Congo Basin Countries Adopt Regional Strategy to Raise Food Output, Protect Forests

Congo Basin countries have adopted a regional roadmap to expand agroecology as they seek to increase food production while protecting forests and biodiversity. The Yaounde Declaration 2026, adopted at the Second Congo Basin Convening held in Cameroon from August 25 to 27, calls on governments to direct at least 30% of relevant food-system budget allocations toward agroecological approaches.

The three-day meeting brought together 187 delegates from 20 countries and ended with a 24-point declaration and a regional action roadmap.

The conference, opened under the chairmanship of Cameroon’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Gabriel Mbairobe, was held under the theme, “Agroecology for Inclusion, Sustainable Food Systems, Biodiversity, and Climate Justice in the Congo Basin.”

Participants included representatives from the six Congo Basin countries — Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo — as well as delegates from other countries in and around the region.

Under the declaration, governments and the African Union Commission are urged to integrate agroecology into national and regional agricultural investment plans. Participants also called for at least 20% of relevant climate and biodiversity financing to reach farmers’ organizations, women, young people, Indigenous peoples and local communities directly.

Other priorities include strengthening customary and community land rights, protecting farmer-managed seed systems and establishing a regional financing mechanism for agroecology.

Food Security Raises Production Stakes

For Cameroon, the discussions come as agriculture remains a major source of economic activity and employment. World Bank data show that agriculture, forestry and fishing accounted for 16.8% of the country’s GDP in 2025, while agriculture employed 41.9% of its workforce.

At the opening of the meeting, Mbairobe highlighted the challenge of producing more food for a growing population while agricultural systems face increasing environmental and financial constraints. He called for governments, civil society organizations, producers and technical and financial partners to work together on the transition toward more sustainable food systems.

The production challenge is already visible in Cameroon. An April 2026 FAO country brief, citing the October 2025 Cadre Harmonisé analysis, projected that more than 2.8 million people, or about 10% of the population analyzed, would face severe acute food insecurity between June and August 2026. Around 250,000 people were projected to be in the Emergency category.

Conflict, sociopolitical instability, flooding, high food prices and elevated agricultural input costs have continued to weigh on food production and access. At the same time, forests remain an important part of Cameroon’s natural capital. World Bank data put forest cover at 42.7% of the country’s land area in 2023.

Congo Basin forest ecosystem accounts published by the World Bank also show that forest condition and biodiversity, while still relatively strong across much of the basin, have been deteriorating in some ecosystems, including in Cameroon.

Agroecology was presented at the Yaounde meeting as a way to reconcile higher agricultural production with forest and biodiversity protection. Workshop sessions focused on ecological resilience and sustainable food systems, social inclusion and land rights, as well as resource mobilization, policy influence and regional cooperation.

Regional Coordination and Financing

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, or AFSA, which helped organize the meeting, has been tasked with supporting resource mobilization for the Congo Basin Biodiversity, Climate and Agroecology Initiative and hosting its regional coordination unit.

The six Congo Basin countries are also expected to establish or strengthen national agroecology platforms to coordinate implementation at country level.

The initiative comes as Cameroon expands programs targeting its food system. On March 25, 2026, the government and United Nations partners launched CONVERGEFOOD, a program designed to strengthen agricultural value chains, improve access to finance and connect smallholder farmers and agribusinesses to markets.

Mercy Fosoh