment of this vast environmental program, 30 years after its launch.
“
There have been fairly significant achievements,
he says,
with regard to protected areas and the wildlife area, which have increased to 13 to 15% of the territories under conservation.
It covers almost 360,000 km².
They are practically countries!
»
This satisfaction contrasts with the great pressure on animal species in the region.
A WWF report from 2016, for example, estimated that between 2002 and 2012, Central Africa lost around 65% of its elephants.
Maxim Nzita replies that the situation would be worse if the Ecofac project did not exist.
“
We continue to face a fairly powerful structural, operational threat.
The Ecofac program, the States and many other programs were more or less these tools which made it possible to limit the damage.
»
In its balance sheet, Ecofac also claims the training of local executives who today ensure the conservation of the environment in the region.
“
Ecofac was the main catalyst that led the sub-region to have a very important critical mass of trained people.
»
For his part, Marc Ona, a Gabonese environmentalist, has pinned a lot of hope on this Ecofac project.
He says he is disappointed today.
We have forgotten that the areas selected for the establishment of parks are areas occupied by populations.
Has the existence of these populations been taken into account, has the science of these populations, their know-how in the conservation of these ecosystems been taken into account?
No.
People were put under pressure to stop practicing their traditional activities.
Marc Ona, Gabonese environmentalist
During a recent ceremony, all the authorities of Central Africa were unanimous, Ecofac must not die.
However, funding for the project came from the European Development Fund, an offshoot of the ACP-EU agreements.
These agreements having come to an end, the actors plead for new financing mechanisms to be found.
► To read also:
Congo Basin: the forest, between the hammer of global warming and the anvil of development
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Africa
Congo Brazzaville
Environment
Wildlife
Flora