The Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) has signed on Monday 21st February 2011 in Tunis (Tunisia), an agreement about the management of CBFF projects. The Fund Management Agency (FMA) will be a consortium made of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and the foundation Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) and will assist the Bank manage CBFF operations under a threshold value of Euros 2.5 million. The contract has been signed by AfDB Vice-President M. Kamal El Kheshen on behalf of CBFF and M. Lindsey Domingo, partner at PwC in Francophone Africa.

The signing of this contract is a huge step given that the CBFF has 15 projects on its portfolio to be managed by the FMA. An additional 12 projects were approved by the CBFF Governing Council on November, 2010, and will be also managed by the FMA.

The Congo Basin Forests Fund (CBFF) was created in June, 2008, with a double objective of poverty reduction and the fight against climate change through the decrease, the mitigation and, if possible, the pure and simple inversion of the rates of deforestation in the Congo Basin. The CBFF received an initial Euro 118 million capitalization from the UK and Norway and remain opened to other bilateral and multilateral donors.

Hosted by the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department of the African Development Bank, the CBFF Secretariat administers the Fund by applying the Bank's rules of procedures of management. Working with the international, local and national NGOs as well as the public and private institutions, the FMA will assist recipients seeking CBFF financing with project formulation, fund management and implementation of Programme activities. With a view to attaining CBFF objectives more effectively and more efficiently, the FMA will serve as the interface with partners and recipients, and will be charged with assisting the CBFF in managing the programme.

Contacts

Moktar Gaouad