The Congo Basin is home to the world’s second-largest continuous rainforest, covering approximately 180 million hectares. Most of the people in the region depend directly on natural resources and agriculture. Poverty is widespread and electricity is comprehensively generated by hydropower. This makes the neighbouring countries especially susceptible to shifts in the ecosystem due to climate change. The members of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) wish to conserve forests and ensure their sustainable management. However, there is currently insufficient data to allow reliable forecasts to be made on the re-gional climate, which is impeding the development of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The project aims to provide national and regional decision-makers with climate change scenarios that have been calculated specifically for the Congo Basin, and which will enable them to adapt natural resource management strategies to climate change. Beyond this, the project supports COMIFAC with regard to the forthcoming international climate negotiations by means of the following measures: 

If the interests of the COMIFAC region are taken into account at the post-Kyoto/Copenhagen negotiations, this may provide a significant incentive to protect Earth’s second-largest green lung and to manage its resources sustainably. This will not only benefit the region and the people who live there, but the entire planet as a closed ecosystem.