Gabon To Host Conference On Forest Ecosystems October 12, 1998 BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (PANA) - Central African ministers of environment and natural resoures are to meet in Libreville, Gabon, towards the end of October to finalise plans to launch the Standing Conference on Dense and Humid Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa. The proposed conference's legal framework was adopted at the 5-7 October meeting of experts from six Central African countries in Brazzaville. According to the Republic of Congo's forestry minister, Henri Djombo, the legal framework highlights the need to strengthen cooperation to improve the protection of forests and sustainabe management of their resources. He said the proposed conference arises from the ''political will of central African states to harmonise their forestry laws to meet the challenges of globalisation of trade and competition for control of forests in the Congo basin.'' The idea of having such a conference was mooted on 31 May, 1996 in Brazzaville by nine central African countries -- Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe. The central African region still possesses 220 hectares of forests, the world's second largest after the Amazon, in Brazil. The role of the conference expected to be launched during the ministerial consultation on 28 October in Libreville will be to implement bilateral and multilateral cooperation among the states in the forestry sector. The ministers are expected to clearly indicate the role of the private sector in the conservation and sustainable management of forest ecosystems.
