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The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) is a United States-led initiative to promote the conservation and responsible management of the Basin's tropical forests. The United States will help achieve these goals by partnering with other countries, non-governmental and international organizations, and local communities. These partnerships will help to support a network of national parks and protected areas, well-managed forestry concessions, and creation of economic opportunities for communities that depend upon the forest and wildlife resources of the Congo Basin. CBFP actions focus on eleven ecologically sensitive and biologically diverse areas and wildlife corridors - called forest landscapes - that are considered the most vulnerable to deforestation and other threats. The effort aims to protect these eleven priority areas in six countries -- Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo.
United States Secretary of State Powell launched the CBFP at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on September 4, 2002. He traveled to Gabon the next day for the inauguration of Gabon’s national park system.
Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the World Wildlife Fund are collaborating and joining the efforts in the Congo Basin. The three groups worked closely with the governments, organizations, and local communities involved to set priorities for protecting the most important landscapes in the region.
The Congo Basin is home to some of the most charismatic biodiversity in the world, ranging from forest elephants, bongos, and chimpanzees to forest buffalos and lowland gorillas. The bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee, is also found in this region, where it is restricted to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Biodiversity in the Basin faces serious threats, most notably logging and bushmeat hunting. Logging feeds the bushmeat trade as roads built to gain access to forestlands become access routes for hunters. The widespread slaughter of wild animals in the Congo Basin creates "empty forests," which diminish opportunities for local communities and threaten the forests' long-term viability. The development of legislation to authorize the CBFP in 2003 led to the founding of the International Conservation Caucus.
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© Carlton Ward, Jr.
ILCP.com
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