Independent Forest Monitoring in the Congo Basin

Taking Stock and Thinking Ahead

Endnotes

  1. 1Including but not limited to Brainforest founded in 1998 in Gabon, the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) founded in 1994 in Cameroon, the Congolese Observatory of Human Rights (Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l’Homme; OCDH) founded in 1994 in Congo, and the Action Group to Save Humankind and Its Environment (Groupe d’Action pour Sauver l’Homme et son Environnement; GASHE) founded in 1999 in the DRC.
  2. 2See Section 4 for more details on MoUs.
  3. 3See Figures 4 and 5 for more details on mandated IFM.
  4. 4Global Witness campaigns and press releases on oil in the Republic of the Congo (Global Witness 2005), on oil and diamonds in neighboring countries (Global Witness 2003a), and on diamonds (Global Witness 2003b) led to tensions within the Cameroon IFM project on several occasions, with regular accusations from the Cameroonian government that it was being spied on, leading to threats of project cancellation.
  5. 5See Section 1.3.
  6. 6REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. For more information, see https://redd.unfccc.int/..
  7. 7See Figure 12 for more information about the types of recommendations proposed by IFM organizations.
  8. 8FLAG is a Cameroonian association promoting transparency and legality in the management of natural resources in the Congo Basin and beyond. For more information, see http://flag-cmr.org/..
  9. 9For more information about the Open Timber Portal, see www.opentimberportal.org..
  10. 10A forest title grants the beneficiary ownership and/or use rights within the boundaries of the area covered by the title.
  11. 11Infractions may have different names in different countries, so FLAG developed categories to facilitate comparisons. The categories are based on the key characteristics of the different offenses as described in the laws of the different countries. Observations were grouped into categories based on the facts described in the reports.
  12. 12Recommendation focus areas were identified based on the nature of the problem that the recommendation was intended to address and with reference to the major stages of the forest resource management cycle and the supply chain.
  13. 13Reports not analyzed by FLAG include investigation reports on the timber supply chain, annual analysis reports, quarterly analysis reports, quarterly briefing notes, legislative analyses, and thematic analysis reports, all of which included analyses and recommendations on legislation gaps, follow-ups on infractions, sanctions, infraction trends, mission coverage, and law enforcement capacity building.
  14. 14See Rainforest Foundation Norway, Rainforest Foundation UK, Global Witness, Greenpeace, and Dynamique des Groupes des Peuples Autochtones. n.d. “DRC Government Reinstates Illegal Logging Concessions in Breach of Its Own Moratorium.” https://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/media.ashx/drc-moratorium-reinstated-20-february-2018.pdf. Accessed October 2021.. Accessed October 2021.
  15. 15Joint order n°0162/MINFOF/MINTP/MINMAP.
  16. 16Interview with an importer, London, October 2020; interview with a timber trade federation, London, October 2020.
  17. 17Interview led by REM with an importer in 2020.
  18. 18For more information about the Open Timber Portal, see www.opentimberportal.org..
  19. 19For more information about the Open Timber Portal, see www.opentimberportal.org..
  20. 20For more information about Forest Watcher, see https://forestwatcher.globalforestwatch.org/..
  21. 21For more information about ForestLink, see https://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/rtm..
  22. 22For more information about FLEGT Watch, see https://cidt.org.uk/cv4c/flegtwatch/..
  23. 23For more information about the Open Timber Portal, see www.opentimberportal.org..
  24. 24See www.forestfund.or.id/en/ for information about the Independent Forest Monitoring Fund in Indonesia. for information about the Independent Forest Monitoring Fund in Indonesia.
  25. 25Interview led by REM with an importer in 2020.
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