CAFI supports national governance structures that guide and monitor the results of its investments.

In the DRC, CAFI funds the Executive Secretariat and the meetings of the two multi-stakeholder committees (the Steering Committee and the Technical Committee) of the National REDD+ Fund, that is responsible for programming and monitoring results. CAFI also supports a dedicated programme in the DRC to strengthen civil society voice and representation. At the local level, CAFI supports, through provincial multi-sectorial programmes (PIREDDs), the planning, coordination and monitoring of rural development mechanisms, with 830 local development committees established or strengthened to date across 8 provinces.

Including gender equality considerations in CAFI programming builds on a human right-based approach to development. Moreover, engaging and involving women and other vulnerable groups in efforts to reduce forest loss is essential for long-term results and change to current trends, due to their unique knowledge and the key role they play in involved sectors.

In the forest sector, CAFI support is directed at increasing the proportion of forests under sustainable forest management plans, decreasing illegalities – including on contracting and permitting -, and enhancing transparency on permits, harvesting allowances and management plans. Supporting the development and completion of national forest monitoring systems (NFMS) is also essential.

It is estimated that about two thirds of wood energy production in Central Africa comes from clearing for the development of agriculture, while the remaining third comes from selective wood harvesting dedicated to the production of wood energy. The production of wood energy is therefore closely linked to agricultural activities. Generally speaking, the consumption of wood for heating by rural populations is a lesser issue than transformation into charcoal to supply large urban centres.

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?”

Agricultural activities in the Central African region have been predominantly linked to village agriculture, that mainly supplies local markets and nearby urban centres. This production often involves inefficient land practices as farmers lack access to capital and adequate risk-management mechanisms to sustainably increase yields.