The role of the Congo's forests, peatlands and people in safeguarding the planet

From afar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a large tropical country in the middle of Africa. The largest sub-Saharan country, the DRC spans an area equivalent to Western Europe and is home to a growing population with the fertility rate over 6 births per women, rich cultural diversity with 200+ living languages, vast mineral reserves such as lithium and cobalt which is crucial for rechargeable batteries, and exceptional biodiversity including endangered species like mountain gorillas and the endogenous okapis.

Indeed, the DRC is home to around 10 per cent of the world’s biodiversity and hosts some of the largest peatland and rainforest complexes, providing critical carbon sinks, as they store over 50 billion tons of carbon which is equivalent to the annual emissions of over 10 billion cars. This is more than the current number of cars in the world which is estimated to be around 1.4 billion.

The DRC’s forests are also essential to the livelihoods of millions of people who rely on them for food, housing, medicine, fuel and other resources.

The DRC is extremely diverse and rapidly changing after a combination of local and international pressures. The country is challenged by high levels of poverty and inequality, political instability, war, corruption, exploitation of natural resources and other legacies of colonialism.

But what is the relationship between the Congolese people with their ‘green gold’ and how do global scientific concerns and local social needs converge?

For Dorothée Lisenga, the future for the forests is feminine. ‘The land is first and foremost a woman’s prerogative. The forest is a woman’s prerogative. Women are the ones who feed. They are the pillars of the family.’

She refers to the traditional gendered division of labour in which women farm for reliable staples while men hunt. Since 2011, Dorothée, a 58-year-old widow, has been the coordinator of the Women Leaders Coalition for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CFLEDD), the first ever Congolese female environmental civil society organization.

The mother of four was born and raised in the Tshopo province in the heart of the Congo basin. Growing up in a village in the middle of the forest, she witnessed social injustice first hand. Despite men and women both working on the land, women had no say, and Dorothée vowed to change that.

CFLEDD was created out of frustration within the existing environmental civil society network. ‘We had noticed that women only served as junior staff and always under men,’ says Dorothée. ‘Whenever there was a project, men were occupying the front seats, with the power to materialize the projects, execute them, advocate for them.’ In this way, women often felt powerless, she explains, where they were welcomed as part of the labour force but excluded from decision-making.

Then, a group of women decided to create a decentralized alliance of leaders across the DRC, which has resulted in thousands of rural women all over the country joining the organization who now can speak as one. Dorothée describes this as securing women’s access to, ‘The temple where the spirits are. The place we turn to for matters that involve traditional knowledge.’

Their weapon of choice? The law. ‘The problem was some traditional customs were blocking women’s rights to access land. So, our concern was to make the law more specific and make sure it gives us [all] access. Not only the right of use but the right of ownership too.’

In 2012, the DRC initiated important reforms on land governance, territory planning and forestry policy. The reforms originated in the late 1990’s following protests from indigenous communities due to past expropriation of land by the government. The protests garnered national and international attention, leading the government to thoroughly review existing laws following a consultation with local communities, although the process is still ongoing.

The CFLEDD leadership saw the public consultation as a once in a lifetime opportunity to raise their voices and decided to join them together with those of the indigenous peoples.

For years, the CFLEDD leaders toured the country, met with custom chiefs and provincial authorities who comprised mostly men in power. Dorothée says, as they were advocating, the CFLEDD leaders first met with categorical refusals, backed by a centuries-old patriarchal culture and traditional laws. Not all men, however, were opposed to giving women a place at the table. Some stressed that women are the providers even more so when they are educated. Indeed, Dorothée says that women are now counted as among the pillars of agriculture in the DRC, after years of relentless debates which has led to many men in power giving in and signing letters of commitment that were passed to provincial assemblies.

In fact, edicts have been issued that now give rural women the right to possess land. The edicts are effective even before the law is promulgated. Dorothée is not sure as to when this will be, but she, the women and men of CFLEDD are keeping an eye on the process with the aim of lobbying in order to ensure it is kept on top of parliamentary priorities.

While women were not specifically mentioned in the laws that guarantee land access in the DRC, indigenous people, on the contrary, are. A 2022 law protects and promotes their ways of life and thereby embeds the internationally agreed principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). 

Navigating life as an indigenous person presents significant challenges. We had the opportunity to meet Guylain Mbale Mole, a dedicated representative of his indigenous Pygmy community and also for REPALEF, the DRC's platform of networks and associations of indigenous peoples and local communities. Dressed formally for an event at the provincial palace in Mbandaka, the 30-year-old didn't shy away from describing the harsh reality his people face, referring to them as the 'pariah' of the Congolese population. His words, filled with a potent blend of indignation and sorrow, painted a vivid picture of their experiences.

‘What destroys us is how brutally the exploitation is conducted. The companies come in, they operate parcels of our forests without consulting us, and when we protest, they pull an official document stating they are allowed to do it. We just stand there powerless when these forests unquestionably belong to us.’

Indigenous peoples being set aside poses a problem not only of ethics but also of conservation. Dorothée says: ‘We have lived in the forest for millennia and have always exploited it sustainably. In fact, when we do multi-resource inventories where pygmies live, we see that the resources are preserved.’ This is one example of what progressive scholars call ‘connected’ or ‘convivial’ conservation.

Ironically, some of the demands of indigenous peoples contributed to the creation of the Congolese Forest Code in 2002 which is a text Augustin Mpoyi knows very well. He was part of the group of Congolese lawyers who contributed to its drafting. Originally from Eastern Kasai, the 50-year-old remembers: When I was a kid, our moms would cut wood for cooking in the surrounding forest galleries.’

‘When I go back to Kasai, to Mbuji-Mayi, for example, there are not as many forests as there were before. Everything is gone. It is a result of people who do not have access to electricity habits.’

Augustin had a provincial upbringing and understands the paradoxical story of forests in the DRC: a potentially rich country yet the DRC has an ever-poorer population. However, decades of collaboration with international organizations have grown the lawyer’s environmentalism.

‘After more than 20 years, we have been able to assess that repressing environmental crime is not enough. It must be strengthened. Offenses in the code only affect private businesses, never the administration, its agents or even political authorities who [have been known to] abuse their power.’

The ones who have power over the forest have power over the survival of the forest and therefore the future of the planet. Aware of the land security problem, Congolese legislators working with civil society designed a new form of participatory governance: forest concessions to local communities or CFCL in the French acronym.

Through the CFCL, provincial administrations have the authority to give the final stamp of approval to a community’s access to a forest concession following a series of well-defined steps. All going well, the community takes charge of the development of its space, which is both its source of income and living environment. With land security and control over resources, the communities maintain the interest in managing land sustainably which is beneficial to future generations. 

In the DRC, figures show that human activities, such as cutting wood for energy, shifting agriculture and wood extraction for coal, are responsible for most deforestation. Because of the low electricity coverage in the country, more than 80 per cent of households cook with charcoal and other ancestral farming practices, which is destructive today.

One solution would be to set up forms of agriculture less harmful than existing ones. Alain Huart, an environmental technical support expert for the European Union, has lived in the country for several decades, familiarizing himself with the local governance and community dynamics.

‘Our country could become the world’s largest cocoa producer with less impact on our forests,’ he says though he is a Belgian national.

Years of observing made him a believer in subsidized rural agriculture to stop the ‘green bleeding’. His last book: Congo, people and forests, provides extensive data and abundant pictures of rural DRC. He says: ‘30 years ago, eastern Congo farmers saw their coffee orchards destroyed by a disease. Inspired by their Ugandan neighbour’s successful experience with growing cocoa, some have successfully imported the coffee and cultivated it with banana trees and food crops. A family that manages three hectares can make between 800 to 3,000 dollars a year. I say it is worth something’.

‘There are provinces that do a mapping of the areas where we can grow lowland rice while helping local communities to settle there,’ he continues. ‘Year after year, farmers stay and keep growing that variety. So, instead of burning the forest, people settle down because they have eventually found an activity that generates income’.

For Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, an international climate negotiator, the global economy has a role to play in protecting the environment but he also emphasises the importance of finding solutions within the DRC itself. Solutions such as ecological citizenship, careful evaluation of carbon pricing and the use of more flux towers, he says, will be crucial in protecting the environment.

‘If we manage to plant more trees than we cut, we can in fact reverse the rate of deforestation, and even create an upward trend towards reforestation.’ 

Mpanu adds that the price of carbon compensation can’t be fixed and should fluctuate. Probably a legacy of the marketing training he had, once dreaming of becoming a Wall Street trader. ‘Reducing one tonne of carbon dioxide from deforestation due to energy needs will not have the same cost as training farmers to settle them because deploying a megawatt in a remote area cost much more than training farmers.’

As international cooperation is vital in addressing sustainable development challenges, it is crucial that we listen to, learn from and support the efforts of those who call the Congo their home. By finding ways to bring global concerns and local needs together, we can create a brighter, more sustainable future for the DRC, its people and the world as a whole.

Building on the lived experiences and suggestions by Tosi, Alain, Augustin, Guylain and Dorothée shared above, key recommendations can be made for the international community. These include:

1. Address local and international pressures that contribute to deforestation, inequality and the climate crisis and ensure that local resources keep benefiting and supporting women, indigenous peoples and local communities in the long run.
   • Strengthen law enforcement and regulatory frameworks to prevent over-exploitation for exports or self-consumption which should address farming, logging, mining and land grabbing.
   • Engage with private sector actors to promote sustainable business practices and responsible investment in the forestry sector.
2. Enforce and promote the rights of rural and indigenous peoples to self-determination and their ways of life.
   • Strengthen legal frameworks to recognize and protect human rights, land security and food sovereignty to indigenous peoples and other people working in rural areas.
   • Increase access to legal support services for women, rural and indigenous peoples to protect their land and human rights.
3. Support women-led civil society organizations, like CFLEDD, and promote the participation of minority groups in decision-making processes related to land-use and sustainable development.
   • Provide funding to, and share capacities, with women-led environmental organizations.
   • Enable their participation in decision-making processes at the local, national and international levels.
   • Develop and implement gender-responsive policies and programmes that address the specific needs of minority groups.
4. Encourage the use of digital technologies to widen access to information and markets and to reduce inequality.
   • Develop and implement programmes to increase access to digital technologies including mobile phones and the internet particularly to women and indigenous peoples.
   • Develop and implement e-commerce platforms and other digital tools to promote minority group's access to markets and improve their economic opportunities.
5. To the media, increase public awareness on the importance of forest conservation and the role of women and indigenous peoples in sustainable agriculture, forest management and climate action.
   • Develop and implement awareness-raising campaigns and educational programmes to promote the value of forests and the role of women, rural and indigenous peoples in sustainable agriculture and forest management.
   • Promote the appreciation and use of traditional knowledge and practices in forest management.

The recommendations are relevant for all types of organizations. However, it's important to acknowledge the importance of promoting climate and forest solutions that prioritize justice and sustainability principles. This is especially relevant for those who have committed to forest-related and people-centred pledges after the Paris Agreement as well as those implementing the Kumming-Montreal global biodiversity framework. We need to take proactive measures to ensure a sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants.