10 June 2013: The Commission des Forets d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) announced the launch of a project to engage community radio stations in awareness raising and the promotion of forest certification in the Congo Basin.

The objective of the project is to increase the number of forest certification areas in Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by 30 per cent over five years while improving access to technology and strengthening the capacity of community radio stations. To achieve this, the project will engage a broad range of stakeholders in order to increase local knowledge of the benefits, challenges and opportunities of shifting to certified forest production.

Activities to be supported through the project include capacity building workshops on communicating issues related to forest certification, the production of a guide on forest certification, and the development of learning modules on REDD+, stakeholder engagement in forest certification, and benefits from forest certification accrued by different actors. [Congo Basin Forest Partnership Press Release] [Publication: Promotion de l’Exploitation Certifiée des Forets]