By Greentech Lead Africa: Equatorial Guinea, the
only Spanish-speaking country in Africa, is participating in a Global
Environment Facility (GEF) project titled ‘A Regional Focus on Sustainable
Timber Management in the Congo Basin’. The project is an initiative backed by
international development organizations, national NGOs, and government
officials.
As part of the project, Equatorial Guinea will begin a
series of regional activities in which all GEF participants will collaborate
closely to address illegal logging and ensure the sustainability of forest
production.
The GEF project will focus on improving forest management
and conservation in order to preserve the Congo Basin and is a task of The
Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), The United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Rainforest
Alliance.
“This project will reinforce WRI’s already strong
presence in the region and enhance our efforts to improve transparency and
governance in the Congo Basin that focus on timber management, REDD, and other
aspects of sustainable forest development,” said Pierre Methot The World
Resources Institute (WRI)’s project director and director of forestry for
Central Africa.
By participating in the GEF project, the country is
improving the welfare of local communities and forest conservation, while
protecting its people’s interests in terms of commercial activities.
“While we in Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
are focused on our local environment and economy, we always think in a global
perspective when seeking to achieve higher growth in the agricultural sector.
In many ways, our success depends on our own efforts, though Africa and the
greater global community can play a role,” said Teodoro Nguema Obiang
Mangue, Equatorial Guinea’s minister of agriculture and forestry.
Equatorial Guinea will hold its launch event of the
project in the city of Bata in April 2012.