Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s largest rainforest nations with some 152 million hectares of forest - almost 70% of the country’s land area. This is equal to 7.6% of the world’s total tropical forest area. The DRC lost the second-largest area of tropical primary forest of any country (after Brazil) in 2018. The main driver of this deforestation is small-scale, non-mechanized forest clearing for agriculture. At the current rate of tree cover loss, the DRC’s primary forests could be completely razed by 2100.
REDD+ actors and activities
The DRC has engaged in the REDD+ process since 2009, and the national process has passed several milestones. The country’s National REDD+ Framework Strategy was adopted in 2012, aiming to stabilize forest cover to 63.5% from 2030, and maintain it thereafter. The National REDD+ Investment Plan 2015-2020, adopted in 2015, brings a programming framework for all sectors related to forests, and served as the basis for the Letter of Intent signed between DRC and the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) in 2016. With the accompanying capitalisation of the DRC's REDD+ National Fund (FONAREDD), this marked the start of the REDD+ investment phase.
Other multilateral investment programmes are currently being implemented in the DRC, including the Forest Investment Programme and the Mai Ndombe jurisdictional REDD+ project, which aims to achieve the reduction of 29 million tonnes of CO2 through results-based payments.
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![]() | Combining independent monitoring of forest governance and REDD+ | |||||||||||||||||
![]() | Creating incentives for logging companies to engage in REDD+ |
DRC's FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement
In 2010, the DRC and the EU began negotiations towards a VPA to improve forest governance and ensure that only legal timber and timber products reach the EU market.
For more information, see the Democratic Republic of the Congo page on the EU FLEGT Facility's website.
More information
Related links
CAFI: Democratic Republic of Congo
UN-REDD: Democratic Republic of Congo
Forest Carbon Partnership Facility: Democratic Republic of Congo
Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development
National forest monitoring platform, including REDD+ registry
GIZ's conservation of biodiversity and sustainable forest management programme