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In recognition of the increasing threats to the forests of the Congo Basin, the Heads of State from five countries in the western Congo Basin and the Republic of Chad formalized their commitment to improving forest conservation through the signing of the Ya oundé Declaration: a globally important demonstration of the steps which need to be taken to secure the future of the world's forests. Indicating their intention of working together, the Heads of State acknowledged the need to establish tran-border networks of forest protected areas as well as the need to improve the management of existing forest areas.

In an innovative move for forest conservation, the Yaoundé Declaration commits governments to a broad range of measures, the first of which is accelerating the process of setting up trans-boundary protected areas and strengthening the management of existing protected areas. This is the first positive step towards establishing a new trans-border conservation initiative between Cameroon, Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville. The Declaration also commits governments to harmonizing forest policies and regulations, and to ensuring that logging is sustainable. This offers a sound basis for working towards the establishment of regional certification standards as well as sustainable forest management in individual countries. In signing the Declaration, the Heads of State have agreed to work with local communities to conserve forests and have acknowledged the problems of large-scale poaching and illegal logging, and the urgent need to resolve these issues.

In line with WWF's calls to improve the conservation of forests and the species which live within them, the Cameroon government has also adopted a national elephant management plan, including the protection of forest habitats. Cameroon is one of the most important countries in Africa for elephants but, as they are a primary resource, they are often hunted for their tusks which are then illegally traded on the international black market for ivory. This new eelephant management plan will enable the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to consider reinstating an export quota of tusks which should, in turn, contribute to the protection of Cameroon's forests.

To finance these commitments, the Declaration called on donor nations to help establish a sub-regional Trust Fund. For several years, WWF has been concerned about the long-term viability of a national protected areas system in West Central Africa due to declining budgets and reduced staff levels. Given that much of the region's protected areas system in globally important, WWF put forward the idea that a Trust Fund should be created to allocate money invested by the international community for forest conservation in the region.

Signed by the Presidents of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic an Chad, and signed on behalf of the Presidents of Congo and Gabon and on behalf of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, the Yaoundé Declaration has sent out a strong political signal that forest conservation is an important issue for Heads of State in Central Africa.