Lac Télé - Lac Tumba Landscape Meeting in Brazzaville
International conservation partners met in Brazzaville from 10-12 July 2007 to start the process for creating a cross-border agreement to aid conservation management of the Lac Tele – Lac Tumba landscape of Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. This meeting, organised by Hugo Rainey of WCS and Marcellin Agnagna of IUCN/CARPE was attended by government partners from both sides of the border, including ministerial advisers and Ramsar convention focal points, representatives from WWF, Pact, Mbou-mon-Tour and Conservation de la Faune Congolaise, partners with WCS in the Lac Tele - Lac Tumba landscape. The meeting was funded by USAID. The goal of the meeting was to start the process of creating a cross-border agreement to improve conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources.
The Lac Tele - Lac Tumba partners agreed at the meeting on an ambitious program for reviewing the feasibility of a landscape agreement. The governments asked WCS, WWF and partners to prepare a technical document detailing the value of the landscape for conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources and the benefits that may result from creating a cross-border agreement. Previous cross-border agreements in Central Africa include Tri-National Sangha (Republic of Congo, Cameroon and CAR) and Tridom (Republic of Congo, Gabon and Cameroon) and the partners will use these successful agreements as the basis for
preparing an agreement for the Lac Tele - Lac Tumba landscape.
This landscape is unique in the world as it has the largest area of swamp forest in the world and is the second largest wetland in the world (after the Pantanal in South America), covering 126,000 sq km. The waters in the forest are replenished by the Congo and Oubangui Rivers, amongst others, and contribute to maintaining a stable climate in the Congo basin. Evaporation of this water contributes 40% of the rainfall of the basin and the maintenance of this forest ensures the water is conserved. The forests also protect the cities of Kinshasa and Brazzaville from flooding and ensure stable water supplies to hydroelectric schemes downstream.