The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project, led by community leaders and our local engagement team, is committed to improving the well-being of communities. Ongoing efforts include constructing facilities, addressing transportation barriers, and collaborating with public health officials to prevent future epidemics, significantly benefiting community healthcare access.
I can confidently say that effective collaboration with local communities is indispensable for any conservation initiative to be successful. This conviction is the driving force behind my advocacy for the adoption of REDD+ as a transformative model that enhances lives, underlining the importance of amplifying the community’s voice.
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project, spanning 300,000 hectares along Lake Mai Ndombe’s shore, plays a crucial role in the province’s development. Once abundant with fish, overfishing and mosquito net use led to depletion. To counter this, Wildlife Works initiated a fish farming program with eight ponds, replenishing stocks and providing income.
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 […]