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Central Africa: Kenyan Ecologist Heads Fund to Save Congo Basin
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Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
24 June 2008
Posted to the web 24 June 2008
Oslo
Renowned Kenyan environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai and former Canadian premier Paul Martin will head a 200 million dollar fund to tackle deforestation in the Congo Basin, the world's second largest tropical forest.
Launched in London last week, the Congo Basin Forest Fund will support initiatives from governments, civil society and the private sector that aim to reduce logging, according to Inter Press Service.
The fund will sponsor livelihood projects that seek to make it more profitable for local communities to preserve the forest than to cut it down, as well as the development of new and innovative approaches. This includes a new satellite system that will monitor the forest, which covers more than a million square kilometres.
The Congo Basin rainforest is home to about 50 million people, 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of animals. It covers the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of Congo Republic, south-eastern Cameroon, southern Central African Republic, Gabon and mainland Equatorial Guinea.
The United Nations estimates that two-thirds of the forest will be gone by 2040 if nothing is done to prevent deforestation.
Britain is contributing about 106 million dollars and Norway about 98 million dollars to the fund, which will last until 2012.
"The Congo Basin Forest Fund is a joint response to a global problem whereby an innovative and consensual mechanism has been embraced," Prof Maathai said at the launch. "It involves various partners committed to preserve and protect one of the most unique ecosystems in the world, the Congo Basin rainforest."
The satellite monitoring scheme, one of the first projects to be supported by the Congo Basin fund, involves sending a satellite into space with a hi-tech camera to monitor deforestation levels.
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The camera, which should be operational by the end of 2010, will reveal clearings and loggers' trails that indicate the degree of deforestation. It will also monitor environmental changes and offshore pollution.
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