FINAL REPORT: MARINGA-LOPORI-WAMBA/LANDSCAPE 9 OCTOBER 1, 2013 – SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Annex 1 SUCCESS STORIES

Success Story 1

Conservation efforts have paid: Captured on candid camera:

In AWF’s Congo landscape in northern DRC, forest are rarely, if ever, seen directly, though they leave behind plenty of signs of their presence. While the total size of the elephant population is presently unknown, it is believed to be small, partly as a result of rampant poaching during and after the civil war (1996-2000), when illegal arms were in abundance. The landscape team is now conducting regular surveys in the landscape, starting with the Lomako- Yokokala Faunal Reserve (RFLY), to determine elephant abundance, distribution, family structure, etc. In March, the team carried out a dung survey in RFLY, the results of which suggest elephants in this protected area number 105 (95% CI: 65-145) individuals. More recently in October, the team set out several camera traps at two bais (forest clearings) in RFLY. Just a few days ago a sample of some of the photos from the traps were received. This is an effective indicator of success of more than 10 years of investment in the sustainable management of the reserve.

Photo 2. Forest Elephant at Lomako © Nakedi Maputla, November 2014

Success Story 2

Farmers’ adoption of sustainable agriculture activities in the landscape

Group discussions were conducted on knowledge gaps and the implementation of sustainable agricultural activities in the landscape. By activity breakdown, there were major differences between the types of interventions and related trainings received. 88 (about 75.2 %) of associations were engaged in conducting PVS trials whereas just 26 (about 22.2%) have received PVS training. Besides, 115 (about 98.3%) of associations were actively engaged in seed multiplication and processing activities whereas 64 (about 54.7%) and 50 (about 42.7%) have actually received training on seed multiplication and processing respectively. This voluntary adoption of improved and sustainable practices by farmers is the kind of trend needed if investments we are making through CAFEC are to be sustained into the future.

Photo 4. Sample manioc field at Lingomo © Tabu Senga, November 2014

Success Story 3

Defying Stereotypes about Women in Conservation

Iyondji Community Reserve (ICBR), created under CARPE II, had 24 new eco-guards trained last October [2014] as part of the USAID-funded support to the reserve’s management structure. And, Pacha Lotango, a young female recruit from within the landscape, graduated top of that class. In November, whilst leading a 9-person patrol on a 6-day mission in the north block of the reserve, Pacha was ambushed by an entire village responding to a cry for help by one of its members under custody for illegally hunting in the area. Pacha's patrol was setting up camp for the night, and were again combing the surrounding to make sure there was no illegal human presence. When the villagers attacked, the unit was scattered and spread out. Pacha immediately ordered her men not to retaliate (eco-guards have mandate to arrest, make use of their firearms, and even pursue offenders as far as 50 kilometers outside of a protected area) and in the process, she unfortunately suffered a blow to the head and was rendered unconscious for half a day.

“My right eye received a shock and I lost consciousness,” she said, speaking in French, with a faraway stare, now standing beside a reddish-brown outer AWF office wall made of adobe in Djolu town several months after the incident. Stones, branches, machetes, bows-and-arrows, and the odd gun were used against her patrol by the villagers that day. “I awoke at our base.”, she continued. As a result of her injury, Pacha was first evacuated to Djolu town, a half-day’s ride away, and then to for appropriate treatment.

The amazing part of this story is that, following her own request to the Head Warden, Pacha returned to the field in late June 2015! She is, without a doubt, a perfect example of strong women in conservation whom AWF highlighted in connection with the recent 25th AU Summit in South Africa!

Indeed, Pacha Lotango could easily feature in a glossy magazine, the kind that lobbies and waiting rooms lavish on customers and clients in fancy hotels and high-rise office buildings; or she could valiantly head up a sales department in a male-dominated Congo service industry, positively conveying naturally expected corporate values, such as integrity, caring, teamwork, commitment, and responsibility to a T. And yet, for reasons that no doubt eludes many a mind, the path she chose—not long after receiving her Bachelor's Degree in commerce from a business institute in Kisangani—takes her to the often unwelcoming, unpredictable outdoors, dressed in green khakis, heavy army boots and carrying a 20-30 pounds rucksack on her back for hours at a time. Pacha is exceptional –a pioneer humbly enacting positive change and demonstrating incredible courage. Can you imagine facing a strange man with a 12-gauge hunting rifle (their favorite weapon) deep in a dark forest?

Women (and girls) in the DRC face multiple disadvantages such as access to education (especially secondary and above). DRC figures from the United Nations Human Development Reports show that only 10 percent of women aged 25-and-above have at least some secondary education, and that 13 percent of women typically give birth to a first child between ages 15 and 19. Ensuring women have access to a variety of jobs and can become self-reliant is not only a hallmark of AWF’s community work, but also one of multiple policies under CARPE for the advancement of gender equity and women’s empowerment.

Photo 5. Pacha Lotango at Djolu © Yao Bongoma, June 2015

Success Story 4

Human Development: An Integral Part of Conservation

Earlier this month, the world came together to celebrate both World Wildlife Day (March 3) and International Women’s Day (March 8). Days like these are designed to draw attention to global issues of inequality—to celebrate our triumph over an injustice, or acknowledge the extent to which an injustice has impacted on our collective history. In the Congo landscape, few issues deserve more attention than wildlife conservation and women’s equality. A lack of economic opportunity has given rise to poaching and habitat conversion. Due to a variety of disadvantages, women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are faced with even fewer opportunities despite their hard work. Fortunately, addressing these two issues can go hand-in-hand.

Joining in for positive results For at least the past twenty years, anthropologists have been describing the increasing importance of local participation in conservation programs. There is ample evidence suggesting that a lack of income opportunities forces local people to exploit the environments around them to meet their basic needs. In DRC, where 80 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day,1 wildlife and their habitats are especially vulnerable. Integrating human development at all levels of conservation is a win for people and wildlife. From transforming illegal hunters into trackers who assist with biological surveys to tourist treks in protected areas to training local youngsters as park rangers who educate their communities on the benefits of protecting biodiversity, these efforts produce truly positive results. It is a privilege to witness this integration of human development in AWF’s approach to conservation, especially in a place like Djolu.

A new opportunity for Sophie Sophie Mboyo is a young woman in her thirties. With her husband often away in search of seasonal work, she is left to care for her eight children—four boys and four girls—and their two-bedroom home in Djolu town. Typically, Sophie wakes up just short of sunrise to go collect water from a nearby well, or to remind her eldest children to collect it. Shortly after sunrise, she heads to the central market, where she holds a stand and sells a small range of everyday items, such as concentrated tomato paste, spices and sugar. Lately, however, a new product is available at Sophie’s shop: a particular kind of blue soap, stamped with the enterprise trademark ‘AWF-REFADD-CAFEC’. This is actually something Sophie makes herself, and the stamp is a tribute to the organizations that helped her acquire the skills to do so.

Decreasing communities’ vulnerability Just over a year ago, Sophie’s inventory looked very different. She regularly sold bush-meat at her stand, including forest hog, porcupine, and monkey. This was until USAID implementing partner African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and local partner “Réseau Femmes Africaines pour le Développement Durable” (REFADD) selected 32 women involved in the bush-meat trade

1 UNDP Human Development Index 2014.

for alternative support activities that included literacy classes and a soap production microenterprise. Luckily, Sophie was one of those women. From April to September 2015, these women, who were trained and strengthened in group dynamics and management, had revenue streams around $7,940 and a profit of $2,382 from their soap production.

The increasing fragility of the local ecosystem, caused by deforestation and poor land management, is a major cause of increased vulnerability of communities and related food insecurity. Ensuring women are empowered, with access to a variety of jobs, is central to positive results. Thanks to the microenterprise training from AWF, Sophie usually sells five bars of soap per day. Each bar is sold for 600 Congolese Francs, generating a daily income of CF3, 000 (approximately $3.20). This extra income means she doesn’t need to rely on selling bush-meat to survive. Success Story 5

Making forest concessions work for local communities

The local communities of the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba (MLW) landscape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) largely depend on the forest for their survival including agriculture, cultural value, and other non-timber forest products. However, the rights of these forest- dependent people to use the resources remain limited with little access to the exploitation of the forest, often hampered by complex regulations, thereby limiting the ability to benefit from the forestry operations.

In August 2002, DRC officially designated community forestry as a forest management option to promote the rights of people depending on forests and ensure rural development through the sustainable management of forest resources. The 2002 Forest Code sets basic principles for better forest policy and greater protections for local people in production forests. The Code necessitates that local communities receive a larger proportion of direct management of forests, including provisions for new, non-extractive forest uses. To further assist local communities, the Code establishes a mandatory transfer of forest area fees (40 percent) to local entities.

In February 2016, the Ministry of Environment Conservation of Nature and Sustainable development (MECNDD) signed a new decree that allows local communities and indigenous peoples to secure their rights to manage the forests to which they are demanding customary rights.

To complement the Ministry’s efforts and develop sustainable solutions for the communities around MLW, AWF initiated formalization requests for the allocation of Local Community Forestry Concessions (CFCL) in Tshuapa Province in August 2016. AWF also started strengthening the capacity of the administration and civil society to achieve reliable results in the management of these natural resources and develop the necessary actions and policies for the implementation of community forestry. In March 2017, seven provincial decrees awarding forest concession were granted to the local communities of Likudwamba, in Befale territory and Mpanga and Ilongo in Ikela territory.

“Today is a special day! We are now the legal owner of our forest thanks to our government and AWF who have worked with us since the beginning of the process. We are looking forward to attaining the necessary skills to help us manage the forest in the right way so that the children of our children benefit from it,” said Kasi Lolango Gustave, a community member of Yongoli village.

The move marks the implementation of the legal arsenal taken by the country to formalize forest concessions of local communities positioning AWF as the first organization to pioneer the process of well-managed forest concessions at the national level.

"This official handover symbolizes the true character of local the communities. It is part of a process that we started many years ago to truly strengthen land tenure and reassure that these communities can sustainably use their resources without necessarily being worried about property issues. This is the first official allocation of Local Community Forestry Concessions (CFCL) in DRC since the decree was signed." said Hugues Akpona, AWF Congo Landscape Manager.

Funded by the USAID/Central Africa Regional Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) under the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), AWF leads on landscape planning and biodiversity conservation within the USAID/CARPE initiative aimed at promoting sustainable natural resource management in the Congo Basin

Success Story 6

Women-led enterprises are driving sustainable forest management in DRC

The dense tropical rainforests of Maringa-Lopori-Wamba — a biodiversity hotspot in the Congo River Basin and critical habitat for endangered — are also a valuable income- generating resource for communities. Displaced by years of political instability, people settled in the remote landscape are some of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s poorest. To scrape a living, locals clear small sections to expand their farms or cut trees to make charcoal and sell firewood. Some even resort to hunting as the illicit trade of bush meat grows.

As the main economic actors in the rural household, women are overexploiting natural resources to provide for their families. On the other hand, when empowered with the right tools, women are also environmental stewards, able to instill new values that protect the landscape’s wildlife and habitats.

Apart from reducing pressure on the forest and wildlife as a source of income, sustainable enterprises ensure that the women who are engaged in environmentally sound business receive financial benefits to reinvest in the development of their communities. As an integral component of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Central Africa Forest Ecosystems Conservation project, African Wildlife Foundation launched the Center for the Empowerment of Women and Environmental Education in Basankusu. Based on the success of the core incubator group, a similar center has been set up in Djolu with plans to extend into Bongandanga, transforming the female demographic into skilled artisans who support conservation.

Over a three-month period, women enrolled at the centers can learn either cutting-and-sewing or artisanal soap-making. With support from the African Women Network for Sustainable Development, hundreds of women in Basankusu and Djolu have been trained in tailoring and artisanal soap-making. Regularly, students will visit both centers to ensure that knowledge is exchanged between these key areas in the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba landscape. In Djolu, AWF will also be providing women's literacy classes.

Instilling the value of conservation Women who have undergone the cutting-and-sewing training are now able to help train their fellow students, and those skilled in soap-making are already making profits. On completing the course, each trainee receives seed funding for the first four months so that they can scale up production. At the local markets where once they sold illegal and bundles of wood, the soap artisans are generating greater, and more reliable, revenues from their environmentally friendly start-ups.

The Center for the Empowerment of Women and Environmental Education is helping promote a tradition of biodiversity conservation in one of DRC’s most remote and sensitive landscapes. For many years, AWF has worked with the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation to improve the ecological monitoring capacity of its ecoguards. AWF has also developed forest management plans to control deforestation in the landscape. Extensive socio-economic surveys showed that introducing new farming methods and alternative sources of income incentivize community conservation, and in 2006, the Lomako Yokokala Faunal Reserve was officially listed as a protected area.

More than a decade since AWF led the creation of this reserve, the community forest is starting to see an increase in wildlife populations. AWF continues to create livelihood opportunities for locals to benefit from the sustainable use of natural resources. With plans to develop Lomako as an ecotourism destination, the mainstreaming of women empowerment is imperative across various villages. The Bonobo Mamas Association, created in 2017, works with women already engaged in conservation — the ecoguards of the Lomako Yokokala Faunal Reserve plus the wives of ecoguards. With access to funding to develop enterprises from natural resource management, these women join the trainees from the Center for the Empowerment of Women and Environmental Education as empowered custodians of the rich landscape. The newly trained tailors and soap-makers not only protect Maringa-Lopori-Wamba’s wildlife and habitats, they are also advancing gender equality and equity.

Success Story 7

From grandfather to father and from father to son: When the Conservation of Nature becomes a family affair in Lomako, in the DRC

Every parent dreams of seeing their children grow and prosper. Some anxious to see their family businesses last through time, prepare their children to take over and perpetuate the 'family business', so what's more normal than bequeath his inheritance to his children. Whether it

Iyambe Belvie_Iyema Tracker (01/2018) Photo credit: C. Ilanga is a simple passing of genes, a culture, a tradition or something as important as material and goods or a business.

In the Maringa Lopori Wamba landscape, there is a whole other type of knowledge that is now transmitted through the ages. The conservation of nature in the Lomako Yokokala Faunal Reserve is now a social and cultural heritage bequeathed from generation to generation and has become a family affair.

In the Lomako Yokokala faunal reserve, more precisely, at 15km from the Lomako river in the Iyema camp where AWF is proceeding with the development of bonobo habituation already well advanced to welcome tourists and researchers at the site, it is increasingly more common to meet this generation converted into protector that are fighting today for the preservation of their habitats.

‘‘I inherited this notion of conservation from my father and decided to follow his footstep as a local guide, I am the third in my family involve in this work.... This job allows us not only to protect our forests and its rich ecosystem, but also gives us the means of subsistence that we need for our families’’, has thus entrusted Dupont Bomposo one of the team leaders of the Iyema trackers.

Far from being a unique case, Iyambe Belvie, of his name, is also himself one of the sons of these local communities who have learned the work from their fathers. Belvie works in the reserve as a local guide and like the fifteen other guides, possesses a good knowledge of the region and of all the local species of flora and fauna.

Married and a father of 3 children, Belvie is convinced that in addition to contributing to the protection of the biodiversity of Lomako, his work is also an opportunity for him to help his family '’Since my father passed away, I became the one on whom the whole family, with the money I earn from this work, I can support my wife in different small businesses and I as far as possible help the members of my extended family’’.

Belvie in 2011 received basic trainings in bonobo habituation, wildlife data collection, and in the strategy of welcoming visitors or researchers and has been doing this job for almost eight years now. This training that I have received thanks to AWF as allow me to acquire more knowledge about my work and has taught me the importance of preserving the ecosystem. I am now able to apply the skills I gained all along and that I am still learning to protect the rich biodiversity of my regions and to sensitize those who destroy the habitat whether voluntarily or by lack of knowledge. ‘‘My father who was also a local guide years ago, like me today, was able to send me to school thanks to this work. Now that I am financially secure, and with the 100$ I received as a base salary I am able today to offer my daughters an education that many other girls here in the village do not have access to and I wish to be able in a near future to build a house, educate my daughters and support my family as possible as I can’’.

From fathers to sons, Iyema's trackers are part of this new generation who are committed to protecting the resources of their lands, these guides represent the local communities and are well integrated into the activities of Congolese Institute for Conservation of Nature (ICCN) and also help in the work of bonobo habituation in Iyema, essential to the construction of a solid tourist product for the reserve.

African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) through its CARPE/CAFEC program in DRC funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supported the Congolese Institute for Conservation of Nature (ICCN) in the creation, development and management of protected areas in the Maringa-Lopori- Wamba landscape. The Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve (RFLY) is one of the main protected areas of the landscape and is a key refuge for rare species, including the bonobo, the forest elephant, the Congolese peacock and the giant pangolin.

Success Story 8

Judicial follow-up in the MLW of a poacher convicted by the Boende Peace Court (in partnership with AWF and ICCN)

A first in the MLW, the trial on the poacher arrested in the RFLY in December 2015 took place in Boende with a judgement made in May 24, 2016. Indeed, the case instructed under the RP 0091/RMP 2687/PR 084/OKN, Public Prosecutor's office against the defendant Mozombo Gboni, started on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 and ended on May 24, 2016 by the verdict of the Boende Court of Peace. The accused, prosecuted for poaching, was sentenced to 1 year and 7 months of penal servitude (jail) and to the payment of a fine of 500,000 FC.

And 5 other cases sent to Boende courts: - Boende TRIPAIX: RMP 2569/AKM involving the defendant Ibandja Abuna, RMP 2571/AKM involving the defendant Ngangu Bononge and the RMP 2574/MAB involving the defendant Yanga Ikanga; - Boende TGI : RMP 2572/NSI (Bononga) & RMP 2573/MAB (Bampunga Eale).

With some of them being recidivistes offenders. The offences committed include: poaching of monkeys "Colobe Guereza or magistrate" (a specie totally protected, see Appendix 1 of the ministerial order No. 020/CAB/MIN/ECN-EF/2006 of the 20th May 2006 on the approval of the List of protected animal species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), poaching and illegal fishing in the reserve. The last case is the one of a man arres ted for possession of ivory. The latter was originally arrested for assault and battery on another person with a weapon made with ivory point.