Congo launches major reforestation program

Rural communities encouraged in sustainable development with small-scale industry

With more than two-thirds of Congo's landmass taken up by forest, lumber (timber) and plywood are Congo's biggest foreign exchange earners after oil. However, years of deforestation have taken their toll.

In November 2011, President Denis Sassou N'Guesso launched a major reforestation program, known as PRONAR, in a concerted effort to improve Congo's forest environment and soil quality. Financed by both the government and the private sector, the program will see the resurrection of more than a million hectares of forest over the next decade.