The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) wants to have detailed knowledge of its forest heritage. This is the meaning of the national workshop to launch the study on the forest capital of the DRC, organized on March 14, 2023 in Kinshasa by the General Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development (SG-EDD) and the General Secretariat for Land Management (SG-AT), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the support of the National REDD+ Fund (FONAREDD).
“The DRC plays an important role in the fight against climate change. It is the solution for the climate crisis. This study will allow us to determine the ecological, economic and social conservation potential of the massifs for the whole of the DRC; to produce cartographic information that will be compiled in a commented atlas and to formulate concrete proposals for the different types of forests in the country,” explains Joseph Ezpua, UNDP Team Leader for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in the DRC.
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Technically led by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, through its General Secretariat, this study will be conducted for one year. It is financed through the DRC’s National REDD+ Fund (FONAREDD).
The conservation of the DRC’s forests is crucial to the climate objectives set at the global level. With 60% of the Congo Basin forests, the country has 31.6 million hectares of protected areas, 14.7 million hectares of conservation concessions, and 2.8 million hectares of local community forest concessions.
Boris Ngounou