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Fighting illegal logging in Cameroon: Training the first ForestLink monitors

12 September 2016

The Rainforest Foundation UK, in collaboration with its local partner in Cameroon, FODER, has successfully developed and tested its ForestLink system. This ground-breaking new system enables communities anywhere in the world to use satellite-linked smartphones to report illegal logging, environmental crimes and human rights abuses taking place in some of the most remote parts of the planet. … Read more

Conservation Watch: Who Pays the Price for Protected Areas?

8 September 2016

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Community-based monitors ready to monitor illegal logging activities and rights violations

31 August 2016

Over 60 community representatives have recently been selected in Ghana, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to act as independent monitors in the fight against illegal logging. Participating communities have expressed their desire to fight the scourge of illegal logging, which constantly affects their environment and their livelihoods. Each community has chosen representative … Read more

Training the trainers: RFUK works with FoE-Gh on Real-Time Monitoring technology

30 June 2016

Our GIS Coordinator, Peter Foster, was in Ghana this month training our local partners at Friends of the Earth Ghana (FOE-Gh) on our real-time monitoring (RTM) technology, ForestLink. Our RTM project will build forest communities’ capacity to detect and report illegal forestry activities in real time with the use of an open-source mobile phone application and Geographic Information … Read more

Agreement signed with Democratic Republic of Congo Forest Administration to support community-based real-time monitoring

30 June 2016

This week we celebrated a major development in our real-time monitoring (RTM) project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On Monday 20th June, the DRC’s Forest Administration (Equateur Province) signed a memorandum of understanding with our local partner, Groupe Action pour Sauver l’Homme et son Environnement (GASHE). This agreement coincides with the launch of our … Read more

Roundtable: Group helps set the course for DRC’s first community forests

9 June 2016

This story is part of a series on RFUK’s work on community forests in the Congo Basin. For more information on our work on sustainable community forestry, click here. A second national roundtable in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took place last month [1], where 90 stakeholders from across government, civil society and the donor … Read more

Official launch of community-based real-time forest monitoring project in Ghana

30 April 2016

The Rainforest Foundation UK is excited to launch our first ever project in Ghana. On 27th and 29th of April 2016, our real-time forest monitoring (RTM) project was officially launched in the Nkawie and Goaso Forest Districts in Ghana, respectively. Representatives from government agencies, participating communities and civil society organisations gathered to learn more about … Read more

EVENT WEBINAR: Parks, People and Rights: Towards sustainable conservation in Africa

28 April 2016

Join us on Wednesday 4th May at 18:00 via live, video webinar for a discussion about Africa’s protected areas in the Congo Basin. The Rainforest Foundation UK, in collaboration with SOAS, University of London will explore whether conservation in Africa’s rainforests is being effective for both the biodiversity they aim to protect and the people … Read more

Why Africa’s rainforests need sustainable conservation

26 April 2016

In 2003, in front of a Congressional Committee, one of the United States’ most acclaimed conservationists pleaded for government support for protection of the wildlife of Africa’s rainforests. Talking of the success that the U.S. itself had had with preserving its ‘wild’ places in National Parks during the early 1900s, the speaker said that “My … Read more

Another reprieve for DRC’s forests!

26 April 2016

by Simon Counsell, Executive Director, RFUK For the past 13 years, the government of DR Congo has had in place a law prohibiting the handing out of any more areas rainforest to large-scale commercial logging companies. Although the law was widely broken for the first few years, it has broadly been respected since 2007, when … Read more