Participation of the ATIBT in the 20th Meeting of the Parties to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP)

During this meeting, ATIBT co-organized Workshop 3 "Sustainable Value Chains in Central Africa" with the FAO and ITTO, organized a side event on Reforestation in Forest Management Units (UFA-REFOREST project), and took part in numerous meetings, round tables and side-events.

Workshop 3 "Sustainable Value Chains in Central Africa" with FAO and ITTO addressed several crucial aspects, including the implementation of CITES in Central Africa. These include the challenges of developing NDFs, estimating and monitoring quotas, issuing import permits specifically to the EU, and monitoring classification proposals. In addition, the workshop highlighted the strengths of the region's countries in meeting the requirements of the convention, including:

Legality: 9 of the 11 member countries of the COMIFAC area have legislation classified in the first two Cites categories
Sustainability: effective application of forest management principles and implementation of certification.
Traceability: adoption of paper and digital traceability systems.

The event on reforestation in FMUs was moderated by Yanick NKOULOU (ATIBT), Achille BIWOLE (University of Douala), Stéphane MOMO (University of Liège) and moderated by Jacqueline LARDIT - VAN DE POL (ATIBT). Funded by the European Union, the UFA-REFOREST project benefits from technical support from Nature+, Gembloux Agro Bio Tech and ENSET of the University of Douala. The project involves four forestry companies in Cameroon: ALPICAM-GRUMCAM, PALLISCO, SEEF and SEFAC.

By focusing on plantations, the project contributes to achieving the objectives of the Programme d'Amélioration de la Gouvernance en Milieu Forestier (PAMFOR), the Programme Indicatif National (PIN) of Cameroon's 11th European Development Fund (EDF) and the previous Programme National de Reboisement (PNR) managed by the Agence Nationale d'Appui au Développement Forestier (ANAFOR). The project aims to restore forest cover and maintain populations of commercial species in FMUs.

The side event presented the UFA-REFOREST project and three complementary projects on landscape restoration issues, as follows:

Two projects funded by the RESSAC Program:

*Growth dynamics and seedling ecology of the main commercial tree species in Cameroon's production forests";

* “Carbon balance of silvicultural enrichment in production forests in Cameroon ".

The "Preservation of Monumental Trees and Tree Multiplication+" (ARM+) project, funded by the PPECF.

These projects are very important for acquiring the knowledge needed to set up viable seed banks in Central Africa, not only for silviculture activities in forest concessions, but also for reforestation of sites degraded by agricultural, mining and other activities.

Download Several documents have been published on the results of the CBFP 2024 Meeting of the Parties: