Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Agriculture

The Congo Basin represents 70 percent of
the African continent's forest cover and constitutes a
large portion of Africa's biodiversity. Agricultural
development is a central lever to help people out of
poverty, as well as a key driver of deforestation.
Forest-friendly agricultural development is a challenge for
the region. This report describes some ways forest-friendly
agricultural development can materialize in the Congo Basin.
It is one of a series of reports prepared during a two-year
attempt to analyze and better understand deforestation
dynamics in the Basin. The report presents findings related
to the agricultural sector in the Congo Basin and its
potential impact on forest cover. It is based on an in-depth
analysis of the sector, from previous trends through future
prospects. It builds on results derived from a modeling
exercise conducted by the International Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) that scrutinized national,
regional, and international trends in agricultural sectors
and trade, and their impacts on Congo Basin forests. The
structure of the report is as follows: chapter one gives an
overview of the agricultural sector in the six countries,
including an analysis of the sector's impact so far on
forest cover; chapter two describes the prospects for
development of agriculture in the near future and the
potential impacts on forest under a business-as usual
scenario; and chapter three identifies potential key levers
in agricultural policy that can enable forest-friendly agriculture.