In South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema, the NGO Climate Change Africa Opportunities (CCAO) is setting up Local Committees to fight deforestation. Driven by its Integrated Programme for Forest Protection and Support to the Restoration of Forest Ecosystems (PIPFAREF), the initiative aims to reconcile the preservation of forest cover with a lasting improvement in community livelihoods.

Protecting the forest without forgetting those who live from it

The Integrated Programme for Forest Protection and Support to the Restoration of Forest Ecosystems (PIPFAREF) seeks to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while sustainably improving the incomes of local communities — including Indigenous Peoples, women and young people — in the target areas of South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema provinces.

The programme is led by the NGO Climate Change Africa Opportunities (CCAO), which implements it in partnership with the DRC Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, together with other local, provincial, national and international partners. At the heart of the approach are the Local Committees (COLO), tasked with carrying the work forward as close as possible to villages and forest areas.

Seven lines of action

1.   Establish local committees to fight deforestation and support the restoration of forest ecosystems in the context of climate change, in South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema.

2.   Offer concrete alternatives to local committees and Indigenous Peoples in order to reduce pressure on forests, taking into account the income-generating activities they themselves put forward as sources of livelihood.

3.   Build synergies with related projects carried out in the PIPFAREF intervention areas.

4.   Ensure sound coordination between actors at the different levels of authority (central, provincial and local), and, at each level, horizontal coordination across sectors.

5.   Contribute to the design and implementation of forest policy in the provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema.

6.   Promote the use of renewable energy within communities, going beyond improved cookstoves alone.

7.   Promote Indigenous know-how in the implementation of PIPFAREF activities.

Three major issues at stake

PIPFAREF highlights three issues that cannot be separated from one another:

A political issue — centred on advocacy work to improve and enforce forest protection policies in the provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema.

An economic and social issue — the programme opens up development opportunities for young people, women and Indigenous Peoples, who are an essential pillar of forest management and of inclusive green development in the target provinces.

An environmental issue — natural and biological resources, and forest resources in particular, provide environmental goods and services that are essential to survival. Not only do they generate jobs, but efforts to curb deforestation and forest degradation also contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“An overall vision of development”

“PIPFAREF helps shape an overall vision of development that takes into account both the protection of natural resources — forest resources in particular — and the improvement of people’s living conditions with a view to reducing poverty.”

Trésor Badisungu, Africa Coordinator, CCAO