The document discusses forests and forest-dependent communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It notes that DRC contains over 60% of the Congo Basin's forests, totaling around 1.2 million square kilometers. Around 30 million people live in and depend on the forests of the Congo Basin for food, livelihoods, and traditional practices. However, industrial logging concessions and the creation of parks have displaced communities and deprived them of resources. The document calls for legal reforms to recognize community land rights and ensure benefits from REDD+ programs reach local communities.

1. BY ROGER MUCHUBA
Groupe Travail Climat REDD, DR CONGO
Civil Society
CHATHAM HOUSE, Third Dialogue on Forests,
Governance and Climate Change, 22nd January 2010
Email: rogermuchuba@yahoo.fr

2. Forests in the Congo Basin and DR Congo
Congo Basin forests - the second largest continuous
rainforest in the world
DRC contains more than 60% of Congo Basin’s forests –
forests occupy 60% of the land in the DRC –
approximately 1,200,000 km2
Historical deforestation rate of approx. 0.25%/year in
DRC
Forest is a reservoir of carbon
Estimated that 17 billion tonnes of carbon are
sequestered in the DRC, out of a total of 32 billion
tonnes in the Congo Basin.

3. Forest-dependent peoples in the Congo
Basin
More than 30 million peoples living in Congo Basin’s
rainforest
Includes: Indigenous ‘pygmie’ groups (Baka, Twa etc.);
Bantu agriculturalists
Dependent on the forest for food, livelihoods, medicines,
traditional practices
Protectors of the forest for thousands of years – minimal
ecological impact
Communities use the forest in sustainable manner eg. non-
timber forest products, eg. honey, chennille (caterpillars).
Outside influence in forest brings conflict

4. Drivers of deforestation and threats to the forest
and forest-peoples in DRC
Forest policy focused on industrial exploitation and ‘strict’
conservation
Industrial logging dominated by foreign companies
Artisanal logging expanding rapidly
History of creation of park sand reserves without consultation of
traditional customary owners of the land
Threats to the forest and forest-peoples
Profit from logging has not reached communities – poor benefit-
sharing
Concessions to logging and national parks deprive communities of
land and resources - eviction of local communities from their lands
Loss of biodiversity
Shifting cultivation and gathering fuelwood/charcoal – reflects
problem in DRC state provision of basic services

5. State policy in Congo Basin
• States retain legal rights to all land and national territories in
Congo Basin
• Customary rights of communities to land and resources not
recognized – therefore insecure land tenure
• Congo Basin governments adopted new Forest Codes and other
legislation - 1980s-2000s
• Focused on industrial exploitation of forest and conservation
• Legislation related to forest communities not developed or
implemented
• No legislation for ‘indigenous territories’ such as those in
Brazil
• Only Congo Brazzaville to pass Indigenous Peoples law in 2010

6. DR Congo Forest Policy
• Forest Code (Code Forestier) adopted in 2002
• Supporting legislation on community rights and
benefit-sharing still not adopted
• Transitional Government granted 25.5millions of hectares
of logging concessions illegally, 2002-04
• Moratorium on new logging forest concessions - 2002
• After legal review, illegal concessions cancelled in 2008
• Challenge to manage cancelation with transparency
• Legal review (2005) showed crucial role of indigenous
peoples and importance to maintain the moratorium
• Zoning process – slow implementation

7. Community-based forestry in Congo
Basin
• Difference between ‘community-based forestry’ and ‘community
forestry’
• Cameroon implemented community forestry
• However, onerous administrative process, small concession size and
not related to traditional forest management
• Provision in the DRC Forest Code for community-based forestry – but
no implementation
• Currently – debate on community forest law
• Proposal to restrict size of community forest to 10,000 hectares, but
traditional areas are often 100,000 hectares
• Need to transfer land rights not just management rights over forest
• Law is crucial for success of REDD process

8. National REDD process in DR Congo
• DR Congo – joint UN-REDD and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF),
World Bank
• January 2009 – first joint scoping mission - UN-REDD/FCPF
• May 2009 – second mission
• Presentation of the programme of UN-REDD and FCPF
• REDD National Coordination began operating – government body
• October 2009 - third mission
• November 2009 - Decree on REDD statute gives legal recognition to
National Committee - civil society/Indigenous Peoples/government/private
sector body
• December 2009 – McKinsey report on REDD in DRC
• January 2010 consultation on Readiness Proposal Plan (RPP) to FCPF
• Overall, good cooperation between civil society and National Coordination
• Held workshops in provinces to involve civil society organisations (CSOs)
and communities

9. Challenges for REDD in Congo Basin
Identifying the real drivers of deforestation and degradation
not point communities as causes of forest deforestation
How to ensure that benefit sharing is real?
Sustainable Forest Management could lead to subsidies for
industrial logging through REDD
Indigenous and forest peoples must benefit from REDD
Legal reforms needed to recognise community-based forestry
Need to ensure fair and participatory zoning plan
How to apply social and environmental safeguards in relation to
REDD?
Focus should be on natural forest not plantation
Take into consideration UNDRIP specially FPIC (free, prior,
informed consent)
Governance and transparency in all processes
MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) more than carbon
How to build an effective and accessible complaint mechanism?
Need to stop projected law censoring civil society

10. Role of civil society and NGOs in DR Congo
Forest reform
Outreach / awareness-raising of the Forest Code and other instruments
Promotion of community rights
Activities on the ground
Civil society pilot projects on participatory MRV, creating awareness-raising
material in 2010
Developing alternatives to industrial logging (such as payment for
ecosystem services, non-timber forest products , community-based forestry
etc.)
Develop participatory mapping, using GPS technology, to help secure land
tenure
Monitor activities of international organizations
World Bank
Using the complaint mechanism of Forest Code
Support independent monitoring of forest governance

11. Regional and international actors in the
Congo Basin
Regional and international programmes can improve forest governance
COMIFAC action plan (plan de convergence) - 2005
Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) - £100 million – UK/Norway 2008
CBFF managed by African Development Bank (ADB)
Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) now co-ordinated by Germany
– 9 landscapes
FLEGT – ongoing process between EU and Congo Brazzaville
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification – mixed results
• All Congo Basin states are party to UNDRIP, CDB, ICCPR, ACRHP
• BUT no effective application of these instruments

12. Recommendations for REDD in Congo Basin
COMIFAC must be engaged on good governance
under UNFCCC mechanism to secure funders
Develop a specific law on Indigenous Peoples rights, especially to land,
territories and resources – good example from Congo Brazzaville
Ensure civil society has a strong, independent voice in all stages of the
REDD process as one guarantee of good governance and transparency
Similarly, Parliament and local government must be involved in REDD
process
Develop good partnership between Governments and World Bank,
FAO, UNDP, UNEP and civil society
World Bank must respect their own safeguard policy (OP4.10)
States must respect their international engagements (UNDRIP, ICCPR)
Need to build a global anti-poverty policy like DSRP document in DRC
Need to address consumption in developed countries (OCDE link with
consumer countries)