GLOBAL FOREST WATCH (GFW) and ARCUS FONDATION, two new financial partners for the GSAC Alliance !

In February and October 2022, two one-year funding agreements were signed between the GSAC Alliance and the organisations Global Forest Watch (GFW) and ARCUS Foundation respectively.

The first agreement, financed by GFW with USD 40,000, aims to implement the project entitled: “Community mapping and advocacy for the sustainable management of forests and biodiversity in the Bolobo territory in the DRC and in the EBO Forest in Cameroon“.

Two objectives are targeted:

1) To strengthen forest monitoring in two landscapes where two Alliance members are active (MBOU MON TOUR in DRC and SEKAKOH in Cameroon) and to communicate on the causes of illegal deforestation (bush fires, logging and mining, extensive agriculture, gold panning and charcoal making etc.),

2) Strengthen advocacy with local authorities having authority over the two sites to push for effective law enforcement when cases of illegal deforestation are identified.

The data collected, in collaboration with the inhabitants of these territories, will then be uploaded to the Global Forest Watch platform.

Fore more information about GFW !

The second agreement, for an amount of USD 100,000, constitutes co-financing for the network’s PPI.6 project and aims to support the implementation of the project entitled “Support for strengthening the organisational capacities of local African civil society active in community-based conservation of the great apes of the Congo Basin forests“.

The project should enable the network to strengthen its organisational capacity and that of its members, to develop new management tools, to improve associative governance, both of the members and of the network as such, but also its capacity for political influence.

In addition, A-GSAC continues its progressive expansion into new geographies, with the accession in 2022 of a new member, “Forêt Pour le Développement Intégral” (FODI).

The membership of this new member of the network was taken during the ordinary General Assembly of the network on 14 January 2022 during which the 7 member organisations of the Alliance deliberated and validated the application of FODI as a new member.

FODI is a Congolese association working on community forestry issues in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has contributed to the drafting of regulatory texts on community forestry in the DRC.

Created in 2009, FODI is active in four Local Community Forest Concessions (LCCs), namely Banisamasi, Bananzigha, Basengele and Kibu, all located in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) landscape. These LCCs, particularly rich in biodiversity, cover an area of about 120,000 ha where FODI supports the communities in charge of managing these territories, particularly on governance aspects, with in particular the support to the implementation of local management bodies (Community Assembly, Council of Elders, local management committee and local monitoring and evaluation committee), bodies at the centre of the management process of these areas.

FODI’s intervention aims to counter the threats to key species living in these LCCs, notably the Grauer’s Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), while acting to reduce the poverty of the inhabitants of these areas.

FODI has been a partner of the PPI since 2020, in the framework of a project supporting, among other things, the integrated conservation of gorillas and the promotion of a sustainable oil palm industry.

Fore more information about FODI !

Coordinator of the NGO FODI : NSASE SOKI Maurice

(+243) 997 070 385

(+243) 821 417 729

mauricensase@fodi-rdc.org et foretdeveloppement@gmail.com