How Could Logging Policies and Practices Influence the Future of the Congo Basin Biodiversity and Ecosystems?

Abstract The Congo Basin forests are currently undervalued. Economic and social returns from forestry and timber processing are relatively low compared to some nations outside Africa. Furthermore, the ecosystem services provided by the forests, such as the net absorption and storage of atmospheric carbon, continue to be considered by the international community as a free commodity. We propose an economic model involving maximizing the proportion of third-level timber processing and planting new forests that can increase forest economies and job creation by an order of magnitude. We argue that only by making forests valuable to the people and nations of the Congo Basin will we be able to avoid the large-scale deforestation that has occurred in West Africa and in other tropical forest regions, where the economic and social benefits of conversion were higher than those linked to preservation and sustainable harvest. We discuss knowledge gaps that need to be filled, possible technological solutions and policy reforms, and fiscal incentives needed to implement our model across the Congo Basin.