In the Central African Republic (CAR), 70 percent of humid, dense forested land is under concessions. The arrangement grants concessionaires logging and forestry rights, which do not always reflect the country's climate change agenda. Communities can play an important role in sustainable forest management, yet they lack rights and ownership of the land. 

The country knowledge program in CAR is designed to strengthen the government's capacity to manage forestry resources. PROGREEN will support the revision of CAR's forest code through consultations with communities that live and work around the forest, as well as technical experts and regional authorities. Activities will also support the mapping and digitization of data on agriculture, forestry, and mining to establish baseline land uses. Once the distribution of land uses is understood, PROGREEN will facilitate intersectoral dialogue with ministries on overlapping land uses. Moreover, the program complements efforts under CAR's Natural Resource Governance (PGRN) Project by acting as an implementation tool for policy shifts. 

In Fiscal Year 2024, the project team engaged communities around the forest code through consultation and one-on-one meetings. A large community stakeholder meeting was held with representatives from the various forest communes, the government, and donors to consider their perspectives when revising the forest code. Additionally, the knowledge program supported a forest policy analysis, resulting in recommendations to update the forest law. The first draft of the updated forest code was submitted to the Ministry of Forestry, Lands, Hunting & Fishing in June 2024.