Climate Action Congo, Democratic Republic of the Project #5709

Help Stop Slash and Burn Farming in the Congo

by Wildlife Conservation Global

Project Report | Apr 4, 2019
Record Number of Trees and International Tree Day

By Felicia Manning | Conservation Assistant

Students receiving seedlings to plant at school

Community involvement in an essential part of conservation. Agroforesty programs aid in giving the local communities the opportunity to increase their crop yields while protecting the rainforest. Farmers in our agrofrorestry program are located in and around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, but there are five villages where OCP grows trees and stores seed crops: Epulu, Mambasa, Biakato, Niania, and Wamba. The primary focus for each area is the growing and distribution of seedlings from nurseries. The Wamba nursery was completed in 2018 and was the newest nursery to be added.

In 2018, there were almost 70,000 tree seedlings distributed to over 2,000 people. These seedlings included nitrogen-fixing, fruit, and other various types of trees. Additionally, the agroforesty program assisted over 1,200 farmers and distributed over 2,300 kg of rice, 1,100 kg of peanuts and 1,200 kg of beans for planting. Various tools like machetes and hoes were also provided to new farmers in the program. Agronomes also allocated various vegetable seeds including cabbage, carrot, and cucumber seeds to the 85 community vegetable gardens.

A ‘refresher course’ was provided in Epulu for five agronomists and two technician to revisit and share the very successful agroforestry techniques and what has worked in each of the five villages. The refresher course provided training on the importance of community conservation, nursery maintenance, tree planting, select tree species for the agroforestry program, the Okapi Wildlife Reserve and how to use a GPS.

International Tree Day was also celebrated in November in Mambasa, Biakato, Niania, and Wamba. In each area there was one selected school that had the students and teachers plant trees at their respective schools. A total of 545 trees were planted with 450 children participating in the activity.

The agroforestry program enables local people in various communities to participate in sustainable practices in conservation. These techniques aid in keeping critical okapi habitat from being destroyed. This is all possible by the funding from donors like you. We highly appreciate and thank you for your generous and continued support!

Large cabbages in demonstration garden

Planting trees to reforest school yard in Niania

Links:

Visit our website to learn more!

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Jan 3, 2019
Office in Mambasa Complete And Tree Distribution

By Lucas Meers | Conservation Program Officer

The completed office and storeroom in Mambasa

The area of Wamba just outside the Reserve’s northwest sector has experienced an increase in population which has put pressure on the fragile forest ecosystem. The communities surrounding Wamba have an interest in conservation and protecting the forest and requested the construction of a nursery to improve food security and to become involved in our agroforestry program. The nursery was completed in early 2018 and is currently managed by Therese Bangbeto, the first woman to run one of our five nurseries.

Because of the addition of this 5^th nursery, we can now contribute to improving food security in the communities in the northern part of the Reserve, and we expect by increasing crop yields to reduce the need for people to be involved in illegal activities to support their families. Under Therese’s guidance, this nursery, after starting all the seedlings from seeds collected locally, has allowed us to surpass our goal of distributing over 60,000 tree seedlings in 2018!

In the town of Mambasa, we constructed an office building and storage space for our educators, agronomes and the local women’s group. The building was constructed on a plot of land owned by OCP and provides office space and storage for our educators and agronomes and an enclosed space for the Mambasa women’s group to meet and store their materials such as sewing machines, seeds and fabrics. Having this safe, dry and proper storage space will provide team members with a suitable place to plan and conduct their programs and store all supplies. It is important that the seeds for our agroforestry program have a cool, dry space in order to be banked and distributed to local farmers in the future.

In 2018, our agronomes also distributed over 5,300 kg of rice, 250 kg of beans and almost 2,000 kg of peanuts to farmers joining our agroforestry program around the Reserve. Our agroforestry program has proven results by increasing farmers' crop yields through natural fertilizers allowing farmers to lengthen the life of the soil and avoid cutting new plots of land destroying critical okapi habitat.

Twenty-eighteen was filled with ambitious goals of strengthening infrastructure and reach to new communities and this year we hope to achieve the same. Together with your support, we can ensure okapi and communities have a safe place to live for generations. Thank you!

A happy Biakato Farmer with cabbage harvest

Seed distribution in Biakato

Links:

Visit our website for more information!

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Oct 9, 2018
Wamba Nursery Produces Many Trees

By Lucas Meers | Conservation Program Officer

Sowing the first seeds at the Wamba Nursery

The nursery was completed in March and is currently managed by Therese Bangbeto, the first woman to run one of OCP’s five nurseries. Because of the addition of this 5^th nursery, we can contribute to improving food security in the communities in the northern part of the Reserve, and we expect a decrease in the need for people to be involved in illegal activities to support their families. Under Therese’s guidance, this nursery, after starting all the seedlings from seeds collected locally, has already distributed 8,902 trees to 1,794 people through September. We have a goal of distributing 60,000 trees in 2018 from all our nurseries and it looks like we are on pace to hit our target later this year.

This year we were ambitious with construction projects throughout the Reserve – A new Zunguluka guard post and immigration checkpoint at the eastern boundary of the Reserve, a new internet space for ICCN rangers to provide regular communication to their counterparts in the field and constructing a much-needed office complex in Mambasa for our educators, agronomes and women’s groups. The office complex is nearly complete and should be finished by the end of this month. It was constructed on a plot of land owned by OCP, and when finished, it will provide office space and storage for educators, agronomes and women’s groups to meet and store their materials such as sewing machines, seeds and fabrics. Having this safe and proper storage space will provide team members with a productive environment to plan and conduct their programs and store all supplies. An additional benefit is OCP no longer will have pay to rent for office space in town.

This year has been full of ambition with large-scale projects to protect the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. All of this is only possible because of the continued support from people like you. We thank you for your dedication to help protect okapi and their rainforest home!

Therese Bangbeto coordinates the Wamba Nursery

Mambasa Women's Group in front of office complex

Links:

http://www.okapiconservation.org

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