Fish have been a traditional and primary source of food and essential nutrients for communities surrounding Lake Mai- Ndombe. For decades, the lake was teeming with fish caught by local fishermen.
Located in a remote 300,000 hectare rainforest area in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project provides essential basic social services for over 50,000 people in 28 villages. Already challenged by the remoteness of the project, poor infrastructure, and other day to day implementation issues, in 2020 the project had additionally to overcome the new challenges brought by the COVID pandemic. Yet the project successfully faced down these daunting challenges and made breakthrough accomplishments that advance the project toward durable conservation success.
Investing into the community’s youth, building capacity to address critical healthcare needs, and providing economic alternatives have been the main focus of the Mai Ndombe REDD+ project’s work in Q1 2020.