Indigenous Peoples and local communities are losing their land to corporations and sometimes to governments, driven by economic and extractive interests. This poses threats to their livelihoods, food security, identity, and very survival. In many provinces across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), especially Ituri, Tshopo, Haut-Uélé, North and South Kivu, and the greater Katanga region, Indigenous Peoples and local communities do not have secure land tenure rights. They are rarely consulted when external activities are implemented in their territories or when laws and policies that may affect them are being considered. Across the provinces of the DRC, restrictions on freedoms, including the freedom of assembly, increasingly challenge the ability of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and environmental human rights defenders to protect and promote their rights, including those related to land, forests, lakes, and natural resources. Environmental human rights defenders in the DRC also face harassment and persecution in some territories.
The current model of the global energy transition requires increasing quantities of transition minerals, infrastructure, and land. Growing spending pressures and incentives push for rapid action, often at the cost of a just transition and human rights. Government-led biodiversity conservation is another response measure. Government conservation actions and policies often exclude forest-dependent communities and Indigenous Peoples from decisions, criminalize their ways of life, and even result in their violent eviction from ancestral lands and forests. This approach originates from colonial models of “fortress conservation,” which separate protected areas from the Indigenous Peoples and local communities who have inhabited these environments since time immemorial. The expansion of protected areas therefore often comes at the expense of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, who lose rights of access to their lands, forests, and resources. Yet when these schemes result in Indigenous and local communities being forcefully evicted, the forests and land are left exposed to the entry of illegal extractive industries.
The increasing demand for land and natural resources continues to make Indigenous and local community lands targets for exploitation, illicit acquisition, and land grabbing. The drivers include mineral extraction, logging, agribusiness, and large-scale infrastructure projects, including green energy projects. Indigenous peoples and communities risk losing their remaining lands and forests and face forced evictions and other human rights abuses across the DRC, particularly in Ituri province. This is happening despite progressive national legislation, including the adoption of the first-ever land use planning law, a historic step toward community-centered land governance and sustainable development in the DRC, as well as the national strategy for community forestry, the Forest Code, and Law No. 14/003 on the Protection of Nature. Even with these laws in place, community forestry in Ituri Province remains largely absent and very challenging to establish.
It is against this background that Environmental Defenders (ED) has launched the first steps to support the Indigenous and local forest-dependent communities of Ituri Province to secure legal recognition and to protect their forests and land against real and perceived threats to their territories. This work involves raising awareness, consulting leaders, and gathering community input on forestry legislation and aspirations. The goal is to secure clear routes for the initial processes that will enable the Indigenous and local communities of Ituri to legally secure their lands through community forest concessions and the legalization of their land entitlements.
Public consultations across the Lendu Plateau
Throughout May 2026, the teams of Environmental Defenders conducted public consultations with rural communities on the Lendu Plateau in Ituri Province, specifically in Mahagi territory, regarding the creation of Local Community Forest Concessions (Concessions Forestières des Communautés Locales, CFCL). Over the course of the month, our teams worked in five villages: Anguza Pajen Djuputhyeno in Wagongo chiefdom, Djupio Ayini in Ang’al (Anghal) chiefdom, Udrua in Wagongo, Umoyo Pa Mundu in Djukoth chiefdom, and Djupagasa Kpanyi in Ang’al (Anghal) chiefdom. During this period, the teams reached 933 participants, disaggregated by gender and representing different categories of stakeholders, including local chiefs, government officials, farmers, and fishing communities on the Lendu Plateau and along the Lake Albert escarpment.
The teams focused their efforts on popularizing the concept of community forest concessions, raising awareness of DRC forestry legislation, and explaining the importance of CFCLs. Sessions on the DRC legal framework demonstrated that Congolese law explicitly authorizes communities to establish local forests to secure multiple environmental and economic benefits and to protect land against potential threats. The teams also walked participants through the acquisition process and the legal and administrative steps required to obtain a community forest concession, while emphasizing the long-term importance of these forests for the survival of the local population and of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities. They shared information on the opportunities that DRC forestry and land-use legislation provides for the people of Ituri Province, especially those on the Lendu Plateau, to formalize their forest tenure rights and committed to supporting communities in using and defending these rights together.
Communities’ responses
The communities our teams met welcomed this initiative by Environmental Defenders and are excited to take the matter seriously to ensure they participate in the processes of protecting, creating, and managing their forests and preventing challenges related to deforestation, land grabbing, and dispossession. This is reflected in the following statements, in their own words, from members of the communities our teams met and worked with during these activities in May 2026.
In Pajen Djuputhyeno, participants such as Dong’ijo Ucaki recalled the historical existence of “chiefdom chiefs’ forests,” which have now been destroyed, and urged the community to take up reforestation efforts. Pacuwegi Froincoise supported this idea, confirming the disastrous lack of trees in her environment.
In Djupio Ayini, the observations were even more striking. Ajaruva shared the story of a mystical rock that used to predict rainfall and lamented the current drought. Abedi gave a poignant testimony: having cut down a large tree that harbored bees in the past, he now suffers from an unbearable rise in temperature and decreased crop productivity. Fortunately, the desire for change is real. Jariekonga Lelu said he is already applying the lessons on avocado cultivation broadcast through Terra FM’s Kilimo program, a project of Environmental Defenders in the region.
In Udrua, Piranok Akumu publicly committed to being the first to plant trees, mobilize people against deforestation, and lead efforts to restore the tropical forests that are disappearing, inviting her entire village to take action.
In Pajen Djuputhyeno, Alimula Goy recalled that while the land belongs to the state, the creation of a CFCL must not become a pretext for future administrative harassment. Uting’botu Muswa Faustin sharply denounced state environmental agents who extort the community daily.
In Udrua, the criticism intensified. Thokerong’a raised a crucial question: Can the national hierarchy validate a community forest if the population organizes on its own, without the support of often-absent local authorities? Warom, a resident of Udrua, lamented that higher-ranking officials never come down to meet the population in Ituri. Unwang openly questioned local leaders, worrying about the sustainability of the project if the politician who supports the initiative at the territorial, provincial, and even national levels were to lose the election. The Environmental Defenders communications officer addressed this concern immediately, clarifying that the project is not politically motivated: even if the DRC receives a new president, Ituri province a new governor, or the territorial administration changes, the laws that allow Congolese communities to create community forests are already in place. This mistrust was fueled by past trauma, as recalled by Thumitho Dieudonné in Djupagasa Kpanyi. Chinese operators had extracted mineral resources from a village in Djalasiga and mined gold in Mahagi territory, where he farms, promising to build a school in return, before leaving without ever honoring their commitment. Upar Muber added to the discussion, castigating authorities who pursue only their personal interests.
In Udrua, Raciu Kwiyocwiny delivered a vibrant plea for girls’ education, explaining that a historical lack of schooling condemned girls to early and unhappy marriages and denied many women participation in natural resource management. She stated that she is ready to lead the community forestry project, affirming that the village possesses forests that risk being lost and that women’s land rights are in serious danger.
Similarly, in Djupio Ayini, Apio Francoise insisted that the village acquire its forest to encourage the return of wild fauna, while Unencan Munguromo emphasized that restoring degraded forests is a major employment opportunity for idle youth; if this becomes part of the project, young people will benefit immensely.
In Umoyo Pa Mundu, Dieudonné Ringwegi Beroparwoth proudly recalled the historical introduction of coffee to the village and shared his expertise as an agronomist capable of growing indigenous trees in the middle of a drought while calling on the state to invest in technical schools. Participants firmly linked these lessons to their daily lives: Mr. Mungunuti denounced the lack of markets for farm produce and the absence of free maternity care, while Mawa demanded continuous training for this purely agricultural environment.
Finally, in Djupagasa Kpanyi, Unim Charlotte cited the example of cross-border development in Uganda to demand the immediate rehabilitation of the agricultural feeder road leading to Goro, which is vital for unlocking the peasant economy as communities conserve their forests.
The importance of this work
The survival of rural populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo depends intrinsically on land, water, and forests. The Congo Basin, where the rich province of Ituri is located, contains the second largest tropical rainforest massif in the world and acts as the most effective natural barrier to climate change in Africa. Yet this critical ecosystem is under unprecedented pressure from slash-and-burn shifting cultivation, intensive poaching, illegal mining, and logging. As the forest is lost, it not only disrupts the ecological balance but also threatens the fundamental rights of local communities and creates opportunities for new health crises to emerge.
Although community forestry is legally recognized in the DRC, research shows that implementing concessions depends on understanding and addressing local perceptions, administrative costs, and the meaningful engagement of marginalized groups in decisions. While Congolese law offers communities innovative legal frameworks to access and manage their forests through the CFCL, geographic isolation and information gaps prevent rural farmers from taking advantage of these provisions.
The CFCL offers the promise of reducing deforestation in the Congo Basin, which faces several challenges, including conflict, illegal mining, ongoing biodiversity loss, and the increasing emergence of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola. At the time of writing, Ituri Province is undergoing a large-scale Ebola outbreak that has been sequenced and found to be genetically distinct from the Bundibugyo variants identified in Uganda in 2007 and in the DRC in 2012.
Scientists from Uganda’s Department of National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services (NHLDS) and the DRC’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) concluded that the ongoing Ebola Bundibugyo variant is likely a new spillover into the human population. This fresh spillover suggests that deforestation may have destroyed a natural barrier that used to separate Ituri from the wildlife that carries this Ebola Bundibugyo variant.
The DRC’s community forestry laws offer a lasting and rare opportunity for the people of Ituri province, particularly those in the Mahagi, Mambasa, Irumu, and Djugu territories, to obtain legal rights to forests they have protected and inhabited since time immemorial. In addition to stemming deforestation and biodiversity loss, which the United Nations has identified as a major planetary crisis, the active involvement of communities in Ituri Province can help reduce the harm caused by climate change. Preserving and rejuvenating the forests of Ituri can also help reduce pollution in the world’s environment and support communities in improving their livelihoods and food security.
For all this to happen, however, the work to create CFCLs must be led and designed by the communities themselves through their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Environmental Defenders is supporting the communities of Ituri Province to gain legal recognition of their forests and receive the protection they need. Stopping deforestation is a joint effort between ordinary people, the government, and supportive civil society.
ED’s support is especially important because, although the concept of community forest concessions has become very popular in the DRC in recent years, Ituri province has not previously seen much interest in creating community forests. This lack of interest has been attributed to several factors, including the limited presence of civil society organizations and community-rooted organizations capable of accompanying communities as they navigate the necessary legal framework. Well-resourced civil society organizations would also support communities as they establish CFCLs and help build collectives that can work together to protect this part of the Congo Basin.
Our target is to bring at least 600,000 hectares of forests and land into protection across Ituri by 2031, and 2 million hectares of community and Indigenous lands across five territories by 2035.
Forests, climate change, and people
Forests play a double role in climate change: they are both a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a solution to them. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that up to 21 percent of global emissions come from the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector, making it the second largest source of emissions after energy. Roughly half of these emissions, between 5 and 10 GtCO₂e each year, come from deforestation and forest degradation. As the planet warms and local climates change, forests become more vulnerable to drought, wildfires, pests, and disease. When forests disappear, they lose the carbon they store, and the carbon dioxide they release deepens the greenhouse effect. Forests also sustain the subsistence, spiritual, cultural, and livelihood needs of most forest-dependent communities around the world, and these benefits shrink as forests vanish.
Healthy forests are powerful carbon sinks: they absorb and store carbon dioxide. Every year, forests absorb approximately 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, about one third of the CO₂ released from burning fossil fuels. Between 2001 and 2019, forests absorbed twice as much carbon as they emitted, giving the world a crucial capacity to remove GHG from the atmosphere. According to the IPCC, the AFOLU sector can deliver up to 30 percent of the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 2°C and at relatively low cost. Estimates show that nearly two billion hectares of degraded land worldwide offer opportunities for restoration. Increasing forest cover and maintaining and restoring existing forests are therefore essential both to addressing climate change and to protecting high-density ecosystems.
People and nature gain considerable benefits from conserving tropical forests and limiting forest degradation. An estimated 1.6 billion people, nearly a quarter of the world’s population, rely on forests for their livelihoods, and many of them are among the world’s poorest. Forests provide 75 to 100 billion US dollars per year in goods and services, such as clean water and healthy soils, and are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Forest dependency is closely linked to poverty: millions of poor people depend on forests for both subsistence and income, and studies indicate that poor and vulnerable populations tend to be concentrated in environmentally fragile areas and to rely disproportionately on forests and ecosystem services. There is strong evidence, however, that sustainable forest management can support rural livelihoods, act as a safety net in times of stress, and provide important sources of income and subsistence.
Conserving forests is also one of the most important nature-based solutions (NBS) to the negative consequences of climate change. Nature-based solutions protect, restore, and sustainably use nature to overcome development challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, zoonotic diseases, poverty, and lack of access to clean water. They include the conservation and restoration of vital ecosystems, such as forests, rivers, wetlands, and coastal zones, as well as the promotion of sustainable food production and value chains that enhance biodiversity. Nature-based solutions work best when they are based on rights and driven by the people who live there. Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to making this happen. They are particularly relevant in the DRC, where a large share of the population depends directly on rivers and lakes for fishing and on the land for agriculture, livestock, and forestry. Beyond often being the most cost-effective way to advance climate adaptation for vulnerable groups, nature-based solutions bring a series of co-benefits, including improved biodiversity, health, and environment and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
The structural drivers of deforestation are rooted primarily in poverty, rapid population growth, food insecurity, and limited access to water. Local and regional conflicts and war are another major driver, with cascading effects that lead to deforestation and land degradation. The drivers in conflict-affected and post-conflict areas are diverse, but they share one feature: they are allowed to flourish during and after conflicts. Part of the damage comes from displacement, as people fleeing violence are forced deeper into forests for protection, causing environmental destruction along the way. Studies also show that violence and war are interwoven with resource extraction, including illegal logging and industrial and artisanal mining, resulting in deforestation and land degradation. In many areas, wars, political conflicts, and civil unrest have weakened already fragile forest governance. War and conflict directly erode the already weak tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities, weaken coordinated policy enforcement, and disrupt protected area management, intensifying the very drivers of deforestation.
About Environmental Defenders
Environmental Defenders (ED) work to safeguard and defend natural ecosystems and biodiversity while upholding and advocating for human and environmental rights. ED’s mission is to protect and defend the natural environment and the people and wildlife that rely on it. ED envisions a world where people and wildlife thrive together in safe, healthy, and ecologically balanced environments. Our work covers Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, focusing on key landscapes that connect ecosystems and communities, especially Murchison-Semliki, Lendu Plateau, Bili-Uélé, Kolwezi-Katanga, and Ituri-Epulu-Aru in the larger Congo Basin.
For more information about our work and how to contact us, visit our website at https://watetezi.org/. You can contact us at the link
© Environmental Defenders (ED), 2026.