Contribution

A high level of poverty
A population very dependent on forest resources

Most of the countries of the sub-region belong to the group of countries with medium human development (between the 117th and the 136th place - Gabon, Sao Tome, Guinea, Cameroon, Congo) or in the group with low human development (DRC, CAR, Chad - between the 155th and the 166th places out of a total of 173 countries) (UNDP 2002).

The GNP of most of the countries is stagnant or in regression, with the considerable exception of Equatorial Guinea which has been benefiting for a few years from the effects of the oil industry. Gabon remains in the "leading group" thanks to oil but the medium-term forecasts ( 20 years) are rather pessimistic and envisage a considerable fall in oil incomes in view of the known reserves and of current production.

In a region which has counted on the extraction of fossil resources, some of which are now declining, the sustainable exploitation and the economic optimization of the renewable resources resulting from the forests therefore become a major development issue.

The population of the six principal forested countries of the Congo Basin is estimated at almost 80 million inhabitants in 2000, including 50 million in DRC and 15 million in Cameroon. If the people of Congo and Gabon are today increasingly urban, it is considered that 65 million people currently live in or near the forest. For these people, who are experiencing strong growth owing to the high birth rates, the forest is the principal energy and food resource (charcoal for cooking food; proteins brought by bush meat; traditional medicine replacing modern medicine; land reserves; etc). However, a recent analysis of the strategic documents for the reduction of poverty (PRSP) shows that the forests and their role in the reduction of poverty are largely ignored.

For a major part of the population of the sub-region, environmental pollution and forest degradation result directly in a deterioration of the living conditions and even endanger the survival of the poorest. Although forest management is not necessarily the best means of extracting the people from poverty, it currently constitutes the life buoy which enables them to survive, insofar as the forests maintain their ecological integrity and they are not turned over to new types of production.