Republic of Congo

FPP has been working in the Republic of Congo (ROC) since 2014, supporting indigenous Baka and other local communities facing threats to their land from extractive industries, logging and protected areas. We work with partner organisations to strengthen their governance structures and amplify their voices in policymaking.   

Country overview

The Congolese land tenure system is characterized by a legal and institutional dualism between state land rights and customary land rights inherited from the pre-colonial period. However, legal frameworks give primacy to modern land law to the detriment of customary rights. When they are favourable to customary land rights, these legal frameworks are poorly enforced. 

The Government has the ambition to transform the country into an ‘emerging economy’ within the next two decades, and national strategies aiming for economic growth focus on the exploitation of natural resources including forests, agribusiness and energy infrastructures, and the creation of strict protected areas. But Indigenous peoples and local communities, whose aspirations might unleash much more equitable and sustainable growth, are not adequately supported.  

As a result, the implementation of national policies and strategies conflicts with communities’ interests resulting in land conflicts across the country, and the criminalisation of community subsistence activities in the context of conservation or logging exploitation. 

Main activities and current work

We have a particular focus on:

• agro-industrial development
• logging and conservation concessions
• mining
• national parks and protected areas

We promote an alternative approach to development and conservation based on:

• recognising forest peoples’ territorial rights,
• the promotion of alternative economic initiatives chosen by the peoples themselves.

We also help facilitate community-level capacity building for securing resource-related rights, community management of protected areas and legal advice and training on land issues

Our current work is focused on the implementation of a project funded by ARCUS in Messok-Dja to reinforce traditional sustainable stewardship of lands by local indigenous and Bantu communities in the Messok Dja forest, and to explore options for a community-led approach to conservation that harmonises conservation of great apes and other biodiversity with the respect for human rights.

More information on Messok-Dja (French only):

Messok Dja : Des autochtones formés pour mieux défendre leurs terres et forêts

Radio Communautaire: La conservation et les droits humains à Messok Dja