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.

About 70 percent of the Congo Basin forests may be gone by 2040 unless action is taken, global conservation group WWF says.

Kenya's deputy environment minister, Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, accepted an invitation from the leaders to become a roving ambassador for the Congo Basin even though her country is not part of the region.

But Maathai, who won the Nobel prize after leading a massive tree-planting scheme and campaigning against corruption, also noted several speakers at the conference in the capital of Congo Republic had stressed the need for good governance.

"It is not by coincidence. Rather, it is because it is a serious issue and we must address it," she said on Saturday.

"We have many friends," she said. "They want to help us. But we must create an enabling environment for development partners to do their part."

FUNDS SQUANDERED

As several states in the region such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic are among the poorest on the planet, activists say the West will have to provide much of the funding for conservation measures.

All of the countries concerned are also regularly ranked among the world's most corrupt.

Local and international watchdogs says there is clear evidence of large-scale illegal logging and officials embezzling or squandering much of the money timber companies pay to the state to help local communities.

"It's scandalous how little of that money that is generated trickles down to local people," said Filip Verbelen, a Greenpeace campaigner who has travelled the world studying forests and logging operations.

Verbelen said the Congo Basin countries first committed themselves to preserving the forests at a summit six years ago but illegal and irresponsible logging remained widespread.

"On paper, yes, they have the right language," he said. "But I have no indication at all that there is a political will to implement these measures fast."

Verbelen added, however, that regional states and Western nations were at least now talking openly of illegal logging as a major problem when they had previously shown little interest.

The campaigners' next challenge is to try to create a similar change in attitude when it comes to corruption.

"To paraphrase the words of President Kennedy, let us not ask what we can get from the Congo Basin. Rather, what we can do for the Congo Basin," Maathai told the summit.