The 6th meeting of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) Governing Council was held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on June 13th

A high-level political dialogue took place between the financial partners (meeting within the College of Donors), and the ATIBT was invited to present its activities.

On the occasion of the sixth meeting of the CBFP Council held in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, took place successively, on June 13, 2019, the meeting of the various colleges, in particular that of the Private Sector College, where you will find the ATIBT, that of the Regional College where COMIFAC and other organizations of the subregion meet, and finally the 14th of June the CBFP Council meeting.

Prior to these two meetings, on June 12, 2019, a high-level Political Dialogue between the financial partners (meeting within the College of Donors) to which the ATIBT General Manager was invited.

This political dialogue focused on the financing of economic and social development projects for forest and riparian populations of forests and protected areas.

ATIBT emphasized in its speech made in the framework of the opening of the Council, the role of forestry companies respectful of the legality, and particularly that of the certified companies, to fight against the deforestation, and marked the difficulties to align under the the same objectives, NGOs, the private sector, governments, tropical food consumers, who sometimes have other priorities than biodiversity conservation, and the fight against climate change.

It was also stated that the forest concession model, which is legal, and if possible certified, is highly efficient to protect biodiversity, carbon sinks and water, while their main source of income, namely wood , is questioned in Western markets.

These companies are clearly in the conservation market and contribute to many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

However, this model needs to be well understood and to be able to demonstrate the competitive advantage it represents in terms of solutions that institutions have identified as the most difficult sustainable development objectives: fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity.

In conclusion of its participation in the CBFP, ATIBT and the companies that make up the association are available to donors, states, NGOs and all CBFP partners to continue contributing to the preservation of tropical forests.

This meeting in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea, was also an opportunity to meet the authorities of the country in charge of forests. We exchanged on the recent decision to stop the export of logs to promote local processing. The Minister of Forests underscored the efforts that needed to be made to improve the capacity of the country’s enterprises to carry out this transformation, and to avoid the log overstocks that were currently being built.