Environment

Congo Signs Historic Rainforest Preservation Pact

The Republic of Congo has signed an historic $200 million agreement that aims to reverse the rapid deforestation of its vast rainforest, the world's second largest behind the Amazon.

Congo is the first nation to sign a pact with the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), a seven-month-old program designed to renew forest protection efforts in the Congo Basin.

Forests in the Congo Basin cover about two million square kilometres, about the size of the Central American country of Mexico. But the forests in the Congo Basin are shrinking by about 5,600 kilometres a year due, in part, to the expansion of palm oil plantations.