The Republic of Congo will be joining an international program that will see the country granted €60 million ($97 million) for better protection of the rainforest and to fight climate change.

Congo’s President, Denis Sassou N’Guesso, was due to formally sign up for the Central African Forest Initiative during a meeting in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The program will be financed by a coalition of donors: the European Union, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

The Congo Basin is largely considered as the earth’s second set of lungs, after the Amazon.

Macron pledged last week at the G-7 summit to help sub-Saharan African countries fight fires raging in the area that is comparable to the Amazon rainforest fires.

Culled from www.660citynews.com