Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Country overview

DRC is home to more than half of the incredibly rich Congo Basin tropical forest and also enormous deposits of valuable and strategic minerals. This combination means that DRC is a focus of international political and economic interests.

This same Congolese forest is home to millions of people with customary links to forests and land, including the indigenous forest peoples such as the Batwa. The Batwa face huge challenges to their cultures, traditions, way of life and even their very survival, experiencing dispossession and political and economic marginalization.

Although Congolese law includes mention of customary rights, in practice it is hard for local communities and for indigenous peoples in particular to assert their rights to land and territory, other than via the mechanism of a Community Forest Concession. Vast areas of land that the Batwa cared for for centuries are at present closed to them within the boundaries of protected areas.

In the name of conservation, thousands of people have been displaced and dispossessed without consultation, consent or compensation and in most cases, forced into landlessness and poverty. Outside, (and indeed inside), these areas, logging, mining, oil and gas exploration all pose threats to customary custodianship and people’s lives and livelihoods.

Key areas 

• Conservation and human rights  
• Self-determination of forest peoples
• Legal support

Main activities

• Supporting the Batwa of Kahuzi-Biega who were dispossessed in the 1970s and have still received no redress or restitution
  • Regular community exchanges and discussions to develop community advocacy in relation to the Park
  • Practical support to communities to meet immediate needs in cases of crisis
  • Training and support on land tenure
• Legal support on key cases affecting Batwa rights
• Legal support to a group of Batwa women living next to Salonga National Park who were abused by Park Ecoguards
• Building connections between Batwa and other forest communities, notably the Ogiek of Mt Elgon, who are supporting with solidarity actions between communities
• Advocacy at national level for a change in conservation policy and practice towards one which puts indigenous and forest communities at its centre.
• Support to community governance of lands and forests

Current work

• Kahuzi-Biega National Park – dispossession of Batwa communities and serious human rights abuses by conservation authorities
• Salonga National Park – human rights abuses by conservation authorities
• National conservation policy and practice – current practice is based on exclusionary models of conservation and we are working to change that