United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Since its official launch in September 2025, the GEF8 Landscape project has engaged through its partners to roll out activities on the ground.

Mintom, Cameroon – December 2025 Environment Conservation for Public Health (ECO-ph) has completed the first phase of community mobilization under the GEF-8 Dja Landscape Project, successfully engaging six villages and stakeholders across the Mintom Commune to prepare f

Across Cameroon's Dja landscape, a critical biodiversity corridor spanning four million hectares, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and municipal authorities have long faced significant governance challenges that threatened both conservation goals and community rights. Fragmented decision-making processes, limited representation of marginalized groups in land-use planning, and weak coordination between traditional and formal governance systems have created obstacles to sustainable development.

Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Dja Landscape are gaining a stronger voice in conservation efforts with the launch of a new Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) under the GEF-8 Dja Landscape Project (Cameroon). The mechanism aims to ensure that community rights are protected and that concerns related to project activities are addressed promptly and transparently.

Value Chains Based on Science and Best Practices 

In the heart of Central Africa, where over 2.8 million square kilometers of forests store an estimated 30 gigatons of carbon and support more than 130 million people, the GEF-funded and UNEP-led Congo Forest Integrated Programme (IP) is achieving transformation.

Indigenous Knowledge and Youth Leadership take center stage at Inaugural Congo Basin Voices Webinar Series

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The landmark 2025 Annual Conference of the GEF-funded Critical Forests Integrated Programmes in the Congo Basin and the Guinean Forest Regions held in June in Kribi, Cameroon has set the stage for an ambitious new chapter in African forest conservation. The Conference  saw the launch of the GEF-8 Congo Forest Integrated Programme and the GEF-8 Guinean Forest Integrated Programme, which adopt an expanded approach under the Amazon and Congo Critical Forest Biomess Integrated Programmes (IPs). 

The illegal exploitation of natural resources by international criminal networks, exacerbated by climate change which drives habitat loss and forces communities into illegal activities for survival, undermines Central Africa's stability, economy, biodiversity, and peace. The region's rich primary forests and exceptional biodiversity make it especially vulnerable to these challenges. Combating environmental crime, particularly in transboundary areas, requires a coordinated, innovative, and sustainable regional response.

The most effective conservation strategies emerge when traditional knowledge meets modern planning systems, supported by targeted capacity building. This principle is being demonstrated across multiple countries in the Congo Basin, transforming conservation practice in the Republic of Congo's Lac Télé landscape, to participatory land use planning covering over 1.2 million hectares in Cameroon and transboundary conservation efforts spanning Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, and Gabon. 

A New Model for Landscape Governance

Kribi, Cameroun, 20 juin 2025 - Un forum régional sur la conservation des forêts, le premier du genre, s'est achevé aujourd'hui à Kribi, au Cameroun, traçant une nouvelle voie pour la coopération Sud-Sud dans les régions forestières les plus critiques d'Afrique.

Kribi, Cameroon, 20 June 2025 — A first-of-its-kind regional forum on forest conservation wrapped up today in Kribi, Cameroon, charting a new course for South-South cooperation across Africa’s most critical forest regions.