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DR Congo - 18 November, 2013
Community forestry can be an opportunity to improve the socioeconomic conditions of local communities and ensure sustainable forest management, if it is based on the principles of good governance, according to Professor Alphonse Maindo, director of Tropenbos International DR Congo program. This was his end message in the presentation "Governance of community forests”, presented during the workshop on community forestry held in Kisangani, 1-2 October, 2013.
The workshop organized by the National Department of Environmental Conservation and Tourism had as objective to sensitize the political and administrative authorities and civil society organizations on the developments implementing the community forestry process in DR Congo.
In his presentation, Maindo, demonstrated that community forestry is an ancient practice that requires modern management. Communities have always managed collectively their forests; the new element in this process is the modern forest management that underpins good governance.
During the workshop besides the issue of governance, other themes were discussed related to forest regulations, integration of minority and marginalized groups (indigenous people and women ) in forest management, land use (participatory mapping) and the roles of different actors in the process.
The following observations were made during the discussions among the participants:
The following are the recommendations for the implementation of community forestry in DR Congo that the participants made: