City dwellers’ rush for rural lands threatens the implementation of community forestry

City dwellers’ rush for rural lands threatens the implementation of community forestry

DR Congo - 19 November, 2013

City dwellers’ investment in rural areas could be an opportunity for the development of these areas, but at the same time is a threat to development as it drastically reduces customary forests for local communities. Therefore, community forestry is at risk: if nothing is done to stop this trend, in the near future there will be no forests for local people and, therefore no community forestry. This is the main message of TBI DR Congo at the 7th forum on forest governance in Africa, held in Kinshasa, DR Congo from 29 to 30 September 2013 and organized by The IDLgroup in collaboration with TBI DR Congo.

According to a study carried by TBI DR Congo in partnership with RRI, city dwellers are rushing for rural lands around Kisangani. These lands are mainly acquired for agriculture, but the impact in terms of improving local welfare is very limited, poverty continues to grow up and food security fails. In addition to land acquisition by city-dwellers, the government is also granting logging and mining concessions to private companies. Given the extent of the phenomenon in the country, TBI DR Congo wants to draw the attention of stakeholders on the importance of securing lands for implementing community forestry. This findings were presented by Papy Bambu consultant for TBI DR Congo in his presentation titled "Community forestry facing the rush of urban inhabitants for rural lands in Kisangani region."

The Forum on forest governance, which is held once a year, aims at providing regional stakeholders with the opportunity to share information and analyze issues related to forest governance. During the 7th version of the forum the participants exchanged information on different issues, such as: VPA-FLEGT
process, forest governance and forest conversion for agricultural purposes in Africa.

The discussions during the event were about issues related to local ownership of forest policy initiatives (REDD+, VPA-FLEGT process, etc.),to the weakness of African states in implement adequate legal frameworks and to the lack of political will of leaders and grabbing of local communities living areas by logging and mining concessions, protected areas and parks, among others.

At the end of this meeting, participants came up with recommendations mainly focused on strengthening state services capacities, on involving all stakeholders in implementation VPA-FLEGT, on reinforcing participatory forest management, and on using/developing national competencies.