Welcome address of the German Facilitator

Dear partners and friends of CBFP,

it has fallen to me to succeed Mr Laurent STEFANINI, French Ambassador for the Environment, as CBFP Facilitator for the period 2007-2009. I have already had the pleasure of meeting several of you during my work at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) whilst preparing for this new task, which I consider a great challenge. You have not only encouraged me, but also offered your advice and experience, notably concerning the approaches I should adopt in order for this mission to succeed. And I concur with Mrs MAATHAI, who shares with us her Nobel Peace Prize-winning optimism, that “failure is not an option!”

During the CBFP meeting in Paris, Germany has laid out the general direction it believes cooperation should take within the framework of the partnership during the next two years. In so doing, it focused on its role as Facilitator but also and especially sought to encourage all the partners to contribute to the formulation of the roadmap and its implementation. The fact that we aim to pursue specific themes, such as capacity building for COMIFAC and CBFP, better forest governance, implementation of the Convergence Plan and major international conventions related to forests and environment and development of transboundary protected areas, clearly shows that we wish to continue along the paths taken by our American and French predecessors, to work

♦ with existing structures and working groups
♦ and on the basis of the « cooperation framework » of CBFP partners, but above all
♦ with the objective of supporting the countries in the COMIFAC region, its Executive Secretariat, and the people whose livelihoods are based on forest resources, in their efforts to conserve and make good use of their natural heritage.

The debates held in the course of the Paris meeting showed that a general consensus exists with regard to the priorities of our joint work, particularly on salient issues relating to the implementation of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan and its external support, the positioning of the region in international processes affecting forestry concerns in Central Africa, the options for consolidating COMIFAC structures, including the implementation of the Autonomous Financing Mechanism, but also the sound functioning of our partnership itself.

With everyone’s support, we should also try to attract more partners from civil society in the COMIFAC region, as well as from the donor community, international organisations, the private sector, including the banking sector, and from amongst new actors in the Congo Basin forest sector.

Good cooperation with you all - this is my strongest wish!

Hans Schipulle