Posted on March, 15 2006

AMP Forest Meeting
CARPO took part in the AMP forest meeting in Maputo early February. The meeting was well attended by all regional offices including colleagues from WWF/WB alliance. There was a general agreement that AMP has to focus more on certification and community corporate management issues. Big wins were developed and include for CARPO two big wins to be achieved by June 2007. These are: Establishment of TNS trust fund and certification of 3million hectares in the Congo basin. The new Director of Forests for Life, Duncan Pullard was amongst the participants.

Conference on Timber Trade
A High Level Conference on Timber Trade between Central Africa and Spain held in Madrid from 15 to 17 February 2006. This conference was jointly organised by WWF GFTN Europe, WWF Spain, WWF-CARPO (CAFTN) and WWF-Belgium.
The seminar about forest certifications and responsible procurement of wood products was hosted by the Spanish Government (Environmental and Foreign Office), WWF Spain and WWF Global Forest & Trade Network inviting Central Africans and Spanish decision makers as well as forest companies and organisations trading in and/or end users of Central African wood products and Latin-America.
Two Ministers from the Central Africa Region led delegations to Madrid. They are; Mr. Egbe Achuo Hillman, Cameroon’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife and Mr. Henri Djombo, Minister of Forests, Republic of Congo Brazzaville.
In an interview granted to state daily Cameroon Tribune on his return from, Mr. Egbe declared: “We will do everything possible to enable logging companies attain certification in the shortest possible time.”
Amongst the many participants were Mr. Elie Hakizumwami, Coordinator of WWF Central Africa Forest & Trade Network (CAFTN), Mr. Richard Eba’a, ATO/ITTO Project, Central Africa, Mr. Emmanuel Heuse, DGIS Project Officer, Cameroon Component, Mrs. Marie Mbolo, FSC Social Aspects, Cameroon, Mr. Robert Hunink, Congolaise Industrielle du Bois (CIB), Mr. Emile Mokoko, General Secretary of the African Timber Organisation (ATO), Mr. Michel Rougeron, Director of Pallisco and Paul Reef of TRC (all two members of the Central African Forest and Trade Network (CAFTN), There was also Dominiek Plouvier of WWF Belgium and Margareta Renström from Sweden who represented GFTN.

WWF US National Council Members
Jeff and Jacqui MORBY paid a working visit to Libreville, Gabon. Jeff and Jacqui are WWF US National Council Members, Co-Chairs of the WWF US Congo Basin Leadership Committee, and Major Donors. They were accompanied by Richard Carroll, WWF US Congo Basin Managing Director and latter by Laurent Somé, WWF CARPO Regional Representative.
The purpose of the Morbys' visit was to get a better understanding of the important issues and interests in the region to further develop the Committee's strategies, objectives and work plan. Among the many issues discussed were; Magnification of the Gamba model of private sector partnership for a sustainable economic, social and environmental development; ; Sangha Trinational Trust Fund; Forest Futures Fund and involvement from the private sector in terms of funding support.
Mr. Morby is chairman, CEO, and president of Insurance Loan Corp., a premium finance business (since 2004). He is also the owner, chairman and a director of Amarna Corporation, an investment and consulting firm. He is also a general partner of Amarna Partners, an investment partnership. Mrs. Morby retired as a managing director of TA Associates, a Boston-based venture capital firm, but continues to serve as an active Principal, representing TA's private equity funds. In a nutshell, the purpose of the Congo Basin Leadership Committee is to work directly with key WWF program staff on the most critical and urgent conservation issues in the area, and to play an active role in helping shape our programs through financial support, connections, and direct involvement.

CAWHFI Workshop
A CAWHFI workshop held mid February in Libreville, Gabon aimed at assessing progress made since its inception one year ago as well as map out new horizons. The workshop brought together partner organisations like Conservation International, Cybertracker conservation, FAO, UNESCO WCS and WWF. Participants came from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville and Gabon.

WWF NL Visit
A team of seven from WWF Netherlands was on a field visit to the East of Cameroon. Highlights of the trip included a visit to logging company, Groupe Decolvanaere; a lengthy discussion with Baka pygmies at the peripheries of Boumba Bek National Park and a trip to the Lobeke and Nki Parks respectively.

Communication growth
The WWF Jengi Project in the South East of Cameroon has been hooked on via a wireless system thereby improving on its communications system. Internet, computer and telephone networks are now fully functional.
According to CARPO IT specialist, Ahmadou Bello, “internet is now working well with quite a high speed of around 400Kbps”.
Field work at the vast Jengi Project will witness a great boost. According to Bello, “the computer network is deployed everywhere: from any office you can get to Internet and to other network resources like network printers, thanks to a mix of wire and wireless network.
In addition, the telephone network is operational thanks to a moderm PABX: staff can communicate with each other internally. They can also be reached and can call anywhere through 2 external lines; There are plans to add a fax machine and a Voice over IP telephone (telephone using Internet for cheaper international calls) to the already existing field radios and a Thuraya. Meanwhile the system in the CARPO Office in Yaoundé has been upgraded to include the wireless system.

Audit teams
Audit and Evaluating teams were in CARPO this February. CBFP Compliance Officer, Naveed Ahmed was in Yaoundé and Jengi to have a closer look at the finance issues of CBFP projects. An internal control team from WWF INTL, led by Chris Jennings was in Cameroon and Gabon respectively.

Dzanga Sanga roundup
The Dzanga Sanga Project (DSP) CAR witnessed a high level visit from WWF Germany and Krombacher Brewery related to the launching of a new Rainforest campaign for the Rainforest Trust Fund (to be eventually assumed within the TNS Trust) and the offer of an additional150.000 Euro emergency fund for the project.
The Bayanga team also initiated both GIS work for TNS and DSP planning and capacity building efforts supported by CBFP funding.
In another human interest twist, reports from Bayanga indicate a show of interest by the Ba’Aka pygmies to learn the English language. The project has begun a free English language course for interested persons especially project staff and tour guides. Project Manager, Erica Cochrane says 30 – 40 Ba’Akas attend classes each time one is convened.

Gabon roundup
Dominiek Plouvier of WWF Belgium was in Libreville to work with the WWF Gabon team on the organization of a ten-day trip in Europe aimed at raising the awareness of a number of Gabonese stakeholders on timber certification issues. The trip will take place in the second half of May 2006. Dominiek met with Government partners, managers of logging concessions and members of the civil society. The initiative to organize the trip was welcomed with extremely great interest by all.

*Marie de Longcamp, who is working in the sustainable financing department of WWF US, and with WWF France, traveled to Kinshasa and Yaoundé from February 13th to February 24th to review the feasibility of allocating proceeds resulting from debt relief mechanisms such as the French C2D (Convention Désendettement et Développement) to financing of forests conservation and management. She met with numerous stakeholders, working closely with the WWF CCPO and DRC staff. She then traveled to Libreville to present the initial findings of her mission at a meeting of the CBFP sustainable financing working group. Marie’s report will be available by the end of March and serve as a basis for future work on this promising avenue for sustainable financing.

General round up
*Between February 20 and March 2, Reginald Pauwels, CEO of WWF Belgium, visited WWF-CARPO and several field sites in Cameroon. According to Reginald, it was very important for WWF-Belgium to have a first high-profile visit in Cameroon, as WWF-Belgium has been very active in the country for over 10 years, and plans to keep Central Africa high on its strategic agenda for the years to come. Reginald took part in the steering committee of DGIS project (see below) on February 22. He also visited TRC and Pallisco logging concessions along with Dominiek Plouvier, Head of Forest department for WWF-Belgium. “The overall context of logging is amazingly complex in the sub-region”, he said. “I am impressed by the efforts carried out in the framework of our common projects to improve the overall situation with regard to forest regeneration, sustainable social development and wildlife management”.

* The steering committee of the DGIS “Capacity building for SFM” project took place in WWF Cameroon on February 22. This project has a regional scope, and the meeting was also attended by colleagues from DRC (Bruno Perodeau, regional project manager and François Makoloh, project assistant) and colleagues from Gabon (Brigitte Carr, project executant in Gabon). The meeting offered an opportunity to have an overview of the results achieved so far. One of the major results is the development of a global education program on SFM issues in DRC, which will extend over a period of several months in 2006 and enable local stakeholders to get used to the concepts of SFM recently introduced in DRC legal framework. In Gabon, the project focuses on the capacity building of local forest technicians in SBL logging concession. In Cameroon, capacity building activities are concentrated in social development in Akak community forest,
Pallisco and TRC logging sites. A “guide of Cameroon timber” will also be developed in close collaboration with the Ministry of Forests, highlighting what Cameroon has to offer and how buyers should ensure that their supplies are complying with the legal requirements.

* WWF CCPO held a workshop on F & A issues with Project Executants and officers in charge of administration and finance. Coordinated by Jon Marshall and François Abe, Regional Finance Director and DAF of Cameroon respectively, the January meeting is part of a continuous effort aimed at reviewing financial proceedings and ensuring proper checks and balance.