Central African leaders pledged on Saturday to increase their efforts to protect the forests of the Congo Basin, the world's second biggest tropical forest region after the Amazon. French President Jacques Chirac, a guest of honour at their summit in the Congo Republic's capital Brazzaville, said the West must be ready to pay some of the costs of preserving a region of vital importance to the planet.
Stretching across some 200 million hectares and six states, the dense forests are home to half of Africa's wild animals - including gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants - as well as more than 10,000 plant species.
But if deforestation goes on at its present pace, about 70 percent of the forests may be gone by 2040, global conservation group WWF says.
Host President Denis Sassou Nguesso described the region's forests as "a major issue for all humanity" and said he was confident countries would move from words to actions.
Chirac attended the meeting as France currently chairs the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, an international alliance set up to help the states of the region protect the environment.
"The heritage of the Congo basin is yours," Chirac told eight African heads of state. "It is also of irreplaceable ecological value for the planet. That is why we must be ready to share a part of the cost of its preservation."
As central Africa contains some of the world's poorest countries, activists say the West will have to provide significant funds if protection measures are to be implemented.
Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi and Chad signed a treaty committing them to measures to preserve the region's forests.
The treaty pledges action such as cracking down on poaching of protected species and encouraging sustainable management of logging concessions.
The leaders met to review progress six years after a first summit on the issue in Cameroon's capital Yaounde.
That summit was hailed by conservationists as the first time African heads of state had got together to commit themselves to protecting the environment, even as their countries face such pressing problems as poverty, disease and armed conflict.
"After Yaounde in 1999, Brazzaville must mark a new stage - a decisive stage - on the path of reaffirming our common political will and vision to manage sustainably the forest eco-systems of central Africa," said Sassou.