Context & goals
Context
The second conference will address issues related to preserving the natural environment of the Congo Basin, linked to biodiversity, health, climate and resilient social ecological systems. Links to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity and to the Sustainable Development Goals will be highlighted and discussed. Adding these and possibly other new themes to the conference program will attract a diverse and cross-pollinating audience.
The DR Congo’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) meets its international reporting obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity by, among others, publishing a national report on the country’s biodiversity in 2022-2023. A workshop will precede the conference to update the ‘Etat des lieux de la biodiversité en RD Congo’, published in 2014. It will also serve to collect the necessary information for the national report and at the same time it will serve to set up a structured and effective way to do so.
More specifically, the conference aims at
- Enhancing awareness and motivation among (inter)national and provincial political authorities to increase their efforts to safeguard the Congo Basin and its unique fauna and flora in view of the increasing demographic pressure and economic development with its effects on the use of renewable natural resources and the potential threats to human health that may come with it.
- Strengthening the existing local and international network of scientists, civil society and policy makers.
- Strengthening links between the climate-biodiversity and health research.
- Promoting the public availability of the data related to the exploitation of renewable natural resources publicly available among local authorities.
