The Democratic Republic of the Congo, France and their international partners announce a $62-million partnership to support the DRC’s biodiversity and climate ambition (3 December 2023)

On 2 December the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and international partners – France, Germany, the United States, the Bezos Earth Fund and the Country Packages Seed Fund (comprising France, the Rob Walton Foundation, Conservation International and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) – announced the launch of a partnership to support the DRC’s New Climate Economy.

During COP28’s World Climate Action Summit, the DRC presented its New Climate Economy, based on protecting forests, peatlands and Key Biodiversity Areas while developing a sustainable economy to improve living conditions and jobs for the country’s communities.

The Congo Basin is home to globally important ecosystems, especially peatlands which containing around 30 gigatonnes of carbon. So the DRC, which has around 120,000 km2 of these peatlands, has a central role in these areas’ conservation. Protecting the DRC’s rainforest is crucial in order to meet global climate and biodiversity targets. Indeed, the Congo Basin has the world’s second-largest expanse of rainforest, after that of the Amazon Basin, and is the world’s largest carbon sink.

Given these challenges, and to support the New Climate Economy, international partners are committed to supporting the acceleration of the DRC’s efforts to conserve its forests, peatlands and key biodiversity areas, while developing a sustainable economic model compatible with maintaining forest cover.

A group of public and private partners – States, multilateral development banks, international organizations, NGOs, the private sector and philanthropic bodies – have thus decided to join forces using their financial and technical tools to support the DRC’s vision, by signing this partnership.

The partnership is based on three key priorities:

1. Conserving and sustainably managing forests, peatlands and Key Biodiversity Areas, with the full involvement of local communities.
2. Developing private investment in the New Climate Economy in sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry and timber processing in the country, forest plantations for timber and charcoal production, renewable energy, clean cooking (including electric stoves) and ecotourism.
3. Establishing a robust national political and institutional framework to develop high-integrity social and environmental carbon credits.

To meet these ambitious goals, France, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Bezos Earth Fund and the Country Packages Seed Fund (which includes France, the Rob Walton Foundation, Conservation International and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) have announced an initial $62 million of support for the DRC’s New Climate Economy.

Democratic Republic of the Congo- Partnership to support the DRC’s biodiversity and climate ambition (03 Dec. 2023) - (PDF, 636 kb)