Consortium leader:University of Antwerp, Belgium
Consortium:University of Antwerp, Belgium; University of Kisangani (UNIKIS), Democratic Republic of the Congo; National Institute for the Study of Agricultural Research (INERA), manager of Yangambi Biosphere Reserve, Democratic Republic of the Congo
RESSAC contribution: EUR 249,686
Strained tensions with local and Indigenous communities impede many conservation projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Historically, these tensions have been the result of the forced displacement of communities for conservation; the exclusion of local people from decision making; and ignorance of traditional ecological knowledge. Hence, while conservation of the DRC’s rainforest is more important than ever, it is critical that it is carried out in a way that considers the needs, rights and experiences of local and Indigenous Peoples. This research project responds to these urgencies by developing a biocultural paradigm – that is, one that links biological and cultural systems – for conservation research and policy in the DRC’s rainforest.
The project’s biocultural approach directly feeds into, and is consistent with a national-level policy agenda in the DRC to protect Indigenous rights, particularly through the new law on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Pygmy Peoples signed by President Tshisekedi in 2022. Through extensive research and engagement with stakeholders around the DRC’s Yangambi Biosphere Reserve, the project will contribute to this law becoming the cornerstone of a new approach to securing land tenure and integrating Indigenous/local peoples into conservation initiatives.
To accomplish this, the project will deliver on the following objectives:
(i) Foster collaboration between researchers and environmental managers (INERA/Yangambi Biosphere Reserve) in the DRC and Belgium on the topic of biocultural diversity;
(ii) Generate and publish high-level academic research on the linkages between cultural and biological diversity, specifically in the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve;
(iii) Identify operational intervention points for more socially just and bioculturally sensitive conservation policies to secure Yangambi Biosphere Reserve and the Congo Basin rainforest.
