Strengthening the resilience of local and indigenous communities to the effects of climate change on the outskirts of the Dja Faunal Reserve

The Dja Faunal Reserve (RFD) currently represents a significant sub-regional and global geopolitical, economic, social and environmental issue for biodiversity conservation. It has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site network since 1987 and is an ecologically important lung in the Congo Basin, playing a key role in combating climate change. Thanks to previous support from the PPI, the NGO Tropical Forest and Rural Development (TF-RD) has succeeded in establishing a dynamic group of more than 50 cocoa producers organised into a cooperative and more than 250 women collectors of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) organised into 12 joint initiative groups (GICs) in the project area. TF-RD has also initiated organic certification (ECOCERT), available since December 2023, for groups of women NTFP collectors and cocoa producers. However, the assessment carried out by TF-RD in 2022 among women’s groups and the cooperative to evaluate their performance revealed weaknesses in internal governance and financial viability that prevent them from functioning optimally. In addition, an ecotourism circuit involving the Bakade Bifolone community and the Bantu communities in the area has already been identified but is not yet operational, even though it would have the advantage of strengthening the economic fabric in this area. The objective is therefore to strengthen the resilience of local and indigenous communities to the effects of climate change through the development of nature-based solutions on the outskirts of the Dja Faunal Reserve.