Catholic Bishops’ Symposium in Accra, Ghana, Calls on COP31 to Protect Africa’s Forests, Waters and Biodiversity

The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the body that brings together the Catholic bishops’ conferences of the continent and Madagascar, issued a statement on 8 November 2026 addressed to COP31. It calls on governments, development partners, international financial institutions, businesses, civil society, and all people of good will to recognize that protecting Africa’s forests, waters, lands, and biodiversity is essential to safeguarding the planet and to securing a just and sustainable future for present and future generations.

The statement points to the continent’s ecosystems of global significance, especially the Congo Basin rainforest, which it describes as the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world and one of the planet’s most vital reservoirs of carbon and biodiversity. According to the statement, the basin’s forests, rivers, wetlands, and peatlands help regulate the climate, support livelihoods, foster food and water security, and serve as a home and cultural foundation for millions of people. For this reason, SECAM says, protecting the Congo Basin is not solely Africa’s responsibility but a global one.

SECAM expresses particular concern about a set of interconnected pressures on Africa’s forests and natural resources. These include deforestation and forest degradation, the unsustainable exploitation of minerals and timber, agricultural expansion, land degradation, water insecurity, biodiversity loss, pollution, and the impacts of climate change. The statement says these pressures fall most heavily on poor and vulnerable communities, including Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, children, and youth, whose livelihoods and well-being depend directly on healthy ecosystems. Protecting those most exposed to these harms is a central concern of the appeal (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Drawing on *Laudato Si’* and the Church’s commitment to integral human development and ecological conversion, the bishops call for a climate response that places human dignity, ecological integrity, intergenerational justice, and the common good at its center. The statement asks that Africa not be viewed merely as a source of natural resources or as a recipient of climate aid. Instead, it says, African countries and communities must be recognized as essential partners and stewards in the global effort to address the climate and biodiversity crises.

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