Securing land and forest rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples in the DRC

This project emerged as a response to growing concerns for the future of DRC’s vital forests, many of which currently receive little formal protection. Forest-dwelling communities are heavily reliant on these forests for survival, but growing pressures on these fragile ecosystems, coupled with the wider impacts of climate change, have seen an acceleration of potentially catastrophic environmental and climactic changes. Local people are increasingly faced with unpredictable seasons and extreme weather events, which are fueling increased food insecurity and deepening poverty. In this context, securing communal land rights and ensuring communities’ control over the management of their natural resources becomes crucial.   

Threats to DRC’s forest also include logging and clearance for agriculture, road building and mining concessions. Studies have highlighted subsistence farming and charcoal production – linked to a rapidly expanding population – as exerting mounting pressure on forests. As such, capacity building at a community level to ensure long-term sustainable management of communally run forestlands is also urgently required. 

This project aims to address these issues by working towards the protection and long-term management of the country’s rich natural heritage and offering sustainable livelihoods for forest-dwelling communities. 

To read a brief overview of the Democratic Republic of Congo, click here.

For a timeline of land and forest rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo, click here.