First National workshop on ICCAs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kinshasa, 5-9 November 2012

First published on 11/10/2012, and last updated on 05/29/2017

‘Recognising ICCAs in Central Africa — the Democratic Republic of Congo takes the first steps!’

The network of indigenous peoples and local communities for the sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the Democratic Republic of Congo (REPALEF-DRC) and the ICCA Consortium held in Kinshasa a five day workshop to exchange information, carry out analyses and start planning on the subject of ICCAs in the DRC.

The workshop was entitled ‘Les Aires et les Territoires du Patrimoine Autochtone et Communautaire (APACs) en République Démocratique du Congo: vers le respect des droits et des capacités des peuples autochtones et des communautés locales pour la gouvernance de la biodiversité’.

The workshop was attended by the Steering Committee and ten provincial focal points of REPALEF network (North Kivu, Maniema, South Kivu, Province Orientale, Kasai Occidental, Kasai Oriental, Bandundu, Equateur, Katanga province and city of Kinshasa) and by representatives of the National Committee of the Small Grants Programme of the Global Environment Facility (GEF SGP), the academic community (legal, socio-anthropological and environmental disciplines) and NGOs dedicated to the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, the strengthening of sustainable livelihoods and the respect of the rights (especially tenure rights), knowledge and skills of indigenous peoples and local communities in the country. Some representatives of GIZ – the key supporting partner – participated in the workshop. Two ICCA Consortium representatives visited Kinshasa to facilitate the workshop, provide the technical reference (documents, presentations, tools, etc.) and develop new ones with workshop participants.

The objective of the workshop:

• to assess the relevance and applicability of the concept and practice of ICCAs in the DRC;
• to explore how to anchor the concept and practice of ICCAs in the DRC and possibly, in the future, to the overall Central African region.

The workshop took-off from presentations of cultural practices and institutions for the governance, management and conservation of natural resource in all provinces of the country, based on a set of questions sent in advance. Following that, some basic and historical information was provided on conservation of natural and cultural environments, but also on broad current threats to them. ICCAs were then introduced as a phenomenon characteristic of relations between indigenous peoples and local communities and their environments throughout the world. One hundred and fifty copies of an ICCA Briefing Note no. 10 were distributed to participants for dissemination in the field. The Briefing Note, originally published in 2010 was reprinted for the Kinshasa workshop and the CBD COP 11 (in India, October 2012).

The five-day workshop enabled participants to learn more about the international conservation policies, the Congolese legislation and appropriate ways to recognize and support ICCAs in the national context. Representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities worked in groups on specific issues, visited and analyzed a case of conservation of a private forest on the outskirts of Kinshasa and had the opportunity to come into direct contact with partners willing to help them in their efforts to recognize and protect their rights and capacities.

The workshop insighted a “new awareness” of the concept and practice of ICCAs in DRC as well as their value for new national conservation and sustainable livelihoods policies and a more respectful approach to the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. Beyond this novel strategic understanding, there is the establishment of a roadmap for the implementation of the concept and practice of ICCAs on the ground, with objectives at national and provincial level, and the proclamation of a Kinshasa Declaration that marks the start of a political (in the best sense of the term) process towards the appropriate recognition and support to ICCAs in the DRC.

Recommendations were issued at the end of the workshop addressing the relevant ministries, partners and civil society and REPALEF itself. The relevant ministries should support the process of recognition of ICCAs as a mode of governance and management crucial for the lives of indigenous peoples and local communities and as a strategy for environmental conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Partners should support efforts by indigenous peoples and local communities to initiate a process of recognition of some of their territories as ICCAs. REPALEF and its collaborators should engage with strength and conviction in the process leading to the formal recognition of ICCAs in DRC (and beyond, via REPALEAC).

For a workshop report, click here.

Contact: Christian Chatelain chri.chatelain@gmail.com and christian@iccaconsortium.org