Like any site with an Exceptional Universal Value, the TNS is subject to several variations related to the different human interactions and threats it faces (poaching, deforestation, population growth, etc.). The above presents the need to assess it regularly, through a scientific approach.
This evidence transcribes the need for scientific expertise of international standard, a system that could help managers make decisions adapted to the evolution of TNS’ biodiversity. Aware of these challenges, the TNS States Parties through the TNS Technical Committee for Supervision and Arbitration – CTSA (the decision-making body made up of the forest ministers of the TNS countries) signed in 2019 a historic agreement setting up the arrangements for the establishment and operation of the TNS Technical Scientific Committee.
In order to materialise this initiative, a call for applications launched in 2020 with the support of FTNS for the recruitment of the 05 members of this body and evaluated during the last session of the CTSA which was held on the sidelines of the last meeting of the parties of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFF – CBFP) from 8 to 11 December 2020 in Kinshasa. At the end of the work sessions, the two international applications were approved pending the final list of three national experts, which will be presented in the first quarter of 2021.
The presence of this advisory body should allow a better valorization of the research results for the development of conservation strategies for the exceptional universal values of the TNS.