Forests and the forestry sector

Resources
The Republic of the Congo is a heavily wooded country, with forests occupying about 64.6 percent of the total land area, or 22 million hectares. Natural forests occur in three major stands:
  • the Mayombé forest in the far south of the country, covering about 2.5 million hectares; originally very rich in limba (Terminalia superba), it has been heavily logged since colonial times and has now been stripped of almost all commercial species, particularly limba;
  • the Chaillu forest in the southwest of the country, covering about 3 million hectares; originally very rich in okoume (Aucoumea klaineana), it has been logged since the 1960s and has also been to some extent stripped of commercial species, particularly okoume;
  • the North Congo forest, covering about 15.5 million hectares; almost half this area is covered by forests that are periodically flooded, with the other half being on dry land; this forest is very rich in red woods (West African cedar [Entandrophragma cylindricum] and sipo mahogany [Entandrophragma utile]) and is today undergoing the most concentrated harvesting in the country.
Planted forests cover about 60 000 ha, including about 45 000 ha of cloned fast-growing species, especially eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) and tropical pines (Pinus spp.), and about 15 000 ha of limba.

The Congo now has three national parks and eleven reserves, with a total area of about 3.7 million hectares (11 percent of the country). The Odzala Park alone covers 1.3 million hectares, making it one of the largest parks in central Africa.

Products
The Congo is a major producer of tropical hardwoods (about 1 million cubic metres of logs per year). It also produces sawnwood and wood-based panels for domestic and foreign markets, and exports large volumes of logs.

The main non-wood forest products are wild fruit, forest vegetables, medicinal plants, mushrooms, honey, construction and craft materials, and game.

The Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa. The rise in petroleum revenue has led to wide-scale social movements, and salary demands have had considerable repercussions on the competitiveness of all sectors, including wood.

Notable facts
The Congo is currently President of the Conference of Ministers in Charge of Central African Forests (COMIFAC), which was created in 2000 to supervise implementation of the decisions of the Summit of Heads of State of seven central African countries (Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo), held in Yaoundé in 1999. This places the country in the forefront of discussions on the sustainable management of central African forests.

The Congo has played a major role in negotiations in connection with the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Ministerial Conference organized by the World Bank in Yaoundé in October 2003 on the initiative of the G8. The first meeting of experts to prepare for this ministerial conference was held in Brazzaville in June 2002.

More recently, in January 2004, the Congo hosted an important subregional conference on involving civil society in implementation of the New Partnership for Africa¿s Development (NEPAD), with special emphasis on the forest component.

Last updated: January 2004