Regional Assessment 2022: Tracking progress towards forest goals in the Congo Basin

The first-ever Regional Assessment was undertaken in 2022 to examine progress against forest goals in the Congo Basin. The Regional Assessment takes stock of efforts to protect forests in six countries in the Congo Basin region: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo.  

(All report documents are available in both English and French) 

Assessing progress in the Congo Basin  

The Congo Basin holds the second-largest tropical forest in the world and the largest intact forest landscape. The region's forests are an important carbon sink for regional and global ecological and climate regulation, a biodiversity hotspot, and home to 60 million people for whom the forests represent essential natural resources and cultural heritage. Indigenous peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs) in the Congo Basin uniquely rely on and sustainably manage these ecosystems. 

Keeping global warming below 1.5ºC by the end of the century means achieving a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and removals over the next 30 years. This requires not only emission reductions in all economic sectors, but also the preservation and enhancement of forest carbon sinks. Over the 2001-2019 period, the Congo Basin’s forests presented the largest net carbon sink in the tropics, removing 0.61 net gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents (GtCO2e) per year. The conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of the Congo Basin forests must be at the center of regional and global climate efforts. 

Regional Assessment Partners 

The Regional Assessment is a comprehensive, civil society-led effort coordinated by Climate Focus, with contributions from nine regional civil society partners: Actions pour la Biodiversité et Gestion des Terroirs (ABIOGeT), ACB-ONG, AJVC, Acteurs du Tourisme Durable (ATD), Brainforest Gabon, Cabinet Essono Ondo, Geospatial Technology Group (GtG), REJEFAC, Réseau Femmes Africaines pour le Développement Durable (REFADD), and WWF DRC. These partners have contributed directly to developing the key research questions and providing the research to support the findings in a bottom-up model, supplementing local research with global data and expertise.