The British government has given a grant of over 100 million U.S. dollars to help protect the forest ecosystem within the expansive Congo Basin, the second largest tropical forest in the World after the Amazon, according to official sources.
The money will be administered through the African Development Bank (ADB) as a special multi-donor fund to which other potential donors could contribute in the future, the pan-African financial institution announce in a statement published in Libreville Tuesday.
Over the recent past, the Congo Basin's forest resources, which represent up to 26 percent of the rainforest cover in the world, have become the focus of the efforts of the international community to wade off global warming and stem climate change.
The British government made the offer of the 100 million U.S. dollars during the launch of a special fund for the protection of the Congo Basin by the ADB in London, according to reliable sources.
This fund, which is part of the implementation of the Congo Basin initiative, concerns the 10 member states of the Forestry Commission of Central Africa (COMIFAC), according to the African Development bank.
The sub-regional body comprises Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe and Rwanda.
The recently launched fund will be used over a period of ten years, the period covered by the agreement, to finance the COMIFAC action plan in ten strategic sectors for the conservation of tropical forests within the Congo Basin.
The forest covers a total area of 2.1 million square kilometers with a population of over 50 million people, 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds and 400 species of mammals.
The forest is used not only as an economic resource for the ten countries, but also as a vital ecosystem for the world with the potential of generating enough electricity for the Southern African states in addition to acting as a vast natural carbon sink, according to environmental experts.
Source:Xinhua
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