Cameroon, France Sign Central Africa's First Debt-for-Nature Swap

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, June 23, 2006 (ENS) - France and Cameroon have signed a debt-for-nature swap that aims to conserve some of the most pristine and threatened rainforest in Africa. Under the agreement, at least US$25 million will be invested over the next five years to protect parts of the Congo River Basin, the world's second largest tropical forest after the Amazon.

Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni and French Minister Delegate for Cooperation, Development and Francophonie Brigitte Girardin signed the contract Thursday in Yaounde.

At the signing ceremony, the Prime Minister emphasized the long history of relations between Cameroon and France, which governed the area from 1919 until 1960 when the Republic of Cameroon was established.

From left: French Minister Delegate for Cooperation, Development and Francophonie Brigitte Girardin and Cameroon Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni sign the agreement Thursday in Yaounde. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

A vast forest covering 1.5 million square kilometers, the Congo River Basin spreads across the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of Congo-Brazzaville, the southeastern reaches of Cameroon, southern Central African Republic, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

This forested region is inhabited by gorillas, leopards, chimpanzees, and forest elephants, but they are threatened by growing human populations, illegal logging and the clearing of land for agriculture.

The investment funds will be used to better manage protected areas, wildlife and forest production and increase community forest resources and research capacity. Ultimately, they will help reduce poverty while protecting and managing natural forestry resources.

"The importance of this unique and history making agreement lies in the combination of debt forgiveness and investment in forest conservation and local communities," said Laurent Some, director of WWF's Central African Regional Programme Office, based in Cameroon.

The agreement was initiated by France's Debt Development Contract (C2D) under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC), a joint initiative of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The HIPC's goal is to reduce the excessive debt faced by the world's poorest nations.

Members of the C2D mission on a working visit to Cameroon May 26 held talks with Prime Minister Inoni to finalize the contract on debt relief and development.

Rainforest in Cameroon (Photo courtesy Tramp Travel)

The goal of the C2D is to provide 100 percent debt relief of the concessional loans France contracted to other countries. Twenty-two countries are eligible for C2D, with the the total amount of C2D debt relief estimated at US$4.6 billion.

The five year agreement covering the period 2006 to 2010 requires Cameroon to utilize the funds of about 570 million euros, to fund four different sectors - education, health, infrastructure and natural resources.

This is the first C2D agreement to allocate funds to natural resources. Previously funding had only been allocated to the education and health sectors, but an emphasis has been placed on the environment at the request of French president Jacques Chirac last July.

In February 2005, Central African Heads of States signed the first conservation treaty for the region, and an agreement to protect over seven percent of the Congo Basin forests, the second largest rainforest

WWF sees this debt-for-nature swap as a concrete example of the commitment expressed by the region's heads of state at the Brazzaville Summit in February 2005, and looks to other nations to follow France and Cameroon's lead.

Cameroon hosted the Yaounde Summit in March 1999, which for the first time in African history gathered Presidents and leaders from the region to sign a conservation agreement - the Yaounde Declaration.

Cameroon is the only country that has drawn up and implemented an action plan based on the 12 points of the Yaounde Declaration.

Cameroon adopted an action plan in November 1999, revised in June 2000, that focuses on controlling illegal forest exploitation, poaching, the involvement of local communities in forest conservation, and establishing timetables for achieving results.

Since then Cameroon has created five new national parks totalling 1,076,190 hectares. As on November 2005, 13 other areas were about to become national parks. When those designations are complete, about 10 percent of Cameroon's forests will be protected from development.

With the aim of getting the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to lift its ban on trade in elephant ivory, Cameroon has adopted an elephant management plan that includes the protection of elephant forest habitat. The plan incorporates ways of dealing with the conflict between humans and elephants and regulates sport hunting and tourism.