Financing for logging of tropical moist forests in the Republic of Congo is commonly sought in the form of loans from multilateral development banks. Pressure from nongovernmental conservation organizations and from within the banks themselves has resulted in their beginning to assess the environmental consequences of such loans. We conducted one of the first such assessments of an African Development Bank loan to a logging company. Geographic isolation, resulting transportation costs, and market demands have forced commercial loggers within the Sangha region of Congo to exploit only the most valuable timber. This form of timber extraction destroys an average of 6.8% of the canopy and thus, unlike clear cutting, was expected to have a minimal impact on wildlife populations. Line transect counts showed, however, that primate abundance was exceedingly low in logged forest. We believe this is not a direct consequence of canopy reduction, but results from the extremely intensive market hunting that coincides with timber surveying and extraction. Weapons and hunting camps were common, and logging company vehicles transported primates, duikers and other game daily. Wildlife laws of Congo are openly violated and they are not enforced. While market hunting is clearly facilitated and intensified by the presence of logging concessions, it is the Congo’s highly urbanized population that provides the ever growing demand for meat, a demand not being met through animal husbandry. Thus, although selective logging in the absence of hunting may have only limited adverse effects on wildlife, when the two are combined the consequences are grave for the Sangha region’s wildlife. Loans to logging companies from the African Development Bank should incorporate conditions for ensuring wildlife conservation.

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A forest-based mapping data production study was conducted in the Republic of Congo as part of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) process including sustainable forest management, forest conservation, and forest degradation. biodiversity and increasing carbon stocks (REDD +). The purpose of this study was to produce a forest cover map and cover changes for the period 2000 to 2012, which meets the criteria of the national definition of forest adopted by the Republic of Congo and the evaluation of forest areas. and losses. The map produced was based on the combination of forest map parameters developed prior to the adoption of the forest definition criteria. The 2000 and 2010 Landsat image segmentation was used to create polygons that respect the definition and in which the values of the underlying maps were injected, through a decision tree transcribed in the R language and implemented in conjunction with the tools Open Foris Tools Kit. The results indicate an overall accuracy of 90% of the map without stratification, with greater accuracy for the forest (86%) than for the losses (73%). The forest occupies 23,517,000 hectares, representing 69% of the national territory. The forest area lost during this period was estimated at about 145,356 hectares, which represents an annual average of 12,113 hectares (0.052%). These results lead to the conclusion that the Republic of Congo is one of the countries with high forest cover and low deforestation.

Des rapports précis et cohérents sur l'évolution de la superficie forestière et des changements d’occupation du sol sont importants dans le contexte de l’accord de Paris où les pays ont l’obligation de soumettre régulièrement leurs rapports sur le bilan émission absorption des gaz à effet de serre. Cette notification des changements peut avoir un impact direct sur les paiements par le biais de comparaisons avec les niveaux de référence (émissions) nationaux dans le cadre de la réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et à la dégradation des forêts, notamment dans le cadre du processus REDD+. Cependant avant cela, les pays sont invités à renforcer leur système national de surveillance des forêts mais aussi de production des produits cartographiques qui respectent des règles robustes d’évaluation de l’incertitude des estimations de l’évolution de la superficie du couvert forestier prescrites par la CCNUCC. Dans cette étude, nous présentons les résultats de la précision des nombreuses cartes forestières dont le Congo dispose en utilisant l’approche assistée par modèle développée par Sannier et al, 2014, adaptée au contexte de la République du Congo. Les résultats de l’étude montrent une sous-estimation des près de 50% des pertes forestières dans la période entre 2000 et 2014 que ce soit par la méthode des estimations directes ou des estimations par régression. La comparaison des deux méthodes montre que les estimations des pertes de la couverture forestière par la méthode échantillons point sous-estime l’estimation des pertes sur la période 2000-2014 ainsi que sur la période 2014-2016. Nous concluons qu’il faut renforcer les équipes nationales en charge de l’élaboration des cartes forestières mais aussi que le pays doit s’approprier cette méthode de Sannier et al. 2014 pour l’évaluation de la précision.