Sustainable development Green gold

On 3 June 2011 a satisfied Denis Sassou N’Guesso saw his guests to the door. The participants in the Three Forest Basins Summit’s had spent a week discussing sustainable development. The goal of this meeting organised by Congo’s president was “to foster South-South cooperation on one hand and North-South cooperation on the other with the aim of sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the Congo, Amazon and Borneo-Mekong basins to make a greater contribution towards the regulation and stabilisation of the global climate, the fight against poverty and the economic development of the countries concerned.” The three areas account for 80% of the world’s tropical forests and twothirds of its biodiversity.

IMPRESSIVE WEALTH

So is Brazzaville Africa’s global ecology capital? In any case, the international summit recalled Congo’s environmental commitment and spelled out what it expects from polluting countries. “The tropical forests’ contribution to the global ecological balance will be effective only if the... emitting industries and polluting countries take forceful, observable steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions by specific targets,” the president said at the summit’s end. “Our goal has always been to establish a necessary, smart link between sustainable forest management and our countries’ development. The international community must financially and materially back the sustainable management efforts it is asking us to make.” The participants adopted a common declaration on tropical forests, the climate and sustainable development in preparation for the upcoming climate talks in Durban, South Africa and the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil. Congo lies in the heart of the planet’s biggest tropical forest after the Amazon. Preserving it is of global importance Odzala-Kokoua National Park has high ecotourism potential. but the country must meet its economic needs while keeping the ecosystem balanced. Twenty-two million hectares of forest blanket nearly 60% of the land area and house approximately 400 mammal, 1,086 bird, 216 amphibian, 280 reptile and over 900 butterfly species. Central African Forests Commission (Comifac) experts say its timber potential “can be estimated at 567 million m3 of exploitable gross volume, composed of around 10 of the most sought-after species”. The forest also has 166 species of food plants and 800 of medicinal plants. In short, this wealth is almost as impressive as oil.

COPING WITH POLLUTION FROM OIL EXTRACTION

Itinerant farming, irrational exploitation and the need for cooking and heating fuel are causing deforestation at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 hectares a year, so Congo has set up a National Reforestation Service (SNR) with the goal of replanting a million hectares by 2020. Overall, officials explain, the actions Congo has undertaken in the sustainable conservation and management of forests have led to several satisfactory results, including the reduction of deforestation; sustainable development of five million hectares; Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of major forestry concessions covering 2.5 million hectares; implementation of a wood traceability system in the framework of voluntary partnership agreements with the European Union; and creation of national and crossborder protected areas totalling 11.2% of the country’s land area.

Congo’s extractive activities, especially oil drilling, pose many ecological hazards, including a serious risk of polluting coastal waters. For now, application of the “polluter pays” principle has helped curb damage from the companies involved. Congolese regulation even classifies economic activities depending on their possible impact on the environment and quality of life. Today, Total E&P Congo, in particular, has developed processes to treat drilling mud and even give it value-added at the Djeno landfarming station. The processed hydrocarbon sludge is recycled in landfill or flower gardens. “I realised that many things are being done to preserve the environment,” said sustainable development, forestry and environment minister Henri Djombo after touring the site. “The general public is often in the dark about it... It’s worth extending this system to every company and industry.” Officials have also gotten oil companies to set up systems to capture gas that was once flared on oilrigs, cutting gas discharges from 50 to 20 parts per millions (ppm).

In the framework of regional and international bodies, the president has convinced neighbouring countries to work in the same direction, which has led to the creation of Comifac. In July Sassou N’Guesso’s announced his latest campaign: persuading the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to locate one of its specialised bodies in Africa..

By François BAMBOU, Special Correspondent