World’s tropical forests – A summit on the three basins of the world’s tropical forest – the Amazon, Congo and Borneo Mekong – will be held from 31 May to 3 June in Brazzaville, according to organisers. It will establish a South-South and North-South cooperation with a view to sustainable management of forest ecosystems towards a bigger contribution to the regulation and stabilization of the global climate, the fight against poverty and economic development of countries concerned.
The summit, which will bring together Heads of State and experts from some 30 countries, aims to establish a platform for exchanging information, experiences and negotiations to promote active cooperation in the area of forests between the countries belonging to these areas.
This Summit will give participants the opportunity to learn about the current state of these basins’ forest resources and will lead to the signing of a cooperation treaty between the three basins.
It will also to adopt a joint declaration on tropical forests, climate and sustainable development, within the framework of negotiations on the future climate agreement in Durban.
The biggest forest basin on earth, the Amazon, covers nine countries, made up of Brazil (with 63 per cent of the forest), Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Guyana, Bolivia and Peru.
It represents half of the world’s tropical forests. In terms of ecology, it is a primary forest.
The Amazon forest is located in the Amazon Basin in South America, where it covers about 6 million square kilometres of the 7.3 million sq km of the basin.
The Congo Basin, with its 228 million hectares, of which 57 per cent is in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 10 per cent in Congo Brazzaville, is the second biggest forest basin in the world.
It can be found in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.
The Mekong Basin of Borneo, meanwhile, is the planet’s third ecosystem in terms of scope and diversity.
Besides China, the Mekong region spans five countries, four (the downstream country) cooperate as members in the Mekong River Commission (MRC). These are Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
The forests are a reservoir of biological resources and play a key role in providing environmental goods and services, regulation and stabilization of global climate, and have an impact on socio-economic development.
Sustainable management of forests, conservation of biodiversity and climate change are prominent in international debates, the development of environmental diplomacy and the emergence of green economies.
The ecological role of these three forest basins is universally recognised.
These basins account for 80 per cent of the world’s tropical forests, home to two-thirds of terrestrial biodiversity and provide livelihood to more than one billion people.
Countries where these vital habitats are found are faced with both the needs of development, destruction of ecosystems, land degradation and forest, and the need for conservation of biological resources.
In these forest areas, there are different trends regarding modes of forest management, including management of the forest estate, conversion of forest areas into agricultural plantations or into protected areas.
Levels of deforestation and degradation vary from one basin to another, depending on forest practices, agricultural policies and development requirements.
The accelerating reduction of forest cover contributes to the growth in emissions of greenhouse gas emissions and land degradation.
Conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests prove inevitable for the protection not only of vegetation cover but also of humanity.
With this in mind the Republic of the Congo suggested in 2006 in Bali, the collaboration of tropical forest areas, to promote South-South and North-South exchange of experiences and information in forestry.
The Brazzaville conference was mentioned by Congo’s president Denis Sassou Nguesso at a summit in Oslo in May 2010 to his counterparts from Guyana and Indonesia, as well as the Norwegian Prime Minister.
He expressed the wish that this global conference be held in 2011 in Brazzaville on the occasion of International Year of Forests.