Impact Spotlight Overview Women-led Climate Resilient Farming Initiative Life for women in the Mai Ndombe region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is challenging. They are at the forefront of the climate crisis, supporting their families, yet they are often denied many basic rights such as land ownership, access to finances, and markets. To […]
Spotlight Summary Collaborative Conservation with the Indigenous Batwa of Mai Ndombe Situated in the western region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Wildlife Works Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project spans the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, serving as the largest carbon sink globally. The project protects 300,000 hectares of forest in partnership with the local […]
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project protects 300,000 hectares of critical bonobo and African forest elephant habitat within the world’s second-largest intact rainforest and some of the most important wetlands on the planet. To help protect this invaluable landscape and the biodiversity that calls it home, a specialized team in biodiversity monitoring works in partnership with local community members to track high biodiversity areas twice a month. Through this team’s hard work, the project monitors population trends of high conservation value species. Camera traps were placed along transects to record the presence of various species, and recces were made to assess the scope and severity of human induced threats and map wildlife tracks.
The Gender Empowerment Team has taken the lead for increased crop yield and agriculture intensification activities in the project area. A few decades ago, fungi were destroying the cassava crops around Mai Ndombe, leading to crop failures around the country. A university study was conducted to explore other cassava varieties more resistant to fungi and […]
Farming of fish is not traditionally undertaken by the local communities. Whilst some villages are home to fisherman, they predominantly use the wild caught method and as such, aquaculture is a very new concept. Unfortunately, traditional wild caught fishing has proved to be unsustainable in the Mai Ndombe region, leading to depletion of the wild […]
Providing clean water is a top priority of the Mai Ndombe REDD+ project as water related illnesses are the second leading cause of death in the area after malaria, associated with the lack of access to safe drinking water despite the general abundance of water in the region as villagers dig shallow wells or fetch […]
Improved healthcare is one of the most important activities in the Mai Ndombe REDD+ project given the very poor health and nutritional status of community members across the project area. Over 1/3 of children under 5 are malnourished and many are at high risk from malaria, together leading to a high mortality rate of 220 […]
Biodiversity assessments have confirmed that Bonobos were once distributed within the forest far away from villages and lake shores, but have recently started approaching villages due to reduced pressure from the local communities. Camera traps have also revealed that elephants seem to be slowly returning to the area, migrating from Yumbi and Lukolela into the […]
