The 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) will be held in the United Arab Emirates from November 30 to December 12. In this second installment of a two-part series on JICA’s climate change initiatives, we focus on a forest conservation project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has the second largest number of tropical forests in the world. The project aims to contribute to climate change countermeasures and biodiversity conservation through sustainable forest management.
Deforestation and Climate Change
In July of this year, the global monthly average temperature reached a record high. The United Nations Secretary-General Guterres has warned that “the era of global warming is over and the era of global boiling has arrived.” Climate change has become an urgent issue on a global scale, and in addition to the use of fossil fuels, deforestation is also cited as a cause.
Forests play a role in regulating the oxygen and carbon cycle by absorbing some of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. In particular, tropical forests, which experience warm and humid conditions throughout the year, are active in photosynthesis and store large amounts of carbon. Therefore, deforestation of tropical forests contributes to global warming by releasing the carbon stored in the trees and their soils. It is estimated that 13-21% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation*. Therefore, it is extremely important to halt deforestation in order to combat climate change, but it is also expected to contribute to the restoration of natural ecosystems by planting trees and other means to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
- Emissions in agriculture, forestry, and other land use sectors from 2010-2019
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)
The Importance of Preserving “One Lung of the Earth
The Congo Basin, located in the central African continent in the Congo River Basin (distributed across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, and other countries), has the second largest tropical forests after the Amazon, covering 90% of the total tropical forest area in Africa. In the DRC, where many of these forests are located, much forest is lost every year due to agricultural land clearing and logging for firewood and charcoal. 6.3 million hectares (about 17% of Japan’s land area) have been lost in the 20 years since 2002, and especially since 2014, the annual loss has exceeded 450,000 hectares. Significant tropical deforestation continues.
The conservation of tropical forests in the Congo Basin, also known as “one lung of the earth” and home to rare animals such as bonobos and okapi, is a global issue, and a joint statement in support of the conservation and sustainable management of Congo Basin forests was adopted at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.
Cooperation with other countries is key
In order to protect the tropical forests of the Congo Basin, JICA has been cooperating for forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (hereinafter referred to as “Congo People”), where 60% of the tropical forests in the Congo Basin are located, since 2012, including technical cooperation for the establishment of a forest monitoring system. The results of this project were highly appreciated by the Ministry of Environment of the Congolese people and related aid agencies of other countries and international organizations, and requests for a new project were raised, which led to the launch of a new forest conservation pilot project targeting Kwilu Province in the western part of the country in 2019.
This project is being undertaken by JICA in collaboration with the Central Africa Forest Initiative (CAFI), an international funding framework funded by Norway, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other countries and administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The CAFI is an international funding framework funded by Norway, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) serving as secretariat. Mr. Yu Kurimoto of JICA’s Global Environment Department says that it is very important for this project to utilize this CAFI framework and to collaborate with other countries. The area of the Congolese people is so vast that it is comparable to Western Europe, and Japan alone cannot halt deforestation. We need to cooperate with other countries, and also with the Congolese government through dialogue.
Yu Kurimoto, Section Chief of the Forest and Natural Environment Group, Global Environment Department of JICA, began working in Central Africa with JICA’s Africa Division in 2013 and was assigned to the Congo Civil Affairs Office in 2017. Involved in the environmental field in the Congo Basin for many years.
Rehabilitate forests and protect existing forests.
The project site, Kwilu Province, has an area and population density equivalent to that of Hokkaido, Japan, and is adjacent to the capital city of Kinshasa, which has a population of 10 million. The province is a source of firewood and charcoal for cooking because even the capital city of Kinshasa lacks sufficient electricity infrastructure. The average annual deforestation rate from 2010 to 2014 was about 7,870 hectares.
Bags full of firewood and charcoal lined up along the main road in Kwilu Province. Many are being transported to Kinshasa.
The project is an agroforestry project in 250 villages in the province, where forests are planted and crops are cultivated, including fast-growing acacia trees that can grow taller than a person in two years, fruit trees (mango, avocado, etc.), and indigenous tree species, and firewood and fruits are collected sustainably from the nurtured forest, The existing forests will be protected from logging. In addition, the local people grow cassava, corn, peanuts, and other crops that they eat on a daily basis on the same land.
View of the area immediately after planting. Cassava, corn and millet are grown among the acacia saplings. Acacia has nitrogen-fixing properties and enriches the soil. 2 years after planting. Two years after planting, the trees have become a magnificent forest.
In the process of creating agroforestry forests, Kurimoto says that he leaves decisions on tree planting sites, mapping of crop cultivation areas, and determining the types of crops to be grown to the people of the village. Only when residents are convinced and act on their own initiative can we carry out sustainable forest conservation activities,” Kurimoto said.
This project is being promoted as part of an international initiative called “REDD+,” which provides developing countries with certain economic incentives to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. REDD+ refers to It evaluates forest conservation efforts at the national and state levels over the long term. It is expected to curb carbon emissions, conserve forests and other biodiversity, and improve community livelihoods by raising national and community awareness of proactive forest conservation while carrying out ongoing forest conservation activities.
Land use plan mapping by villagers. Village people are asked to think about how forest conservation can be carried out in their village on their own initiative.
Highly valued for its approach that respects community ownership
Now, four years after the start of the project, agroforestry is being implemented in 3,960 hectares, or about 80% of the target area in Kwilu Province. In 2022, a mid-term review conducted jointly with FONAREDD (Fonds National REDD/ National REDD Fund), the supervising agency for CAFI-funded projects, found that JICA’s “local community JICA’s “careful handling of the project with respect for the ownership (sense of ownership and initiative) of the local community” was highly evaluated. The project will continue to focus on an approach that respects village ownership, and will engage in agroforestry implementation and forest conservation activities on 5,000 hectares. The goal is to ensure that the skills and knowledge developed in the communities will enable them to continue to engage in sustainable forest management after the project is completed.
Kurimoto says, “We want to focus on further promoting ownership and collaboration between the local community, the Kwilu Provincial Government, and the Congolese Ministry of People’s Environment, so that the Congolese forests can be passed on to future generations.”
Forest grown by agroforestry (Kimbedi village, Kwilu)
Contribution from a uniquely Japanese perspective
Climate change is a threat to every country in the world. Many developing countries are unable to take adequate measures to avoid or mitigate its effects, which will have a significant impact on their societies and economies. Therefore, it is necessary for the international community as a whole to take measures, and JICA is also taking “mitigation measures” such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its development projects, and “adaptation measures” to avoid or mitigate the effects of climate change. One such mitigation measure is forest conservation efforts such as this project in the Congo.
Surrounded by mountains, forests, oceans, and other natural features, Japan is a country that sensitively perceives the changes of the four seasons, but is also constantly beset by natural disasters. Japan is surrounded by nature, with mountains, forests, oceans, and other natural features, and while it is sensitive to the changes of the four seasons, it is also always in the presence of natural disasters. It is precisely because Japan is such a country that I believe we can actively contribute to the conservation of the world’s natural environment, and I feel that the world expects us to play such a role as well,” said Mr. Kurimoto.
Agroforestry preparation work by village women
© Source JICA
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