Initiatives

Regional

Establishing Central Africa's first voluntary and independent forest concession monitoring systemMajor timber markets are demanding evidence of legal and sustainable forest management in Central Africa. WRI-GFW is working with leading forest companies in the region to help them communicate commitments and progress made toward legal and sustainable forest management. WRI-GFW and industry, NGO, and governmental partners have designed and begun to promote a voluntary and independent forest concession monitoring system for Central Africa, that will document companies' efforts toward legal and sustainable forest management.

To initiate the system WRI-GFW, in collaboration with Interafrican Forest Industries Association (IFIA), World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), brought together the key forest stakeholders for a two day, multi-stakeholder workshop in Douala, Cameroon in March 2004. The workshop assembled key stakeholders to discuss the system concept and agree on indicators of legality and sustainable forest management and a means for their verification. The workshop was a success due, in part, to the support from the German government (BMZ), World Bank, U.S. Forest Service, and USAID-CARPE.

Since the workshop, key stakeholders worked together to refine the indicators and discuss possible governance and organizational structures and financing for implementation. WRI-GFW and core partners proposed to test this Forest Concession Monitoring System (FORCOMS) by monitoring three companies in three different countries in Central Africa and received approval by USAID-CARPE. The results will be used to refine and finalize FORCOMS structure and operational plan for implementation throughout the sub-region.

What is clear from ongoing multistakeholder consultation is that FORCOMS is uniquely positioned as a preparatory tool for the realization of key aspects the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan and for certification and therefore does not to compete with related initiatives and schemes. Moreover, FORCOMS is to be a tool for progressive forest companies in Central Africa to demonstrate and communicate their commitments and efforts regarding legal forest operations and progress towards sustainable forest management to the international marketplace, implicated governments, and civil society.

Please contact Karl Morrison, kmorrison@wri.org, for more information on this project.

Congo Basin State of the Forest ReportUSAID-CARPE launched a multi-stakeholder initiative to prepare The Forests of the Congo Basin: a preliminary assessment, a report presented at the Summit of the Heads of States of Central Africa in 2005. In 2006 the French government took over the facilitation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, and with that, the need for an expanded Congo Basin State of the Forest Report was recognized.  WRI-GFW considers this a very important and useful effort and is participating actively by producing a series of maps to illustrate the best spatial information relevant to the region. Funding for this project to WRI-GFW comes from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Gabon

Gabon Pilot Interactive Forestry AtlasBased on the successes WRI-GFW has had working with partners to create these useful CDRom atlases, it is completing a pilot atlas in Gabon.  This was agreed in a July 2006 memorandum of understanding with the government (Ministère de l’Economie Forestière, des Eaux, de la Pêche, et des Parcs Nationaux) (PDFs in English and French) in order to gather together available datasets and package them into an interactive atlas. Gabon is home to some of the most culturally, biologically, and economically important forest resources in Central Africa. However, the extent of actual forest cover and depletion is not accurately known. This new partnership demonstrates a significant attempt to curtail further forest degradation in Central Africa by incorporating on-the-ground knowledge with systematic satellite technology, to provide an accurate base of forest information. This initiative follows a similar process initiated in 2002 with the Cameroonian government, as well as in the Republic of the Congo earlier this year, which has led to a much greater understanding of the causes and effects of logging in multiple African countries, and also helped the forest industry to plan future activities.  This pilot atlas, supported by USAID-CARPE, will be complete in September.

Cameroon

Collaboration with the government of Cameroon to improve forest governanceA memorandum of understanding (PDF) (Word) was signed between WRI-GFW and the Cameroon government at a ceremony held in Yaoundé, Cameroon in June 2005. This agreement ensures the continuation of a landmark technical partnership between the Ministère des Forêts et de la Faune (MINFOF), formerly the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF), and WRI-GFW for another three years. The government of Cameroon used the occasion to reinforce its commitment to combat illegal logging, highlighting the MINFOF-WRI partnership as an important contribution to achieving this commitment. Likewise, WRI-GFW committed to continue and expand its technical support to the government of Cameroon to improve forest monitoring and governance, combat illegal logging and promote more sustainable management of forest resources.  In addition to the Interactive Forestry Atlases mentioned below, the collaboration is also producing a yearly “Situation de l’exploitation forestière au Cameroun”. This map will be updated according to the new land attributions and protected areas. View maps from 2003, 2004and 2005.

In June 2002, a collaboration agreement (PDF) was forged between the Ministry of Environment and Forests of Cameroon (MINEF) and WRI-GFW to improve the quality and availability of geographic information relevant to the forest sector. This cooperation created and compiled data necessary to produce map-based tools that allowed MINEF to improve its forest governance activities and promoted transparency and access to information among the diverse stakeholders. Critical support has been provided by USAID-CARPE, the World Bank, EU, GTZ, the MacArthur Foundation, ESRI, and ERDAS.

The Interactive Forestry Atlas of CameroonWRI-GFW and MINFOF, with the participation of local partners Cameroon Environmental Watch and Limbe Botanical and Zoological Gardens, have collected data on forest titles and zoning (FMU, forest concessions, ventes de coupe, community forests, protected areas, etc.) and on the status of forest management plans for each FMU.

WRI-GFW has trained MINFOF staff and partners to use remote sensing and satellite images to analyze forest condition and detect logging roads. The datasets and resulting analysis were released at the Central African Heads of State Summit on Conservation and Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems in Brazzaville, Congo in February 2005. The Interactive Forestry Atlas of Cameroon is available on the WRI-GFW website (Interactive map server) (PDFs in English and French).  A follow up report and CDRom are expected out in September 2006 with updated datasets.

The Atlas has been hailed by partners as a highly valuable decision support tool. To maximize its use, targeted training activities for government staff, parliamentarians, and NGOs are being conducted. Training focuses on using the Atlas and incorporating it into operational activities of both technicians and key decision makers.

By using this interactive atlas, key decision-makers and all stakeholders are able to easily access and manipulate the most current and critical information for forest monitoring in order to produce and view maps. Examples of potential uses of the atlas include: Supporting the prioritization of field missions for monitoring and enforcement of forest laws and regulations; Helping to determine whether road construction is taking place within the boundaries of legally attributed logging areas and/or in compliance with approved management plans; and Helping to resolve conflicts by providing a source of objective information on the boundaries of various forest zones.  Critical support has been provided by USAID-CARPE, the World Bank, EU, GTZ, the MacArthur Foundation, ESRI, and ERDAS.

Please contact Pierre Méthot, pmethot@wri.org, for more information on these Cameroon projects.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Forest title conversion process in the Democratic Republic of CongoWRI-GFW, in a joint venture with the Belgium consulting firm, AGRECO, is acting as an independent observer and providing technical advice to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in its process to conduct a legal review of existing forest titles and to convert old eligible forest titles to new concessions (as laid out in Presidential Decree PD 50/116). WRI is working to ensure transparency, build GIS capacity and identify opportunities to improve the process. This includes increasing the participation of local and indigenous peoples in the decision making process.

WRI-AGRECO has developed a French language website to provide information on the process and its results at http://www.rdc-conversiontitresforestiers.org.

WRI’s Question and Answer sheet
Presidential decree October 24, 2005 (français) (English-unofficial)

Republic of Congo

Collaboration with the government of the Republic of Congo to monitor forests and reduce illegal logging
In June 2003, WRI-GFW entered into an agreement (in French) with the Republic of Congo's Ministère de l'Economie Forestière et de l'Environnement (MEFE) to collaborate on a project that will help the government control illegal logging and enforce its forest laws. This project uses satellite images to map all Congo's logging roads, forest titles (forest concessions, community forests, etc.) and protected areas, and compare this data with existing forest legislation. The government is participating in data development and is building the institutional capacity to generate and use this data to more efficiently direct enforcement resources on problem areas.

WRI-GFW is collaborating with the governmental agency Centre National des Inventaires et Aménagements Forestiers et Fauniques (CNIAF) and a local NGO, Club des Amis de l'Environnement (CAE), to

• Establish the necessary technical infrastructure for the project in Brazzaville (a remote sensing and GIS laboratory);
• Establish institutional links and processes to ensure the supply of the data;
• Establish training programs for MEFE and CAE staff on the use of remote sensing and GIS for processing and analyzing data; and
• Publish and distribute project results.

WRI-GFW has worked with CNIAF to establish the lab in mid-2004 and provided the software and training for the staff to begin analyzing the data.
Results will be made publicly available on the GFW website and will be incorporated by MEFE into law enforcement efforts. This project is supported by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).

Please contact Pierre Méthot, pmethot@wri.org, for more information on this project.

Interactive Forestry Atlas of the Republic of CongoGiven the success of the Interactive Forestry Atlas of Cameroon as a useful tool for good governance and stronger NGO and civil society participation in forest resource management, WRI-GFW and the government of Congo (Ministère de l’Économie Forestière et de l’Environnement), through a memorandum of understanding (PDFs in English and French) signed in May 2006 have agreed to produce a similar atlas for Congo. This work, supported by USAID-CARPE, will build on the illegal logging monitoring project funded by ITTO and will be complete in September 2006.

Reinforcing the Forest Statistics Cell in the Republic of CongoWRI-GFW is assisting MEFE to reinforce the Forest Statistics Cell in Congo.  This includes installing software and designing the database. This database, begun in 2006, will be linked to that of the monitoring project mentioned above (funded by ITTO) and fills an important gap to improve sustainable forest use.  This project is funded by USAID-CARPE.

Forest Taxation

Distributional Equity - Forest taxation distribution analysisWRI, in close collaboration with local partners and World Resources Institute’s Institutions and Governance Program, will seek to better understand the forest taxation systems in Cameroon and its implications on the distribution of public forest resource revenues. Research will focus on distributional equity of public forest resource revenues in Cameroon and will support the formulation and promotion of policies and actions aiming at improved/fairer allocation of these revenues for poverty reduction ends. Benefiting from the strengths of WRI-GFW, this project will focus on:

• Researching tracking forest resource generated public revenues (forest taxes);
• Building capacity and an informal network of interested stakeholders and champions;
• Formulating policy recommendations based on research finding and stakeholder consultation; and
• Initiating development of performance monitoring systems/tools.

In subsequent years WRI and partners, depending on securing sufficient funds, will focus on developing and establishing robust performance monitoring systems/tools to underpin pro poor environmental distributions (in this case from forest taxes). This monitoring system could track both how forest tax revenues are distributed and how they are ultimately spent (i.e. a monitoring system/tool that tracks not only the tax revenue coming from the forestry operations, but moreover what was done with this money on the ground). Ultimate distribution policy recommendations would be significantly bolstered by the integration of this information with poverty and “environmental management” data layers.

For more information, please contact Karl Morrison, at kmorrison@wri.org.

Bushmeat

The Bushmeat Information Management and Analysis Project (IMAP)The IMAP was a multi-year initiative begun in 2001 in response to an expressed need for a geographic view of the bushmeat crisis. The commercial hunting and trade in wildlife for consumption is increasingly threatening the existence of many forest dwelling species in Central Africa.

WRI-GFW collaborated with the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF) to create a central repository of information to improve our ability to analyze available information, identify potential threats to wildlife and identify opportunities to stop or curb the bushmeat trade. The project makes existing BCTF databases available online, geo-referenced by country or coordinate, and combines this with WRI-GFW's data on Central Africa into an interactive portal with a searchable digital library and an interactive map of Central Africa. With IMAP, users create their own maps and analyses using data on logging concessions, protected areas, roads and other frequently changing features, and information on species ranges and human population growth. IMAP results can provide important information for policy design, law enforcement and public awareness. It is continually updated as new data become available to WRI-GFW and partners. This project is supported by the US Fish Wildlife Service and an Anonymous donation.

Please contact Susan Minnemeyer, susanm@wri.org, or BCTF, info@bushmeat.org, for more information on this project.

Initiatives in Development

Central Africa Forestry Data WarehouseMany national and regional initiatives in Central Africa are calling for the collection, harmonization, and distribution of data and information relevant to environmental decision-making. These include COMIFAC and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. To address this need, GFW and the Observatoire satellital des forêts d'afrique centrale (OSFAC) are discussing the creation of a Central Africa Forestry Data Warehouse to hold the best updated forestry data that allows key stakeholders to improve environmental stewardship, forest management and governance. GFW will engage key stakeholders to determine how such a Central Africa Forestry Data Warehouse could be established.

Supporting the government's data management capacity in CameroonThe Ministry of Environment and Forests of Cameroon (MINEF), with the technical assistance of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), created a large database of non-spatial data and information on forest title allocations, company profiles, log and timber production and export levels, forest taxation, etc. Unfortunately, due to a lack of financial and human resources, this Système Informatisé de Gestion de l'Information Forestière (SIGIF) can no longer fulfill its original mandate and efficiently house the significant amount of information coming in regularly. It is also considered structurally cumbersome and generally difficult to manipulate, thus limiting its intended utility. With improvements, this system could be of great assistance to MINEF for law enforcement and the management of the substantial forest revenues generated by taxes on the forest sector.

GFW and MINEF have agreed in preliminary discussions that GFW's help would be useful to upgrade and extend the SIGIF and connect it with the MINEF-GFW database. GFW will conduct a technical assessment of work needed, will establish a potential action plan and related budget, and will initiate efforts to secure funding for the implementation of the action plan.

For more information on these projects, please contact:
Pierre Méthot
Global Forest Watch
10 G Street NE, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20002  USA
pmethot@wri.org
1-202-729-7779
fax: 1-202-729-7798