Press Release: Over 360 organisations say “No to Nature Based Solutions!” March 15, 2022 Ahead of a vital UN moment for biodiversity, “nature-based solutions” are once again being erroneously heralded as the solution – and NGOs are pushing back. As more and more corporations and governments tout “nature-based solutions” as the means to fight the climate … Read more

Massaha’s fight to protect their ancestral forests in Gabon March 8, 2022 RFUK, Forest Peoples Programme and Greenpeace Africa have today written to the Gabonese Minister of Water, Forests, Oceans, Environment, Climate Change and Land-use Planning, Lee White, to call for an immediate halt to illegal logging in the village of Massaha’s ancestral forests, and … Read more

BRAINFOREST Founded in 1998, Brainforest works on forest and environmental issues with a dual focus on field support and policy monitoring. Its philosophy revolves around the links between environmental and social problems. Brainforest emphasises the participation of local populations (including indigenous communities) in the recognition of their rights and the promotion of community development. News … Read more

A report by RFUK reveals the growing extent, and impact, of transport and energy infrastructure development in the Congo Basin – which is on its way to becoming a major driver of deforestation in the world’s second largest rainforest. The eight case studies featured in this report show that, while certain projects may bring some … Read more

Payment for non-performance: Gabon receives $17 million in REDD payments despite increasing deforestation July 2, 2021 The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) has just awarded an initial payment of $17 million to Gabon, hailing its achievement in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in 2016-17 from the baseline levels of the previous decade. However … Read more

The laws in the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic provide limited protection to indigenous peoples and local communities regarding access to land and forest resources. Often, logging concessions overlap their territories, restricting access to lands and resources. However, the development of community forests is gaining momentum in the region. These can help … Read more

A report published by the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) on the Green Climate Fund finds that one of the world’s largest climate adaptation and mitigation funds for developing countries may actually do more harm to tropical forests and people on the frontline of climate change unless it is reformed.

Organisations and individuals from Central Africa, along with international partners from Europe, came together in Yaoundé in February 2019 to discuss the lessons from the recent years of community forest development in the Congo Basin, especially in the context of the projects funded through DFID’s ILLUCBF programme.

The expansion of commercial agriculture in the Congo Basin, especially for palm oil, poses great risks to forests and the people who depend on them for their livelihoods and culture. While efforts to make palm oil more ‘sustainable’ focus on avoiding deforestation and biodiversity loss, far less attention has been paid to land rights and … Read more

The best conservation projects start with people. Yet protected areas in the Congo Basin continue to be established and managed with poor consideration for local communities’ land and resource rights, fostering conflicts and human rights abuses. A lot of these toxic situations could be avoided if thorough participatory community mapping data, such as collected through MappingForRights, … Read more