Global Climate Change Politics and its Implications for Sustainable Forest Management in the Congo Basin Rainforest

Abstract

This article examines the current debate on climate change within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its impact on fragile ecosystems in Central Africa. The negotiations with regard to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions have been ongoing since 1997 and no tangible targets have been reached. The article contends that the initiative for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD-Plus) has not provided the necessary financial and technological development and transfer, and capacity building to developing countries as concluded in Bali in 2007 and recognised by the 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15). The article concludes by implying that COP-15 was just another international talkshop with no significant impact on the support of action on adaptation and mitigation in developing countries’ climate change frameworks.