Central African Forest Initiative was launched during the 2015 United Nations General Assembly in New York as a collaborative partnership between a coalition of willing donors, six Central African partner countries, and Brazil as South-South partner. CAFI's goals are to "recognize and preserve the value of the forests in the region to mitigateclimate change, reduce poverty, and contribute to sustainable development". These goals will be attained through the implementation of country-led, national scale, holisticreducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and low emissions development national investment frameworks which will include policy reforms and other tangible measures to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and promote sustainable development. The rationale for establishing CAFI is that while Central Africa is home to the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world, after the Amazon Basin, ongoing efforts have not prevented forest loss. The land use and forestry sector is by far the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the region. International investments in REDD+ are not currently at the required scale to affect the necessary change, and donor support in the region has been traditionally fragmented.
Challenges and solutions
The four main direct drivers and their dynamics in the Central African forests are widely recognized: agriculture, wood energy, forestry and infrastructure/mining development. Indirect drivers include rural and urban demographic pressure, weak and inadequate land use planning and land tenure rules, the development of new infrastructure, and inadequate governance. CAFI will seek to support country-led NIFs that tackle one or several drivers at different levels to result in, for example :
Future infrastructure and mining projects that minimize their overall footprint;
Land use planning decisions that ensure a balanced representation of sectoral interests and keep forests standing, and better tenure security that does not incentivize conversion by individuals or communities;
Slower population growth and migration to forests and forest fronts;
To mitigate the economic impact of the initiative, funds are also dedicated to reducing poverty and creating sustainable development.
Governance
The CAFI Executive Board is the entity through which funding allocation decisions are made to support country-driven National Investment Frameworks. The CAFI Multi-Partner Trust Fund is the principal means of implementing the Central African Forest Initiative. Its initial capitalization target is USD 500 million over the 2015 – 2025 period. The CAFI Secretariat supports the Executive Board, coordinates with CAFI Partner Countries and is responsible for decisions regarding the allocation of resources from the CAFI Fund.
