While deforestation rates in the country have been extremely low to date (less than 0.1%), the country is aware that economic globalization which encourages the expansion of the agriculture, bioenergy and extractive industry sectors, can take place to the detriment of the natural forestland. The Congo is actively seeking to undertake significant investment in order to prevent such risks and turn towards a Green Economy.

The Congo joined the UN-REDD Programme as Partner Country and observer to the Policy Board in February 2010, and had their UN-REDD National Programme endorsed in March 2012.

Forest cover change
The below forest cover change map of the Republic of Congo for the period 2000-2012 was created by the National Centre for Assessment and Management of Forest Resources and Wildlife (CNIAF) in collaboration with FAO technical assistance through the UN-REDD Programme. It builds on three existing products, which are combined to comply with the national forest definition. This map has been developed to serve a basis for the REDD+ process, including the calculation of the reference emission level, the national land use plan and other uses that require forest mapping. 

La carte de changement de couvert forestier en République du Congo pour la période 2000-2012 a été réalisée par le Centre National d’Inventaire et d’Aménagement des Ressources Forestières et Fauniques (CNIAF) avec l’assistance technique de la FAO à travers le Programme ONU-REDD. Elle est élaborée sur la base des trois produits existants,  de manière à respecter la définition nationale de la forêt. Cette carte a été élaborée pour servir de base au processus REDD+, notamment pour le calcul du Niveau des Emissions de Référence pour les Forêts, le plan national d’affectation des terres, et autres utilisations ayant un lien avec la cartographie forestière.

Progress against the Warsaw Framework for REDD+

National REDD+ Strategy/Action Plan
The preliminary draft of the National REDD+ Strategy was validated by national stakeholders in December 2014
following consultations and workshops at the departmental and national level. Currently, major concerns expressed by international partners who support the REDD+ process in the Republic of Congo (UN-REDD and FCPF) are being integrated in the Strategy. High-level panels have begun the work of harmonization of the National REDD+ Strategy with sectoral strategies to consolidate the final version, and better integrate sectoral concerns in the REDD+ Investment Plan. The final version of the Strategy will be available in 2016.

National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS)
The Republic of Congo has initiated a broad consultative and technical process to further the MRV process in the country, building on existing national expertise in management and forest certification. The development of projects related to MRV has advanced, and a NFMS portal is now being developed; the first experimental version is awaiting national validation. The analysis and data processing for the National Forest Inventory (NFI) will be completed in early 2016. The Republic of Congo has further developed a new mapping system, combining the products from GAF-AG, Global Forest Change (GFC) and Forêts d’Afrique Centrale Évaluées par Télédétection (FACET), meeting the new definition for forests that was adopted
during a national workshop in March 2014. In addition, two capacity building workshops were held on Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Moreover, the Republic of Congo has submitted two national communications on NFMS to the UNFCCC, with a third communication currently being prepared. A beta version of the web portal has been introduced and is currently under construction for the country.

Forest Reference Emission Level / Forest Reference Level (FREL/FRL)
To construct the FREL, an extensive data collection programme was launched at the national level that includes data for the period of 2000-2012, taking into account information on deforestation and degradation (logging, mining, agribusiness and infrastructure). All data was validated during a national workshop attended by officials of all relevant sectors in which the data was taken. The FREL has since been presented at COP21 in Paris, France, in December 2015. The final FREL, is to be validated at meetings in January 2016, with submission to the UNFCCC in January 2016.

Safeguards and Safeguards Information System (SIS)
Criteria and indicators for the national SIS have been identified following working group meetings and consultations with the responsible departments and validated at a national workshop. The adoption of those criteria and indicators is the first step in building the SIS, although it remains to be seen how carrying out field tests to ensure their consistency with national circumstances should best be done.