Rome, 23 July – (Nova) – The Mattei Plan is an opportunity to bring to international attention issues linked to the protection of biodiversity and the necessary climate and environmental resilience, as the countries of the Congo basin. This was observed by the Angolan ambassador to Italy, Maria de Fatima Jardim, who spoke today in Rome at the conference “The opportunity of the forest of the Republic of Congo”, hosted today at Palazzo Grazioli, headquarters of the foreign press. “The Mattei Plan is an opportunity to further promote these objectives, to project the Congo Basin from a perspective of resilience, and to do so in a dialogue between Italy and Africa”, said the ambassador, for whom the Today’s meeting intends to propose a “dynamic approach” on what is concretely done in regional countries on the protection of biodiversity.

On the occasion of Cop22 held in Marrakech in 2016 and in his capacity as the Congo Basin Commission, Congolese President Denis Sassou-N’Guesso announced the establishment of a Blue Fund for the Congo Basin. The initiative, which ten countries joined in 2017 with the signing of an agreement, is one of the main financial instruments of the Commission (which brings together Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo) and aims to mobilize the necessary resources for projects that contribute to sustainable development and the promotion of the blue economy. (Res)