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Map story: climate impacts and community resilience along the Congo River
RFUK is pleased to announce the release of our latest immersive interactive map story titled ‘A Journey Up the Congo River‘. This powerful digital storytelling experience follows RFUK Executive Director, Joe Eisen, and Forest Campaigner, Vittoria Moretti, as they travel along the mighty Congo River, witnessing firsthand the severe climate change impacts affecting riverine communities … Read more
UNVEILING OUR 2023 ANNUAL REVIEW: A YEAR OF GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT
We are pleased to publish our 2023 Annual Review. In this latest edition, we reflect on RFUK’s 35 years of promoting a simple yet powerful idea – that we need to entrust the protection of tropical forests to the Indigenous and local communities who depend on them. This year’s review highlights our three-pillar approach to … Read more
ANNUAL REVIEW 2023
We are thrilled to share RFUK’s 2023 Annual Review of our main achievements and impact for the world’s tropical forests and the people that call them home.
Community Forests in Action series: Bountiful harvest in Ilinga, Lukolela
SUCCESS STORY Ilinga village, Lukolela territory in DRC’s Equateur province, secured their customary land by establishing a Community Forest in 2018 and becoming the first community in the country to develop an inclusive and sustainable ‘simple management plan’ for their forest the following year. Based on this plan, community members are working on ways of … Read more
SUCCESS STORY: Economic Empowerment Through Community Cocoa Production in DRC
Today in the villages of Mibenga and Ilebo, nestled along the edge of the Tumba Lediima Nature Reserve in western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), community members have been working hard to improve the cocoa production in their Community Forests as a way to boost their income while sustainably managing their forest lands. And … Read more
African Civil Society Decries Corporate Capture of the Africa Climate Summit
African Civil Society Decries Capture of the Africa Climate Summit by Corporate Interests As African leaders gather for the Africa Climate Summit, hundreds of African organisations have expressed concerns about the corporate capture of the event. The inaugural summit – held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 4 to 6 September – is billed as a crucial … Read more
Trial begins of timber company accused of shooting and maiming locals
The Congo Sunflower Forestry Development company is currently on trial, accused of orchestrating a series of reprisals and physical violence against the villagers of Tokoma in the Tshuapa province of DRC, after they seized some of the company’s equipment from a site illegally being operated on their lands. According to Mr. Iyoko Elungu, an inhabitant of … Read more
New alerts map shows vital role of forest communities in tackling illegal logging
RFUK and its local partners in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Peru have launched a webmap that includes thousands of illegal alerts sent by local community monitors using the ForestLink system. While satellite forest monitoring has transformed our ability to detect forest loss, ForestLink … Read more
NGOs call on Congolese General Prosecutor to investigate the role of several former ministers in illegal logging operations
A group of Congolese and international NGOs have written to DRC’s General Prosecutor calling on him to investigate reports of widespread illegal logging, which implicate as many as six former ministers. On 1 April, the Environment ministry finally released a long-suppressed audit of the country’s logging industry by the Congolese General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), which found … Read more
Perspectives on Gender and Equality from our Community Forests Project
The ‘Community Forest’ model in DRC offers an unprecedented opportunity for communities there to legally secure, manage and protect their traditional forests. But to assure the delivery of equitable and sustainable outcomes, there is a need to ensure they are developed by the communities themselves, with actively inclusive processes to ensure the information obtained on … Read more