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 wildcaught fishing has proved to be unsustainable in the Mai Ndombe region, leading to depletion of the wild populations […]
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 […]
The building of new schools is expanding across the project area to provide better access to quality education for children living in the project area. 11 schools have been completed with a further 7 in progress and 14 planned, totaling 32 schools to be build during the project.
Agricultural intensification and diversification continue to expand across the project area, with new high yield cassava being introduced into community gardens. The women-led Community Based Organizations (OBs) have shown incredible progress, with 80% of women in the villages currently participating. The main building of the Ibali healthcare clinic has finished construction and has been equipped with new diagnostics equipment; further state-funded expansions are being planned. Poaching and logging continue to be challenging. However, a new radio- communications project is underway to improve the efficiency of incident reporting.
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project protects 300,000 hectares of critical bonobo and forest elephant habitat within the world’s second-largest intact rainforest and some of the most important wetlands on the planet, the Congo Basin.
Over 300,000 ha of rainforest along edge of Lake Mai Ndombe in DRC was previously zoned for commercial timber extraction. The REDD+ project prevented the reinstatement of logging contracts and instead co-developed sustainable initiatives with the local community while protecting an important rainforest and wetland landscape. Agroforestry nurseries and sustainable farming crops and techniques have […]
A team specialized in biodiversity monitoring tracks high biodiversity areas twice a month, along with local community members who have been trained for that purpose. The project monitored the growth of both elephant and Bonobo populations — with elephants specifically at a high pace. Camera traps have revealed that elephants seem to be slowly returning […]