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Our News
Cameroon hosts a workshop to strengthen climate and biodiversity financing
Yaoundé, Cameroon – September 12, 2024 – Cameroon is hosting a national workshop aimed at strengthening political commitments and promoting synergies to increase international financial flows for climate and biodiversity initiatives in the Congo Basin forests. This workshop is part of the ongoing initiative by the Central Africa Forest Commission (COMIFAC) and WWF, which seeks to enhance efforts to preserve the region's rich forest ecosystems, crucial for global climate regulation and biodiversity conservation.
The Congo Basin is home to the second-largest tropical forest in the world, an important carbon sink and biodiversity reservoir. However, the region faces significant challenges, including limited access to climate finance.
According to a Climate Focus report, the Congo Basin receives only 4% of global tropical forest financing, while the Amazon and the Mekong-Borneo basins in Southeast Asia receive much larger shares.
"The structure of this 4% financing consists of 68% in the form of official development assistance and 24% in loans, often tied to complex disbursement procedures and conditions," explained Jonas Kemajou Syapze, Climate Finance Expert at WWF.
Facilitated by the Ministries of Forests and Wildlife and the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Protection, and Sustainable Development (MINFOF and MINEPDED), with support from COMIFAC and WWF, the Yaoundé workshop focuses on exploring innovative financing mechanisms for Congo Basin forests. These mechanisms include options identified in a COMIFAC-WWF study aimed at improving financial flows necessary for preserving high-integrity forests, which have low degradation rates but play a critical role in global carbon sequestration. It is worth noting that this workshop follows a regional workshop where COMIFAC member countries agreed to organize national workshops to ensure political and diplomatic support for this initiative.
“The Congo Basin countries have made significant efforts to conserve their forests, limiting deforestation to between 0.01% and 0.33%. This is a remarkable achievement, especially considering the economic pressures and development needs of these countries. However, current financing mechanisms are insufficient to support the long-term conservation of these forests,” said Alain Ononino, National Director of WWF Cameroon.
WWF and COMIFAC hope for strong commitments from political and financial partners, as well as strengthened synergies with ongoing climate and biodiversity initiatives in Cameroon and throughout the Congo Basin. This initiative builds on the momentum created at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and further discussions at COP28 in Dubai, where Congo Basin countries committed to exploring sustainable finance for forest conservation, while balancing socio-economic development with environmental protection.
© WWF Cameroon
Dignitaries at the workshop
© WWF Cameroon
The Country Director WWF Cameroon face the press