In the DRC, the Congo Resources Institute (CRI) supported the establishment of community forest management across 15,807.53 hectares, helping the communities of Kishiongo and Kasambanza map their lands and apply for community concession titles following participatory mapping. The project strengthened local ownership and collaboration between customary authorities and state services. It trained 240 local community members in community forestry and governance, and an additional 100 women and youth in agroforestry and cultivation techniques. Communities planted 18,000 seedlings in nurseries, 5,000 Indigenous trees, and improved agricultural productivity for local crops such as cassava, eggplant, cowpea, tomatoes, and okra.
Women farmers share their experiences from agricultural projects, Ngo District, Republic of the Congo.
Photo: Action Communautaires des Femmes Autochtones du Congo (ACFAC), 2024
In Gabon, CLARIFI supported local partners to improve Indigenous communities’ climate resilience and food security by strengthening their technical capacities in sustainable agricultural production. This project focused on documenting traditional knowledge and adapting agroecological practices to local contexts in the villages of Bitougat and Doumassi. A participatory diagnosis of the communities’ current situation identified their existing agricultural practices, challenges, and priority needs. Based on these findings, RRI trained 31 community members, including 14 women, on agroecological techniques, sustainable subsistence farming, and community organization, with a focus on strengthening cooperatives and associations.
“Seeing our lands on a map drawn by us changed our perspective: now we know exactly what we must protect.”
In the Republic of the Congo, one project strengthened the social and economic empowerment of Indigenous and local community women in the NGO District, Plateaux Department. CLARIFI’s local partner, ACFAC, established two women-led agricultural producer groups in Djaka village and allocated two hectares of land for each group. It trained them in the cultivation of cassava, cocoa, chili, and maize. The groups received training in agroecology and climate change, environmental protection, gender-based violence, land tenure, and savings and microcredit. The project also provided the women with direct funding to acquire basic agricultural tools for land development and cultivation.
