Tenure Facility joins Congo Basin Forest Partnership

To bolster its work in the region, Tenure Facility has joined the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), a strategic alliance of countries and organisations dedicated to fostering sustainable practices, improving living conditions, and preserving the rich biodiversity of Central Africa’s tropical forest. 

Tenure Facility will bring its longstanding collaboration with several stakeholders – including Indigenous Peoples, local communities, organisations, and governments – to CBFP as it works toward finding inclusive and equitable solutions to forest-related challenges. 

“This is a welcomed partnership, and it will give us another space to promote Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ land and forest rights in the Congo Basin,” said Margaret Rugadya, Tenure Facility’s Africa Region coordinator. “The platform has appreciated how we provide direct funding to local and indigenous organisations as well as build their capacity.” 

Launched in 2002, the CBFP is a multi-stakeholder partnership whose mission is to enhance natural resource management and the lives of communities in the Congo Basin. The partnership is comprised of 126 members which include African countries, bilateral and private donors, international organisations, NGOs, research institution representatives, and the private sector.

As an organisation dedicated to advancing tenure rights for indigenous communities, Tenure Facility’s mission aligns closely with CBFP’s shared vision of sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation in the Congo Basin. 

The second largest reserve of tropical rainforest in the world after the Amazon, the Congo Basin is home to thousands of local communities and Indigenous Peoples as well as to one of the planet’s most important and effective carbon sinks. 

Tenure Facility was asked to join the CBFP following a learning exchange it co-organised and hosted in Kinshasa in September 2023. The three-day exchange provided Tenure Facility partners, government officials and others a unique opportunity to draw on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s experiences in — and contributions to — community-led forestry to ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ rights and community-based action remained at the top of the global climate agenda. 

At the start of 2024, Tenure Facility is supporting four projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is planning new partnerships to finance more projects later in the year. It is also pursuing potential partnerships in the neighbouring Republic of the Congo and Cameroon. Several of Tenure Facility’s financial and operational partners are also members of the CBFP.