Global, Regional, and National Economic Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Congo Basin

Abstract Between 1990 and 2020, 352,642 km 2 of the Congo Basin’s dense forest, equivalent to 8.5% of the total land area, were lost. If current deforestation rates are not reduced, more than 25% of the tropical forest is expected to disappear by 2050. This chapter reviews the proximate and underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the Congo Basin: the activities directly responsible for forest loss and the underlying conditions that support those activities. The main proximate drivers are land clearance for subsistence shifting agriculture and small-scale plantations of cacao and oil palm; large-scale industrial agriculture; illegal illegal within mining concessions, areas of dispersed artisanal mining, and unclassified dense forests; artisanal forestry aimed at the production of fuelwood and charcoal; and large-scale export-oriented forestry in timber concessions. Underlying drivers include rural population growth, the lack of secure property rights, and weak systems of governance at local, national, and international scales. In all countries except Gabon, the rural population has continued to grow since 1990. The highest rates of rural population growth and the highest rates of deforestation in unclassified forests occur in Cameroon, CAR, and DRC. Widespread insecurity of land tenure, the absence of defined land rights, and an ineffective regulatory regime discourage investment in productivity improvements and encourage the persistence of shifting agriculture.