Concerned about the environmental degradation of the forest ecosystem, the government of Benin has adopted a new forest policy. Covering the period 2023-2032, it aims to preserve biodiversity in all forest areas.
This is one of the important announcements made at the end of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, February 22, 2023. The Beninese government has validated and adopted the country’s ten-year forest policy for the period from 2023 to 2032. For the executive, updating our country’s forest resource protection framework had become unavoidable.
“The environmental degradation of our natural forest ecosystems, at such an accelerated pace, requires an appropriate redefinition of objectives, instruments and actions in order to be able to put in place a sustained and sustainable conservation management of forests for the benefit of sustainable development, security food and the well-being of rural populations”, recalled the report of the Council of Ministers.
To do this, the government set up a National Sector Reform Commission whose work recommended, among other things, the revision of the legislative and regulatory framework. It is following the recommendations of this entity that the new forest policy was adopted. The new document is based on the vision that “by 2040, Benin’s forest areas will be restored, conserved and sustainably managed to fulfill their multiple functions in favor of the economy, society, the environment and the climate”.
For the government, the new forest policy pursues several objectives. These include, among others, “to have a decent living environment, conducive to the sustainable well-being of populations, to the development of economic activities”. “Generally, this Policy aims to improve by 2027, the quality of governance of the forest sector at all levels and then to preserve, from 2030, biodiversity in all forest areas”, further clarifies the report of the Council of Ministers.