A statement…
Covering an area twice the size of France, the Congo Basin rainforest is the second largest tropical forest in the world - home to more than 50 million people, 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds and 400 species of mammals.
The forest serves as an economic resource for eleven different countries, but it is also a vital ecosystem for the entire world, with its role in regulating atmospheric oxygen and carbon leading some to describe it as “the world’s second lung”. Today, the Congo Basin rainforest is under pressure. Increased logging, changing patterns of agriculture, population growth and the oil and mining industries are all leading to ever greater deforestation. This is not sustainable — for the people who live there, for the countless species that may be driven to extinction, or for the climate.
The Stern Review estimates that deforestation is responsible for almost a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, and continuing deforestation even at its present rate will drive up carbon emissions and could worsen climate change very dramatically. So the world needs to help protect the forest, but this must not be done at the expense of the people who live there. People in poverty have a right to economic development but, rather than helping to achieve it, over the long term deforestation destroys livelihoods and causes irreversible changes to water and soil.
Reversing the rate of deforestation in the Congo Basin will therefore be essential both to securing the livelihoods of the people in the region and to maintaining the carbon–storage capacity and biodiversity of the forest. The countries in which the Congo Basin rainforest stands are committed to sustainable development — economic development alongside protection of the forest — and the UK and Norwegian Governments have committed £100 million to the Congo Basin Forest Fund to support their efforts. Under the distinguished chairmanship of Wangari Maathai and Paul Martin, and with a Secretariat in the African Development Bank, the Fund will support innovative proposals to make the forest worth more as a living resource than it would be cut down.
The future of the Congo Basin forest and the people who live there will depend on the combined efforts of the entire international community - governments, donors, international agencies, Civil society organizations, the private sector and individuals all working together to preserve the forest while achieving sustainable economic development and alleviating poverty. It is a huge challenge, but for all our futures it is one that we must meet.
Gordon Brown,Former UK Prime MinisterUK
Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister Norway
Prof Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate and Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forests
Right Honorable Paul Martin, Former Canadian Prime Minister