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Developing Community Forestry in DRC

Developing Community Forestry in DRC Forests Monitor and a range of partners produced the proposal 'Developing Local Community Forestry Management as a contribution to poverty reduction in the Democratic Republic of Congo' (file size 254 KB).

The proposal was presented to the Chatham House meeting on Sustainable Management and Financing of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Forests.

Also available from this site is the presentation made by Forests Monitor to Chatham House. This is a powerpoint presentation available in French only, and it can be accessed HERE.

Proposal Summary

The proposal represents a dynamic and innovative project based approach, building on existing activities and autonomous initiatives of communities themselves. The approach puts the communities and the DRC state at the heart of the change process, to find and develop sustainable solutions to poverty alleviation with rural and forest based communities. This is not an off the shelf project, but one that is tailored to what is happening both in the policy environment and on the ground in DRC.

The purpose of the project is to contribute to the development and widespread uptake of a system of community forestry that works for the DRC. We use the term "community forestry" (sometimes called "social forestry") in its widest sense as the control and management of forests by rural people, in their own interest, whether the actual exploitation of resources (timber, PES, NTFP, tourism) is made by the community itself by a community based enterprise or outside enterprises under a fair contract with the community. We propose to work both with communities and with the government to prepare a road map for the future realisation of rights allocation and management of forests by communities. This will encourage sustainable development based on local communities, building forestry management skills to ensure living conditions, while also preserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable forest management.

The project, itself lasting 18 months, will be primarily focused on two pilot sites, with a management cell in Kinsahsa to ensure that the lessons learned from experiences in these rural sites and from supporting expert research are connected with, and influence, the national policy processes.

The government and other stakeholders have been involved from the outset from theproject design phase inwards, through two field missions and a prepatory workshop and numerous one to one meetings. This has lead to a high level of interest from the proposed partners and approval of the project from the Ministry of Environment in May 2008.

Main Project Partners

RRN - Réseau Ressources Naturelles/Natural Resources Network
CIRAD - Centre International de Recherche Agronomique/International Centre for Agronomic Research and Development

Associate organisations

PACT and WCS
AWF - African Wildlife Foundation
CODELPT

Technical support organisation

IIED - International Institute for Environment and Development
This project is financed by the UK Department for International Development and Chatham House.


This page was last updated on the 20th October 2008.

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