The South Kivu province is one the most densely-populated provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), leading to an increasing pressure on natural resources and the escalation of forest and landscape degradation, specifically because of inadequate agricultural practices, overgrazing, bushfires and exploitation of wood energy and timber.

Ecosystem restoration based on a provincial strategy for Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is a clear priority for South Kivu. Consequently, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) for the development of FLR strategy following the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM) approach.

As part of this process, some key activities have been carried out. The first activity took place in October 2019 and consisted of door-to-door consultations with institutions working on FLR. As a result, a workshop was organized with local stakeholders.

The workshop allowed participants to define and propose a vision for FLR in South Kivu, while considering the province’s concrete challenges and needs. At the end, participants identified and proposed key elements that could be a part of FLR provincial strategy in South Kivu.

The second workshop looked at the results from the preliminary analysis carried out to develop maps of FLR opportunities in South Kivu. The workshop brought together a variety of environmental actors, including research and academic institutions, religious actors, civil society organizations, as well as state institutions. During this workshop, the following results were achieved:

• Preliminary maps of FLR opportunities and interventions in the South Kivu province were developed.
• Suggestions from politico-administrative authorities and FLR actors about land tenure issues and Restoration stakes were collected.
• A template for FLR provincial strategy was discussed and approved by participants.

Following FLR public policy analysis, participants made multiple proposals including:

• Re-establishing forest rangers and motivate them to protect spaces.
• Enforcing the law to prevent bush fires.
• Undertaking a land reform for land redistribution.
• Raising awareness among state agents about environmental protection laws.

Through FLR strategy development, the project contributes to highlight the major issues of ecosystem degradation, helps to put them by order of priority and to identify alternative solutions. This effort provides information that improves decision-making about land use as well as an outline for the sector’s stakeholders for a provincial and national strategy to combat negative human actions on forests and landscapes. This will result in an improved management of natural resources in the South Kivu province as well as in the rest of DRC.

As the approach was applied in the local context, the flexibility of ROAM and the possibility to use it in specific contexts were demonstrated. The application of ROAM in different countries was brought as an example to the actors.

In South Kivu, the process was comprehensive enough to bring together several research and academic institutions, suggesting that required expertise for the implementation stage is available. The buy-in of the local chiefdoms, Kabare and Ngweshe, in this process was also crucial as they are coordinating rural development at the localized level through the development and implementation of Chiefdom Development Plans.

In the field, ROAM approach was carried out in two stages: first, a consultation mission followed by a two-day workshop involving stakeholders aiming to take stock of the existing restoration initiatives, collect the data required for the preliminary analyses that the FLR provincial strategy will build on and determine a vision for the FLR in the province. Second, door-to-door consultations were accomplished with the stakeholders, leading to proposals of restoration maps, identification of the most relevant and feasible types of opportunity throughout the assessed restoration sites; priority areas for restoration and analysis of key success factors and key barriers at political, legal and institutional level.

In regards to follow up activities and consideration of other further project activities, it is important to:

• Pursue relentlessly the process of FLR provincial strategy development already launched in South Kivu, until it is completed.
• Keep listening to the claims of stakeholders to consider particular aspects that can potentially improve the FLR strategy under development, namely: include gender in FLR process; include indigenous people in FLR process; local communities’ development through a participative approach; and issue of secure access to land, soil fertility management, compliance with technical production route and conservation of biodiversity.
• Bring this initiative to the national level in order to get the people in charge of restoration involved and put the national FLR strategy at the global scale.

For more information contact: [email protected]

Floribert Mbolela (FAO)