| Protected Area financing in the Congo Basin |
The Congo Basin contains some of the world’s most
significant biodiversity, including huge tracts of
rainforest. Weak governance, low budgets and
persistent problems associated with civil unrest have
undermined conservation in the region. At the same
time a variety of economic threats such as logging,
clearance for agriculture, the bushmeat trade and
rapidly expanding oil and mineral exploration continue
to pose a grave threat to the continued existence of
forests and the biodiversity they contain.
We have been working with the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) and the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) to finalise the design of a project to
conserve biodiversity and generate sustainable
financing for protected areas in Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo,
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This includes
assessing the ecosystem value of the region’s
protected area network as well as identifying innovative
revenue-generation and environmental finance
mechanisms which can fund conservation in the future.
significant biodiversity, including huge tracts of
rainforest. Weak governance, low budgets and
persistent problems associated with civil unrest have
undermined conservation in the region. At the same
time a variety of economic threats such as logging,
clearance for agriculture, the bushmeat trade and
rapidly expanding oil and mineral exploration continue
to pose a grave threat to the continued existence of
forests and the biodiversity they contain.
We have been working with the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) and the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) to finalise the design of a project to
conserve biodiversity and generate sustainable
financing for protected areas in Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo,
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This includes
assessing the ecosystem value of the region’s
protected area network as well as identifying innovative
revenue-generation and environmental finance
mechanisms which can fund conservation in the future.
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© Environment Management Group 2012
