- Mission: Strengthening governance for rainforest conservation in the Republic of Congo
- Clients: GIZ
- Implementation period: 10/2023-03/2024
ICM has provided the project planning for a project financed by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) with 6 million US dollars and supported by the BMZ. Its objective is to reform the legal framework for environmental governance and monitoring of all public and private investment projects on Congolese territory with a potentially significant impact on forest cover.
With around 200 million hectares, the Congo Basin, the world's second largest contiguous rainforest area after the Amazon region, plays a special role in international efforts to conserve forests. The forests of the Congo Basin are of great regional and national socio-economic importance (e.g. water balance, energy supply, food security, poverty reduction). The Republic of Congo, with an area of 342,000 km², has over 200,000 km² (20 million ha) of forest, which harbours an immense ecosystem of animal and plant species. Approximately 40 % of its population of around five million people depend on this forest for their livelihood. The Congolese economy is mainly based on the primary sector of agriculture and forestry as well as mining and extractive industries (oil, natural gas). Maintaining the services provided by natural ecosystems is crucial to ensure the country's socio-economic development, limit the impact of climate change and provide the most vulnerable population groups with an economic basis and opportunities to adapt to climate change. A number of investments in key sectors are leading to the progressive loss and degradation of forest areas and biodiversity.
The project will conduct strategic environmental and social studies for each key sector, analyse existing environmental practices in the implementation of projects and assess their impact. Furthermore, instruments and processes for environmental impact assessments, authorisation procedures and a functional digital monitoring system are to be introduced. This is intended to monitor the implementation of environmental requirements and environmental management and social plans for investment projects in the areas of agriculture, forestry, mining and the oil industry.
