Midterm Evaluation of Phase III of the USAID Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment

This report presents the findings of a midterm evaluation on Phase III of USAID’s Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE III). Evaluation questions were designed to cover four major areas: (1) program performance, (2) program design and implementation strategy, (3) program management, and (4) coordination and sustainability.

The evaluation found that CARPE is instrumental in reducing rainforest loss in the world’s second largest tropical rainforest ecosystem. CARPE is a critically important hedge against future greenhouse gas emissions and provides essential protection to threatened and endangered species. The evaluation also found that there is substantial and critically important work to be done to integrate the social dimensions of natural resource management with conservation biology. Adaptive management in CARPE is weak, and inhibited by planning processes. Weaknesses in overall program design are also apparent, particularly in strategies to reduce emissions. 

USAID’s CARPE was initiated in 1995. Phase I of CARPE ran from 1995-2002. It focused on understanding the legal, social, biological, administrative contexts of the Congo Basin forests, and on inventorying forest resources. Phase II, from 2003-2013, facilitated comprehensive regional land use planning to identify conservation and sustainable land use priorities. Phase III, which was initiated in 2013, focuses on implementation of priority actions. CARPE III aims to achieve its development objective through four intermediate results: (1) targeted forest landscapes sustainably managed, (2) threats to biodiversity in targeted forest landscapes mitigated, (3) policy and regulatory environments supporting sustainable forest and biodiversity conservation established, and (4) capacity to monitor forest cover change, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity strengthened.