Riparian communities activities threaten conservation in biosphere reserves in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Yangambi Biosphere Reserve (YBR) is no exception to this degradation. Thus, the objective of the presents study was to elucidate the local factors underlying the high pressure on natural resources and analyze the complexity of biosphere reserve zoning management using an interdisciplinary approach combining document review, field surveys and semi-structured interviews. Our results revealed that the zoning applied to the YBR did not take into account social dynamics. With population growth, the riparian community is doomed to remain in restricted areas, leading to over-exploitation of the space and land degradation, forcing the population to travel long distances to reach fertile plots into the protected area. Also, the lack of employment and the absence of participatory zoning also exacerbate tensions between the manager and the riparian community. For an effective management of the YBR, political authorities should become more involved in the participatory zoning of conservation areas and village exploitations. In addition, they should improve farming techniques to mitigate soil degradation.
Tag: community forestry
Community forest enterprises (CFEs) as Social Enterprises: Empirical evidence from Cameroon
Community forest enterprises (CFEs) trade to meet the economic, social, and environmental challenges of their community, just as Social Enterprises (SE) do. The question is if CFEs also could and should be understood in terms of SEs. To explore this question, this study determines the extent to which CFEs can be classified as SEs, using CFEs in Cameroon as a case study. Based on the three-dimensional EMES framework in combination with the typology of SEs of Alter, CFEs are classified along a continuum of purely non-profits, non-profits with income-generating activities, and SEs. Document review, interviews, and focus group discussions with CFE management, youths, women, and indigenous groups in 38 communities were used for data collection and subsequently analyzed. Of the 38 CFEs investigated, only 11% could be defined as SEs, 63% are non-profit organizations with income-generating activities and 26% operate as traditional non-profit organizations. The majority of the CFEs (63%) engage in commercial activities for revenue generation but lack the skills and organizational setup to employ full business approaches coupled with financial discipline and community ownership, which are core values of SEs. Operating as SEs would permit CFEs to be financially and environmentally sustainable and thus they could easily contribute to community development. However, moving CFEs from “non-profits with income generation” to SEs requires (i) a change in mindset, (ii) evaluation and building of community capacity for CFE development, (iii) proper research on tensions and paradoxes with actionable solutions, and (iv) sectorial coordination for CFE development, support, and creation of CFE incubation centers.
Community forest management and forest cover change in Lampung, Indonesia
Community-based forestry (CBF) is often cited as a way for improving livelihood of local communities while conserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change. However, empirical assessments of CBF outcomes are still lacking, especially for their biophysical conditions. This study investigates the extent to which a type of CBF practices in Indonesia, Community Forest (HKM), managed to maintain forest cover. We applied a propensity scoring approach to empirically measure the rates of deforestation between 2007 and 2016 for Conservation Forests and Protection Forests with and without HKM concessions. Our finding is that HKMs are less effective than Conservation Forests (e.g. National Parks) in reducing forest cover loss, but more effective than other similar forests without CBF management. This is a promising starting point for expanding CBF in Indonesia. We recommend: 1) explicit consideration of biophysical characteristics of CBF locations in designating future sites; 2) providing site-specific financial and technical supports for local communities; 3) utilizing remotely sensed data and propensity scoring for monitoring conservation outcomes.
The costs of elite-oriented multi-stakeholder forums to address deforestation: the case of the Green Municipalities Program in the Brazilian Amazon
This article examines the Green Municipalities Program (Programa Municípios Verdes – PMV) – a major multi-stakeholder forum designed to combat deforestation – in Pará state in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We qualitatively analyzed in-depth interviews with 39 people with different perspectives: respondents with deep knowledge of the context but no direct involvement in the program, organizers of the program, diverse program participants, and diverse non-participants. We interrogated the PMV’s strategy to address deforestation by collaborating directly with the powerful sectors that are driving it, while excluding indigenous and grassroots organizations from the process. The results reinforce the critique of ‘anti-politics’ approaches that prioritize technical solutions that focus on the consequences of environmental problems (such as deforestation) without addressing their underlying causes. The research highlights the risks of multi-stakeholder processes in highly unequal contexts that do not question the power of elites, and questions the legitimacy of initiatives that gain wide acclaim but are perceived locally as unjust.
The meeting of multiple governmentalities and technologies of participation in protected areas: The case of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (Peruvian Amazon)
This article analyzes the meeting of different forms of governmentality in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (RCA), a protected natural area in the Peruvian Amazon. The variety of practices governing the RCA and the indigenous and non-indigenous populations in its buffer zone, responds to the intersection of socio-historical processes of extraction and conservation. These processes are marked by years of struggle by the indigenous movement to recapture the governance of their territories, resulting in the co-management of the RCA through a negotiated eco-governmentality between the Peruvian state and ECA-Amarakaeri, an indigenous organization. However, while this co-management arrangement permits participatory governance by historically excluded actors such as indigenous peoples, it excludes another population: Andean migrants. This type of governance challenges the role of multi-stakeholder forums related to protected areas and poses questions about the technologies of participation necessary for an equal interaction between the different interests in the governance of protected area.
Éducation et sensibilisation environnementale dans le paysage de Yangambi
La jeunesse congolaise constitue un vecteur important de transmission de connaissances et de bonnes pratiques au sein des familles, des communautés et des quartiers. Les investissements dans leur éducation présentent de nombreux avantages immédiats et à long terme. Par ailleurs, en tenant compte de la lourde responsabilité qui incombera à la jeunesse d’aujourd’hui face aux enjeux environnementaux et climatiques, il est primordial de les accompagner et de s’assurer qu’ils disposent d’outils et de connaissances nécessaires à la préservation de leur environnement.
Quelques pistes de réflexion pour une tenure forestière paritaire : Manuel du praticien
Ce manuel du praticien explique comment promouvoir une réforme des régimes forestiers communautaires qui soit proactive en faveur de l’égalité des sexes. Ce manuel s’adresse à celles et ceux qui tentent de relever ce défi dans les pays en développement. Il n’existe pas d’approche unique pour réformer les pratiques de tenure forestière afin de parvenir à l’égalité femmes-hommes et
à l’autonomisation des femmes. Il s’agit plutôt de tirer parti des opportunités qui se présentent dans plusieurs domaines institutionnels tels que l’élaboration et la mise en œuvre des politiques et des lois, l’administration publique, la gouvernance de la tenure coutumière ou communautaire, ou la restauration forestière à l’échelle du paysage.
Ce manuel fournit de multiples conseils : concepts, orientations opérationnelles, bonnes pratiques, études de cas, résultats de recherche et ressources issus d’Afrique, d’Asie et d’Amérique latine. Il est conçu pour aider un large éventail de praticiens, femmes et hommes, issus de diverses institutions telles que des bureaux gouvernementaux, des organisations non gouvernementales (ONG), des organisations de la société civile, des bailleurs de fonds, des organisations de femmes, ainsi que des réseaux et des fédérations. Il intéressera notamment des experts en matière de genre qui sont responsables de l’intégration de l’égalité femmes-hommes et de l’autonomisation des femmes dans leurs organisations respectives, mais aussi de personnes travaillant de manière générale dans le secteur de la propriété foncière, de la tenure et de la gouvernance forestières, de la restauration des paysages forestiers, de l’agroforesterie, du développement des chaînes de valeur et des entreprises à impact social.
L’objectif est de passer en revue les différentes pistes pour une réforme de la tenure forestière à travers un processus en trois étapes : Analyse, Stratégie, Action . Une analyse diagnostique ciblée visant à créer une base empirique pour le changement peut soutenir la conception d’interventions en plusieurs phases pour promouvoir une réforme de la tenure forestière proactive en faveur de l’égalité à différentes échelles. À cette fin, le manuel est une ressource opportune pour soutenir les interventions à fort impact adaptées à l’accélération du changement dans le contexte national et local des régimes de tenure forestière communautaires.
Community Forestry and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Two Way Street
This paper analyses the contributions of community and smallholder forestry (CSF) to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). A CSF-SDG positive feedback model is proposed; a model that holds that successful CSF positively contributes to 13 SDGs and 31 SDG targets. Recent CSF meta-studies have scrutinized factors leading to CSF success and found some 10 factors and conditions that contribute to that objective. If efforts towards reaching the SDGs support or enhance these factors leading to the greater success of CSF, this in turn would boost CSF contributions to the SDGs and their targets. As a result, CSF or active support for CSF, focusing on the 10 CSF factors that favor success, can be linked to 48 unique SDG targets. The analysis suggests that there is a significant opportunity to explore win-win options for efforts to support CSF and contribute to SDGs, but also for efforts to pursue the SDGs and targets that favor CSF, which will in turn boost the contribution of CSF to the SDGs. The case of CSF and its feedback links with the SDGs suggests that it may be relevant to identify interactions between the SDGs and other socio-ecological realities and related research.
Are community forests a viable model for the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Since the second half of the 2000s, several options for implementing community-based forest management in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), like the local community forest concession (LCFC), have been discussed in the country’s technical and political circles. Proposals and pilot testing have increased in the last five years, but the funding of initiatives is often proposed for divergent purposes and taking different approaches. We reviewed current experiences in the Eastern province of the DRC and found that nobody has carried out an estimation of the financial returns of the business models they drew up for/with the communities involved. We therefore conducted a financial feasibility analysis for two case studies, estimating the costs of developing/implementing activities and the benefits expected for the communities within the next five years. Three main conclusions were drawn from the analysis: (1) most activities conducted under the LCFC model deal with rural development, and not with forestry operations per se; (2) several forestry activities such as biodiversity conservation or carbon sequestration are not detailed in the management documents and appear to have little legitimacy for local populations; (3) the two LCFCs show a negative financial performance because the inception and implementation costs are substantially higher than the medium-term profits. Community forestry is unlikely to develop in the DRC unless local people are guaranteed that it will contribute to improving their livelihoods, notably their financial and physical capital. This requires that LCFC initiatives focus on actual productive uses of forest resources, which financial performance is systematically assessed ex ante. A simplification of the legal constraints is also needed to reduce the cost of creating and managing a LCFC.