ENVIRONMENT AND GENDER | Monday,October 11th 2021

Strengthen the resilience of young people and indigenous women to climate change by restoring the biodiversity of community forests by planting edible caterpillar trees

Project context

This project is a response to the problem of deforestation caused by anarchic logging, particularly the irrational felling of trees in the community forests of Mwenga for the production of embers for Bukavu. This has contributed to the significant destruction of forest biodiversity, in particular the scarcity of edible caterpillars (to the detriment of the indigenous young people and women who depend on these forest products), climatic disturbances, food insecurity and the accentuation of the poverty in the groups / villages bordering the Itombwe Nature Reserve whose forests are overexploited and degraded in Mwenga territory.

The indigenous populations of Mwenga were evicted from their traditional forest, which since 2006 has become the Itombwe Nature Reserve which unfortunately negatively impacted their living conditions in Mwenga territory, thus aggravating their food insecurity, their degree of poverty and discrimination, particularly with regard to access to their traditional forests. The latter are forced to fall back on community forests which unfortunately are in a very advanced state of degradation and lacking in biodiversity, particularly edible caterpillars. Unfortunately, the increase in the market for forest products including wood, embers and firewood is a factor aggravating the destruction of these same community forests on which the indigenous populations of Mwenga depend.

The root causes of this situation are:

1) Poor forest governance in Mwenga territory;

2) Slash-and-burn agriculture, a practice whereby smallholder farmers cut down trees and burn forests to make way for agriculture, continues to threaten many areas of Mwenga;

3) Poverty, overpopulation and mining are also other phenomena that lead to deforestation in Mwenga territory;

4) The uncontrolled cutting of trees to make firewood or charcoal (embers) also emerged as one of the root causes of large-scale deforestation in this territory of Mwenga in the DRC.

Project Goal

Contribute to the restoration of the biodiversity of community forests and the reappropriation by the indigenous populations through the planting of host trees of edible caterpillars in the riparian groups of the Itombwe Nature Reserve whose forests are overexploited and degraded in order to facilitate empowerment of indigenous youth and women through the recovery and rational management of biodiversity, particularly the production and sale of edible caterpillars as a source of income to indigenous youth and women of Mwenga.

General summary of the achievements of the reference period

As part of this project, PIFEVA carried out several activities, which mobilized 313 young people and indigenous women from Kwangambwa, Kasaga, Kanana, Nisege, Kiliungu, Bungalama and Lolwe in Mwenga territory. These activities are of various kinds: identification and multiplication of native forest species, hosts of edible caterpillars; training of native nurserymen, creation of seven native nurseries for trees with edible caterpillars, organization of three major campaigns to reforest trees with caterpillars. 270 hectares were reforested with indigenous forest species and hosts of edible caterpillars in seven community forest blocks. To this end, PIFEVA has also set up "indigenous forest monitoring committees", organize training for young people and indigenous women in the rational management of caterpillar trees in order to be able to create income-generating activities. Seven groups of young people and women received support to develop cultivation and animal husbandry activities until the planted trees reach maturity and produce edible caterpillars. These are the activities that have positively contributed to the restoration of biodiversity in the community forests of Ngambwa, Kasaga, Kanana, Nisege, Kiliungu, Bungalama and Lolwe in Mwenga territory in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Impacts

Three tones of caterpillars were harvested in less than a year by 7 groups of young people and indigenous women accompanied in Mwenga territory. The caterpillars become available and again accessible to indigenous households in short villages by the project and this contributes to the reduction of cases of malnutrition among pregnant women and children under 5 years old. Members of beneficiary groups who have already started producing and belly caterpillars have seen their living conditions improve and are increasingly becoming real custodians of community forest blocks restored by caterpillar trees in Mwenga territory.

While waiting for the majority of hectares restored by the caterpillar trees to reach maturity and produce edible caterpillars, this project has also contributed to improving the livelihoods of indigenous youth and women targeted by the establishment of Generative Activities. of Income (in groups) focused on the rearing of small livestock as well as rapidly maturing alternative agricultural activities, particularly market gardening to cope with the immediate effects of the economic crisis, food insecurity and limit the resurgence of deforestation in the context of Covid 19 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Challenges and mitigation measures

The implementation of our project has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as the responses of the Congolese government (DRC) to COVID-19 have had a disproportionate impact on the indigenous populations of Mwenga, including the closure of markets in indigenous communities who have reduced their livelihoods as well as movement restrictions that hamper their agricultural activities and traditional restoration and management of biodiversity and natural resources on which they depend.

While waiting for the majority of hectares restored by the caterpillar trees to reach maturity and produce edible caterpillars, this project has also contributed to improving the livelihoods of indigenous youth and women targeted by the establishment of Generative Activities. of Income (in groups) focused on the rearing of small livestock as well as rapidly maturing alternative agricultural activities, particularly market gardening to cope with the immediate effects of the economic crisis, food insecurity and limit the resurgence of deforestation in the context of Covid 19 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Integration and inclusion of the gender dimension

This project fully integrated the gender dimension throughout the implementation process and made it possible, on the one hand, to fight against the discrimination suffered by indigenous women of Mwenga in decision-making processes related to logging in the territory of Mwenga. Mwenga, and on the other hand, to strengthen the consideration of the specific rights of indigenous women in sectoral policies related to the REDD process in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fact of seeing 50% of young people and 50% indigenous women beneficiaries of this project take ownership and actively participate in the restoration and sustainable management of community forests as well as in the monitoring of community forest blocks constitutes a qualitative indicator of the reduction of inequalities. and the inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups which contributes to strengthening the participation of women in the search for solutions to socio-environmental problems within their communities in Mwenga territory.

Innovation

In terms of local indigenous innovation, this project has contributed to the restoration of biodiversity in community forests by planting edible caterpillar trees in Mwenga territory. The use of caterpillars as a food product making it possible on the one hand to alleviate food insecurity, and on the other hand to create a source of income for the young people and indigenous women of Mwenga in South Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. To achieve this, PIFEVA has resorted to putting into practice the historical knowledge of the indigenous ancestors of Mwenga who ensured that the forest continues to provide for their needs without destroying it were used and popularized in favor of beneficiaries and communities. local people who regained consciousness and remained mobilized against anarchic deforestation in the target villages and this is already producing positive effects given the decline and or the cessation of charcoal production activities in the forests covered by the project. Thanks to this project, the young and women members of the cooperative are supported in order to be able to apply the local forestry regulations. Gradually, these people are involved in a process of sustainable forest management; this requires that each time an individual cut down one tree, plant three more and ensure that these three trees take root and thrive in Mwenga territory.

Sustainability and adaptability/Scaling up

The sustainability, adaptability and scaling of this project are guaranteed because the expected effects of this project are being sustained through the maintenance of project activities by the local project implementation structures, particularly the local committee of indigenous young and women nurserymen and the local forestry monitoring committees of indigenous young people and women in Mwenga territory. The existence of these local technical implementation structures constitutes a solid mechanism for ownership and sustainability of project activities, the model of which can be extended to scale.

However, to facilitate the execution of this project, we developed our theory of change for this project with the participation of indigenous youth and women from Mwenga. This implementation tool has enabled us to involve all the beneficiaries in the process of identifying the problem to be solved and the short, medium and long term objectives as well as the necessary means (interventions) planned to achieve them. This project also integrated the community mobilization component to facilitate the appropriation of the project by the beneficiaries. This model can be successfully replicated elsewhere.

Lessons learned and recommendations

1) Adopting an approach based on the best available traditional and indigenous knowledge can greatly contribute to the fight against climate change, protection and various mechanisms for restoring biodiversity as indigenous and local knowledge can inform us about the factors loss of biodiversity and effective methods to achieve integrated restoration of biodiversity, improved resilience and behavioral change in favor of future generations.

2) Indigenous and local populations are often well placed to observe and understand and act to safeguard local ecosystems. As a result, indigenous, traditional and local knowledge systems constitute one of the largest bodies of human knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystems and in the face of climate change. However, these knowledge systems are rarely recognized as resources for understanding, monitoring and managing biodiversity.

Recommendation

Beyond the fact this project is positively evaluated as a Nature-Based Solution (NbS) which has been proven in favor of the targeted indigenous youth and women of Mwenga, by strengthening their resilience to climate change and taking into account the satisfactory results recorded on In the field, PIFEVA considers it important and necessary to consolidate the achievements of this project and calls on partners and donors of national and international funds and the United Nations agency to support this project and have the necessary means to replicate this indigenous innovation in other villages. and grouping of the Itombwe Nature Reserve and impacted by climate change (Kasika, Kalambi, Mwenga center, Bilalo-mbili, Bilembo, Mungombe, Kamituga, Ngambwa, Musumba, Kasaga, Kiliungu, Kanana, Nisege, Bungalama, Lolwe, Kasete , Bigombe, Kibe, Sigulu, Mitobo, Nyamibungu and Kitutu) in Mwenga territory, as well as in other provinces located in the same situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Véronique Bulaya

Project Coordinator