Themes

Explore the key themes the Forest Peoples Programme addresses, including Human Rights, Climate Change and Biodiversity, Business, Trade and Finance, Deforestation, Community Governance, and Culture and Knowledge.

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Lands, Territories and Resources

Land, territories and resource rights refer to the legal or customary rights that communities have over land, territories and natural resources such as water, forests, minerals, and biodiversity.

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Self Determination and FPIC

FPIC and self-determination are essential for indigenous peoples and forest peoples as they uphold their rights, autonomy, and sovereignty over their lands, territories, and resources.

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Central African Republic (CAR)

FPP’s work has been located in the Dzanga Sangha Complex of Protected Areas in southwestern Central African Republic, principally within the departments of Lobaye and Sangha-Mbaere. Our projects with local partners started in 2006 and were active until 2019.

Country overview

The laws in the Central African Republic provide limited protection to indigenous peoples and local communities regarding access to land and forest resources.

In the CAR, nature conservation is based on a centralised system of protected areas. Most of the time, National Parks do not meet international standards on the rights of Indigenous peoples: all access to the forest is prohibited (except for research and tourism) and there are no mechanisms to ensure that principles of free, prior and informed consent are respected.

Almost all of CAR’s tropical forests are already allocated as protected areas or logging concessions. This leaves no space for community forests, unless substantial legal and political reforms are carried out.

CAR has a volatile security context following a civil war and ongoing sectarian violence.

Key areas

Participatory forest management
Community governance
Exclusionary conservation
Legislative and constitutional reform

Main activities

Our work has focused on strengthening Indigenous peoples’ involvement in conservation and REDD projects on their lands, promoting rights-based community forest management as a more effective and just alternative to exclusionary conservation.

We have also provided legal input to local partners on the constitutional reform process, following ratification of ILO 169 by CAR, and assisted them to develop a legal strategy, including priorities for sectoral law reforms. Together with REPALCA and other civil society organizations we made contributions to key law reform processes.

FPP has prepared guidelines on community consultation, supported communities to strengthen their governance structures, and provided capacity building to local partners.