Located in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Virunga National Park (PNVi) is one of Central Africa’s 12 landscapes recognised as a priority biodiversity conservation site. Strong demographic pressure, combined with numerous conflicts over the use of natural resources within and around Virunga National Park (PNVi), currently constitute major factors compromising both the conservation of the PNVi’s ecosystems and the rural or socio-economic development of communities living on the periphery of this Protected Area of major ecological importance in Central Africa.
It is with the understanding that biodiversity conservation efforts in the PNVi cannot succeed in the long term without genuine dialogue being re-established between stakeholders — supported by expressed political will towards social, ecological and economic sustainability — that SOPR wishes to implement this project to strengthen multi-stakeholder dialogue for the local governance of the PNVi’s natural resources.
The project’s overall objective is to promote conflict mediation among stakeholders in PNVi conservation, and to promote an environmental conservation system that allows for the equitable distribution of benefits generated by the PNVi. Re-establishing this ongoing dialogue between local communities and the PNVi’s managers and decision-makers should, among other things, help improve the governance of the PNVi’s natural resources and ecosystems, and ensure greater consideration of local communities’ rights and obligations with regard to the PNVi.
The project should help further enhance the role of local communities in biodiversity protection, while helping place the question of their socio-economic development at the heart of the debate.
It will strengthen stakeholder mobilisation around the protection of the PNVi, by supporting a participatory management approach capable of ensuring the long-term conservation of biodiversity while also serving as an asset for improving the living conditions of riparian populations.
Working in synergy with other stakeholders involved in and around the PNVi — including traditional chiefs, and public and private services — awareness-raising, social mobilisation, monitoring and lobbying activities will be carried out by SOPR, a Congolese NGO and member of the CREF network, which has been actively present in the Lake Edward area since 2005, effectively supporting communities in the management of fisheries natural resources and advocacy for sustainable, community-inclusive development.
