20 June 2015: The 15th Meeting of Partners of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) convened from 15-19 June 2015, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on the theme ‘Ecosystems of the Congo Basin: Valuing Natural Capital, Green Growth and Regional Development.’ The meeting included a ministerial conference on wildlife conservation in Africa and an extraordinary session on future commitments by CBFP partners. The European Union will assume the role of CBFP Facilitator after a transition period in early 2016.

More than 600 participants from local and international conservation organizations, government ministries, regional organizations and donor agencies attended the meeting. The discussions were organized under six thematic streams on: ecosystem services; ensuring complementarity between wildlife conservation and sustainable use; enforcing forest laws and good governance in a context of juxtaposition of uses; maximizing ‘Climate and REDD+’ opportunities in the context of the upcoming Paris Climate Conference; creating enabling conditions for green growth; and sustainable financing.

During a special ministerial conference to re-launch the Organization for Wildlife Conservation in Africa (OCFSA), Cameroon’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Ngole Philip Ngwesse, drew attention to the draft strategy and action plan to combat the illegal trade in Africa’s natural resources that was adopted by African heads of state in Congo Brazzaville in April 2015. Several organizations released a ‘Statement of Intent’ to save Africa’s threatened wildlife that highlights the devastating effect of the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade on elephants and other wildlife, as well as the millions of people who depend on the Congo basin for their survival.

The extraordinary session on future commitments of CBFP partners, co-facilitated by the European Union and Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, developed several recommendations to improve the coordination of CBFP interventions, including: making an inventory of all commitments made by CBFP’s technical and financial partners; strengthening synergies and “effort pooling”; aligning CBFP interventions with the Convergence Plan of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC); and holding special meetings between COMIFAC and CBFP’s financial partners to identify joint actions.

Other events held on the sidelines of the meeting included the first Central African Parks Congress, two civil society training sessions, a technical meeting on pangolin conservation, a meeting of the Tri-national Sangha (TNS) countries, a session of the transboundary biodiversity conservation project Dja- Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) and an awards ceremony for six civil society conservation leaders. [CBFP News Release on the 15th Meeting of Partners] [CBFP News Release on the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference on Wildlife Conservation in Africa] [CBFP MOP 15 Final Declaration] [ICRAF Press Release on Joint Action to Protect Wildlife in the Congo] [CIFOR Blog on REDD+: The Implementation Challenge in the Congo Basin]