Help Protect 75,000 Acres of Congo Basin Forest

The Rainforest Alliance is working with rural communities in Central Africa. In Cameroon, our conservation efforts include 12 community forests that cover about 30,000 ha and are home to some 10,000 people. Over the past five years, as these communities have taken control of forest harvesting, they have doubled their timber income. In order to conserve the ecologically precious forests of the Congo Basin communities must be able to earn a decent living through sustainable activities. That can be a complex undertaking.

Communities here often depend on more than one commodity or sector for their survival. In Cameroon, for example, they extract timber, cultivate cocoa and other crops, and harvest non-timber forest products, such as nuts and seeds. That’s why we work to share both farming and forestry strategies that boost the community’s earning potential and climate resilience while protecting forests, wildlife, waterways, and soils.

The Rainforest Alliance developed this integrated conservation approach in collaboration with forest communities across the tropics—always with a focus on improving sustainable economic opportunities that incentivize natural resource conservation:

The Rainforest Alliance focuses on two clusters of community forests that border protected areas in the country’s southern region—one that’s adjacent to the CampoMa’an National Park and another that’s near the Dja Biosphere Reserve. In the Dja, we recently held trainings for young people in eight community forests in sustainable timber harvesting and mobile sawmilling—activities that help keep profits in the communities and reinforce the value of healthy forests.