DRC civil society urges government to draft a National Forest Policy that protects communities’ rights

29 September 2025

As the DRC government conducts provincial-level consultations on the development of its first-ever National Forest Policy (NFP), civil society organisations have called on the Ministry of Environment to uphold the rights of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples in a process that could shape the management of the country’s vast forests for decades to come.

This initiative comes at a pivotal moment, as the DRC positions itself as a “solutions country” in response to global environmental crises ahead of key climate negotiations at COP30 in Brazil this November. The country is engaged in several major reforms aimed at reversing increasing deforestation rates and biodiversity loss, including updating its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Climate Accord and developing a new National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) that includes a commitment to protect 30 percent of the national territory by 2030.

In January, the DRC established the ‘Couloir Vert‘, a vast community reserve covering an area roughly the size of France, and is currently negotiating its potential participation in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), set to launch at COP30. The TFFF aims to compensate tropical forest countries for preserving their standing forests.

A comprehensive forest policy is essential to guide these efforts as well the development of a new law to replace the outdated 2002 Forest Code, ensuring the equitable and sustainable management of the world’s second largest tropical forest.

Civil society concerns

Civil society has played an active role in the forest policy process to date, contributing analysis and feedback on successive drafts. However, concerns have emerged over the latest version of the text (published here in August 2025), which omits key provisions related to community rights and transparency, raising fears of a rollback of progressive elements in favour of industrial interests.

The draft is currently under review through official consultations are taking place simultaneously across 12 provinces. These consultations are a critical step, and following the recent unilateral and substantial revisions, civil society is urging official delegations to genuinely listen to local voices and ensure their feedback is meaningfully reflected in the final version once it returns to Kinshasa.

Key recommendations

Civil society groups are advocating for the following priorities to be reflected in the NFP:

Rights-Based and Community-Led Forest Management: Support the upscaling of community forestry and other similar models, to contribute to national conservation targets. Simplifying and harmonising legal frameworks is essential to make these models more accessible.

Independent Forest Monitoring: Strengthen recognition of mandated, non-mandated and community-led forest monitoring systems to improve transparency and accountability in forest governance, particularly in the logging industry.

Improved Management of Protected Areas: Secure community consent at every stage, enhance participation in decision-making and conservation activities and establish independent, accessible complaint mechanisms for effective redress.

Climate and Biodiversity Finance: Strengthen regulations for carbon markets to ensure transparency, equity and protection of forest peoples’ rights. Favour non-market Payments for Environmental Services (PSE) to enhance predictability and community self-determination.

Community Entrepreneurship: Support local producers and sustainable value chains to boost rural economies, enhance resilience and improve food security.

According to Théophile Gata, Executive Director of CAGDFT, “with genuine collaboration and inclusive decision-making, the DRC has the opportunity to set a precedent for a forest policy that balances ecological integrity with social justice. The government must seize this opportunity to chart a different course for the country and its forests.”

Participants at a workshop, organised by the ‘Forests for the Future’ consortium in November 2024, which led the submission of inputs to the DRC government and improved the draft Forest Policy.

For more details on the recommendations put forward by the “Forests for the Future” consortium, or to request the latest version of the position paper currently under revision, you may contact Patrick Mutombo, Project Officer at CAGDFT, at the following address: apmutombokal17@gmail.com.