Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection

The Congo Basin forests have been mainly “passively” protected by chronic political instability and conflict, poor infrastructure, and poor governance. Congo Basin countries thus still fit the profile of high forest cover/ low deforestation (HFLD) countries. However, there are signs that Congo Basin...

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Main Author:	Megevand, Carole
Other Authors:	Mosnier, Aline
Format:	Publication
Language:	en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2013
Subjects:	Agriculture Climate Change Congo Basin Deforestation Energy Forest Forest Degradation Mining Modeling REDD+/REDD Sustainable Development Transport
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12477

id	okr-10986-12477
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-124772021-04-23T14:03:06Z Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection Megevand, Carole Mosnier, Aline Hourticq, Joël Sanders, Klas Doetinchem, Nina Streck, Charlotte Agriculture Climate Change Congo Basin Deforestation Energy Forest Forest Degradation Mining Modeling REDD+/REDD Sustainable Development Transport The Congo Basin forests have been mainly “passively” protected by chronic political instability and conflict, poor infrastructure, and poor governance. Congo Basin countries thus still fit the profile of high forest cover/ low deforestation (HFLD) countries. However, there are signs that Congo Basin forests are under increasing pressure from a variety of sources, including mineral extraction, road development, agribusiness, and biofuels, in addition to subsistence agricultural expansion and charcoal collection. Congo Basin countries are now at a crossroad – they are not yet locked into a development path that will necessarily come at high cost to forests. They need to find new ways of development that can simultaneously respond to the dual challenge of developing local economies and reducing poverty while limiting the negative impact of growth on the region’s natural capital, and forests in particular. They can define a new path toward “forest-friendly” growth. The question is how to match economic change with smart measures and policy choices so that Congo Basin countries sustain and benefit from their extraordinary natural assets over the long term – in other words how to “leapfrog” the traditional dip in forest cover usually observed in the forest transition curve. The report Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin: Reconciling economic growth and forest protection is the output of a two-year exercise implemented by the World Bank at the request of the COMIFAC (Regional Commission in charge of Forestry in Central Africa) and the highly-forested countries in the Congo Basin (namely Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Republic of Congo). The study is informed by economic modeling complemented with sectoral analysis, as well as interactive simulations and workshop discussions. This study on Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin: Reconciling economic growth and forest protection analyzes the current and future pressures exerted by different sectors of the economy on Congo Basin forests, and highlights policy options to limit deforestation while pursuing inclusive, green growth. Emerging environmental finance mechanisms, such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) under the climate change negotiations, may provide additional resources to help countries protect their forests. But there are already a number of “no-regret” actions that countries can take to grow along a sustainable development path. 2013-02-25T16:24:30Z 2013-02-25T16:24:30Z 2013-02-20 978-0-8213-9742-8 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12477 en_US Directions in Development, Environment and Sustainable Devlopment; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research :: Publication Publications & Research Sub-Saharan Africa Indonesia Lao People's Democratic Republic Nepal Papua New Guinea Thailand Vietnam
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	Agriculture Climate Change Congo Basin Deforestation Energy Forest Forest Degradation Mining Modeling REDD+/REDD Sustainable Development Transport
spellingShingle	Agriculture Climate Change Congo Basin Deforestation Energy Forest Forest Degradation Mining Modeling REDD+/REDD Sustainable Development Transport Megevand, Carole Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection
geographic_facet	Sub-Saharan Africa Indonesia Lao People's Democratic Republic Nepal Papua New Guinea Thailand Vietnam
relation	Directions in Development, Environment and Sustainable Devlopment;
description	The Congo Basin forests have been mainly “passively” protected by chronic political instability and conflict, poor infrastructure, and poor governance. Congo Basin countries thus still fit the profile of high forest cover/ low deforestation (HFLD) countries. However, there are signs that Congo Basin forests are under increasing pressure from a variety of sources, including mineral extraction, road development, agribusiness, and biofuels, in addition to subsistence agricultural expansion and charcoal collection. Congo Basin countries are now at a crossroad – they are not yet locked into a development path that will necessarily come at high cost to forests. They need to find new ways of development that can simultaneously respond to the dual challenge of developing local economies and reducing poverty while limiting the negative impact of growth on the region’s natural capital, and forests in particular. They can define a new path toward “forest-friendly” growth. The question is how to match economic change with smart measures and policy choices so that Congo Basin countries sustain and benefit from their extraordinary natural assets over the long term – in other words how to “leapfrog” the traditional dip in forest cover usually observed in the forest transition curve. The report Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin: Reconciling economic growth and forest protection is the output of a two-year exercise implemented by the World Bank at the request of the COMIFAC (Regional Commission in charge of Forestry in Central Africa) and the highly-forested countries in the Congo Basin (namely Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Republic of Congo). The study is informed by economic modeling complemented with sectoral analysis, as well as interactive simulations and workshop discussions. This study on Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin: Reconciling economic growth and forest protection analyzes the current and future pressures exerted by different sectors of the economy on Congo Basin forests, and highlights policy options to limit deforestation while pursuing inclusive, green growth. Emerging environmental finance mechanisms, such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) under the climate change negotiations, may provide additional resources to help countries protect their forests. But there are already a number of “no-regret” actions that countries can take to grow along a sustainable development path.
author2	Mosnier, Aline
author_facet	Mosnier, Aline Megevand, Carole
format	Publications & Research :: Publication
author	Megevand, Carole
author_sort	Megevand, Carole
title	Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection
title_short	Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection
title_full	Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection
title_fullStr	Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection
title_full_unstemmed	Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection
title_sort	deforestation trends in the congo basin : reconciling economic growth and forest protection
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12477
_version_	1764422361516343296

Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection

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