Africa: Fragmented Policies Hold Back Agroecology Adoption in Africa's Congo Basin

What the report says

Agriculture and conservation advocates meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon, say the Congo Basin needs more coordinated policies if agroecology is to move beyond small pilot projects. In a declaration issued after the Second Congo Basin Convening on Agroecology in August 2026, participants argued that farm, land, forestry, environmental and trade rules are still fragmented across the region’s countries, limiting access to advisory services, organic inputs, markets and long-term financing.

The AllAfrica-distributed IPS report says the call was backed by officials, experts and activists, including representatives from the Economic Community of Central African States. Mohamed Abakar of ECCAS said policies are not sufficiently aligned and urged a regional agroecology and organic farming framework to be reflected in Central Africa’s agricultural planning. The declaration also asks the African Union Commission and member states to explicitly include agroecology in CAADP implementation, with dedicated objectives, indicators and budget lines.

The article places the issue in the context of the Congo Basin’s importance as Africa’s largest continuous forest block and a major global carbon sink. It notes that industrial agriculture, infrastructure and other pressures are contributing to forest loss, while agroecology is presented as a way to support farmer incomes, biodiversity and food sovereignty without further degrading the ecosystem.

The report also cites examples of national-level action, including a proposed seed-protection law in South Sudan, a sustainable agriculture framework in Cameroon, a food systems platform in the Central African Republic and an agroecology strategy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even so, the overall message from the convening was that regional coordination, rather than isolated projects, is needed to scale adoption.