The UN hopes a new treaty signed by African governments, industry representatives and civil society organisations this week will slow levels of illegal timber trading in the Congo Basin.
The Brazzaville Declaration marks the latest effort by the international community to slow the destruction of Africa’s rainforests.
Backed by the governments of the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon, the agreement focuses on boosting transparency, forest governance and timber tracking.
Covering an area of 300 million hectares, the Congo Basin harbours the world’s second largest tropical forest, but the UN estimates net forest loss is around 700,000 hectares a year.
The agreement recognises the “importance of the forestry sector in the socio-economic development and its contribution to food security and nutrition on the one hand and its role in the preservation of the global climate and biodiversity conservation on the other.”
Recent research shows that Congo Basin tree species are larger in stature on average than their Amazon counterparts, suggesting the African rainforest may be a larger carbon storehouse and a crucial resource for productive and sustainable forest management.
WWF says up to a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation.
Trees in the Congo Basin are also a major source of illegal timber, part of a global trade that costs governments around $10 billion per year in lost tax revenues worldwide.
Simon Counsell, executive director of campaign group Rainforest Foundation UK described the agreement as an 'important step’, but argued it needs to be more ambitious.
For the complete article, please see Responding to Climate Change.
In his address on this year’s World Cities Day, UN-Secretary General António Guterres recognised that “cities have borne the brunt of the pandemic” and called upon governments to “prepare cities for future disease outbreaks”. Authorities cannot waste this opportunity to build back better by simultaneously addressing the increasing economic hardship for the urban poor and climate change impacts. This will help prevent not only future health risks but also the increased risk of urban violence and insecurity.
The new group will try to advance climate policies, even as some of its members are likely to clash. Critics say the group’s efforts won’t go far enough.
With climate change increasingly affecting food production in South Asia, it is time to focus on making food markets more resilient to climate shocks.
Michael Keating, Executive Director at the European Institue of Peace (EIP), argues that peacebuilding and conflict resolution must not disregard the impacts of the climate crisis on livelihoods, social cohesion and conflict resolution.