Three ministers representing the Congolese government (namely : Calixte Nganongo, in charge of Finance and Budget; Rosalie Matondo, of Forest Economy; and Pierre Mabiala, of Land Affairs, Public Domain and Relations with Parliament) signed an emphyteutic lease agreement with the Forest Neutral Congo (FNC) company, represented by its Managing Director, Bernard Cassagne. The ceremony took place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 in the main hall of the Ministry of Finance in Brazzaville.  

This emphyteutic lease agreement covers the exploitation of the Léfini Land Reserve (in the Plateaux Department), covering an area of 70,089 hectares 30 ares 46 centiares, for a period of 60 years. This new perimeter will be the object of acacia and manioc plantations by the FNC company. Being part of the private domain of the State, it is limited to the North by Ngo, to the South by the Léfini, to the East by Mpouya and to the West by the road Léfini - Ngo. 

According to Christophe Bienvenu Babela, administrative and legal adviser to Minister Rosalie Matondo, who presented the contract, "FNC plans, in this exploitation of the reserve, the installation of a cogeneration plant of 2.5 MW; the establishment of a peeling plant and a sawing plant of wood from the plantations, to supply Brazzaville with plywood (32,000 cubic meters per year) and sawn timber (40). 000 cubic metres per year); the establishment of an agro-forestry perimeter with a 9-year rotation and high labour intensity, with an installation rate of 250 hectares per year; the creation of a negative carbon sink, in partnership with Total Based Nature Solution (TNBS), a subsidiary of the oil group TOTAL, as part of its Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSR)". 

For Minister Rosalie Matondo, Congo will benefit greatly from this lease contract, which is part of the Public-Private Partnership. In particular, in terms of employment (in acacia and cassava plantations, as well as in wood processing plants), but also in terms of diversification of the national economy and the emergence of the Green Economy. Add to this the rent that the FNC company will pay each year to the State owner of the land, as well as the carbon credit from the acacia forests to combat climate change, thanks to the financial support for this project from the oil company Total, through its subsidiary TNBS.  

The interest of the Project, according to DG Bernard Cassagne

Of the 70,000 ha, FNC's ambition is to develop 50,000 ha, from plantations whose number one objective is the creation of a natural carbon sink, intended for the emission of CO2 carbon credits. All the areas to be protected will be protected. Part of them will be preserved, as an area of reliquary forests, that is to say, the witnesses of the surface of these forests as they are at the time the Project comes into force. The programme of these plantations will last 10 years. A large part of it will represent a natural carbon sink that will eventually feed the local plantation wood industry, whose exploitation will begin at the end of the 20th year, with an industry that will be created, specialised in plantation wood, to satisfy local needs from the plywood and sawn timber activity, part of which will be destined for export. 

During these 10 years of creation of these 50,000 ha of plantations, with the two operations that will be carried out, practically 1,000 direct jobs (permanent or temporary) will be created in the project area. Part of the Project will involve local agriculture, especially cassava cultivation through the agro-forestry model (acacias-manioc).  Annual cassava production will make it possible to roughly meet the needs of a population of 15,000 inhabitants. In other words, there will be a high local availability of cassava, and also the possibility for the farmers, who are associated with these crops, to be able to market them, in order to generate income. 

The reasons for the choice of the Léfini zone as mentioned by the DG of FNC, are as follows 

The reason is relatively simple. It is, however, complex, in the sense that favourable conditions are needed for the realisation of plantations, the aim of which is the emission of CO2 credits and the production of tomorrow's wood as well as agricultural products. So we need to go on land with good agronomic and forestry potential. We have to move away from areas where there is a high demand for land, for the needs of local populations in agriculture. It is for one of these reasons that FNC has moved away from Brazzaville to settle on the Léfini plateaux. 

Ultimately, it is because the Congo has enormous wealth, namely: more than 7 million hectares of savannah. What was once not a wealth has become a very great wealth on these savannah areas. On these formations of the Batékés plateaux alone, the Project will exploit 70,000 hectares. It is therefore the implementation of only 1% of this surface area!

Of course, not everything will be dedicated to this type of operation. The reason is that, in Congo, apart from the fact that we are in a country specialised in forest plantations (the activity of forest plantations started more than 50 years ago), we have large areas available for developing this type of project.  

"As a reminder, the promotion of forest and agro-forestry plantations is being carried out in Congo as part of the implementation of the National Afforestation and Reforestation Programme (PRONAR), launched in 2011 by President Denis Sassou Nguesso. It provides for 200,000 ha of state-owned plantations (by the state), 100,000 ha of plantations by individuals and village communities or small promoters, and 700,000 ha of industrial plantations by private partners or large promoters (such as the FNC)," Minister Rosalie Matondo said.  

The Press Office of the Ministry of Finance