Sustainable management of forest resources in the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba landscape

This project, with a strong “gender” component, will be implemented by the DRC representatives of the Réseau des Femmes Africaines pour le Développement Durable (African Women’s Network for Sustainable Development), which has been present in this landscape for 5 years. Responsible for implementing component 3 of AWF’s FFEM LOMAKO project, REFADD based this project on the income-generating activity (IGA) development priorities identified by LOMAKO.

MLW covers 74,544 km², of which 68,162 km² is dense humid forest. Nearly 2/3 of this forest is primary formation. It is home to several flagship species such as the forest elephant, the Congo peafowl, the Bongo antelope, as well as around ten primate species including the bonobo, an endemic species. At the same time, the landscape is one of the least developed and most inaccessible regions of the Congo Basin. Most of its inhabitants survive solely through subsistence activities and the exploitation of natural resources: poaching, firewood production and slash-and-burn farming.

Ultimately, the project’s objective is to enable its target groups — women, kitalistes (charcoal producers) and Indigenous populations — to master technologies for processing and preserving agricultural and forest products, and thereby achieve greater social and financial autonomy through legal and sustainable activities compatible with the good governance of MLW.