Washington: The Congo Basin, home to the world's second-largest tropical rainforest, holds immense value for not only the six countries it spans but for the planet. A new World Bank report reveals the region's forests are not only essential for climate stability and biodiversity but also a foundation for economic resilience. The value of forest ecosystem services nearly doubled in just two decades, rising from $590 billion in 2000 to $1.15 trillion in 2020. During the same period, the total forest asset value surged from $11.4 trillion to $23.2 trillion.

According to World Bank, the report shows that forest management, conservation, and data readiness vary widely across the region. Countries such as Gabon and the Republic of Congo stand out, embedding forest sustainability into national planning with relatively low deforestation rates and strong biodiversity indicators. Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea are in transition, strengthening forest governance and piloting policies that integrate ecosystem values. Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic face complex pressures - from rapid population growth to informal logging, mining, and agriculture - that threaten the region's forest resilience.

The Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem Accounts report and Policy Recommendations, alongside the country reports, provide a basin-wide overview of how forests can be fully integrated into macroeconomic planning to support economic diversification and climate finance strategies. The findings show how the forest sector can drive new opportunities from community-based ecotourism, forest monitoring, to value-added processing of non-timber forest products, and results-based climate financing - shifting the development narrative toward long-term sustainability and resilience.