Demand for African natural resources can ensure sustainable use

Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo: African nations could turn the demand for their natural resources currently driving deforestation and other destruction into a force for higher returns from sustainable development, WWF has said today.

“Certified, sustainable forestry yields far better returns for companies, communities and Congo basin countries than illegal logging ever will,” said Andre Kamdem, Head of the WWF Green Heart of Africa Initiative.

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“And the yield is forever, whereas allowing one-off plunder of natural resources usually damages future returns.”

Over 100 delegations from Congo Basin countries, NGOs and multilateral agencies are attending the 6th World Forum for Sustainable Development from 27 – 30 October 2008 in Brazzaville, Congo. Talks have been focused on conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing of natural resources as well as the vulnerability of ecosystems in the face of climate change.

Held under the auspices of the government of the Republic of Congo, the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the forum seeks to take stock after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, South Africa). With the theme, “Africa, Environment, globalization”, the springboard of the event is the apparent absence of real solidarity in handling the economic doldrums of developing countries by the international community.

“The world will still come for the natural resources of the Congo if they are managed for sustainability,”Kamdem said. “Our challenge is to put the machinery in place to turn from plunder to preservation of resources and it is in the interests of the world to assist the nations of the green heart of Africa to do this.

“WWF is urging governments, in this forum and elsewhere, to ensure that the financial investments in development and infrastructure across the region are guided by environmentally responsible policies and principles”. 

The stock taking in Brazzaville is dwelling on lessons learnt in the execution of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Action Plan. Governments were expected to put in place new bases for strategic and credible partnerships for the realization of objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.

One common thread links the fate of the Congo Basin: the continued existence of the world's second largest tropical rainforest expanse. International economic forces, a growing demand for natural resources, and widespread regional poverty are putting the forests, wildlife and freshwater areas of the Congo Basin at risk. Current patterns of resource exploitation and infrastructure development across the region could result in as much as 70% of remaining forest being lost by 2040. At the same time, commercial hunting for bushmeat – already at 1 million tones a year – is expected to double in the next 25 years. 

To counter these adverse forces, governments need to identify and commit to developing tools for a finance framework, which guarantees predictable and secure resources for conservation in developing countries. Financing on conservation issues must be additional to existing development aid. Development aid is aimed at alleviating poverty in the poorest countries, and should not be mixed with funding aimed at solving the global environmental crisis. All payments, whether for development or for conservation must be measurable, reportable and verifiable.

“Financial investments in development and infrastructure across the region should be guided by environmentally responsible policies and principles”, said Kamdem. “In addition, certification and best practices should be adopted and applied by a significant percentage of extractive businesses and infrastructure developments. And, crucially, government policies, incentives and capacities should seek to safeguard natural resource protection and sustainable development at all levels across this vast region”.