Chief Nkonsango Ndala
MWAKILISHI WA KAMATI YA HEWAKAA WA ENEO LA IBALI KATIKA MRADI WA WILDLIFE WORKS MAI NDOMBE REDD+
Hospitali na maji safi zimeboresha pakubwa afya katika kijiji chetu, na tunatazamia kujenga shule mpya hivi karibuni. Pia tunashukuru kwamba Wildlife Works imejitolea kwa muda mrefu, si kama baadhi ya wadau wengine ambao wanachangia tu bidhaa mahususi, kama vile pampu yetu ya zamani ya maji iliyoharibika, kisha wanaondoka.
TAZAMA
>50k
JAMII
WASHIRIKA
300k
HEKARI
ZA MISITU ZILIZOLINDWA
7
SPISHI ZILIZO HATARINI
ZILILINDWA
3.8m
YA UCHAFUZI WA tCO2e
IMEZUIWA KUFIKIA SASA
POACHER TO PROTECTOR
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project in the DRC employs over 20 eco-guardians, many of whom are former poachers.
KUHUSU MRADI WA REDD+ WA MAI NDOMBE
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project protects 300,000 hectares of critical bonobo and forest elephant habitat within the world’s second-largest intact rainforest and some of the most important wetlands on the planet, the Congo Basin.
MAI NDOMBE
JAMHURI YA KIDEMOKRASIA YA KONGO
THE DETAILS
START DATE: MARCH, 2011
DURATION: 30 YEARS
PROJECT TYPE: AVOIDED DEFORESTATION REDD+
METHODOLOGY: VM0009
REGISTRY: VERRA
THIRD-PARTY VERIFIED ☑
KLINIKI 18 ZA KUHAMISHA NA HOSPITALI MOJA KUU ILIJENGWA
SHULE 12 ZILIJENGWA AU KUFANYIWA UKARABATI
VIDIMBWI 10 VYA KUFUGIA SAMAKI VILIUNDWA NA AINA MPYA ZA MIHOGO KUANZA KUKUZWA ILI KUIMARISHA UTOSHELEVU WA CHAKULA
MAENEO 11 YENYE MAJI SAFI NA ENDELEVU YANAYOTUMIA SOLA
ZAIDI YA NAFASI 300 ZA AJIRA ZILIUNDWA
MAANGAZIO YA ATHARI
Eneo la mradi wa Mai Ndombe ni nyumbani wa wanajamii 50,000 wa misitu ambao wamesambaa kwenye zaidi ya vijiji 28.
Vijiji vingi ni nyumbani kwa watu wanaojitambulisha kuwa Wabantu. Wabantu ni wahamiaji ambao ni wafugaji mifugo, walioishi karibu na Ziwa Mai Ndombe vizazi vingi vilivyopita. Kuna kijiji kimoja nje ya eneo la mradi lakini ndani ya ukanda wa mradi ambacho ni nyumbani kwa Batwa, ambao wanafahamika zaidi kwa jina la kibaguzi la "mbilikimo." Batwa ndio walinzi asili na Wenyeji wa misitu huo.
Kutokana na miongo mingi ya ukoloni na dhuluma, wanajamii zote ndani ya eneo la mradi na ukanda wa mradi wametengwa na uwezeshaji wa kiuchumi na kisiasa na ni mojawapo ya jamii zilizotengwa zaidi ulimwenguni. Wanatafuta mikakati mipya ya kukidhi mahitaji yao ya kimsingi huku bado wakiishi kwa amani na msitu ambao wana uhusiano thabiti wa kitamaduni na kiroho nao.
MAKALA YA 01
KUREJEA KWA
NDOVU WA MISITU
Kwa miaka, mandhari ya eneo la mradi hayakuwa na wanyama pori wengi. Lakini sasa, msitu na wanyama pori wanarejea tena kutokana na mradi wa REDD+.
MAKALA YA 0202
MAHOJIANO NA
MATTHIEU BOLAA
Mathieu “De la Forêt” Bolaa Ni Mkuu wa Viumbe Anuwai katika Wildlife Works nchini DRC, na mwenyewe ameshuhudia kurejea kwa ndovu katika eneo hilo.
MASIMULIZI YA
JAMII
ELIMU
Pata maelezo zaidi
Wakiwa na mapato kutokana na hewakaa, jamii zinawekeza katika kujenga vituo vya elimu, ambavyoawali havikuwepo au havikuwa vya kutosha katika vijiji vingi kwenye ukanda wa mradi. Ukosefu wa elimu katika eneo hilo umehusiana moja kwa moja na shughuli za ukataji wa miti na matokeo mabaya ya afya. Kwa jumla, shule 32 zinapangiwa kujengwa katika kipindi kizima cha mradi. Mapato kutokana na hewakaa pia yanagharamia sare, karo za shule, mishahara ya walimu na ada za mtihani wa kitaifa.
KUONGEZA UTOSHELEVU WA CHAKULA
Pata maelezo zaidi
Ziwa Mai Ndombe ni mojawapo ya maziwa ya kipekee zaidi kibayolojia duniani. Tofauti na maziwa mengi makubwa ya Afrika, spishi nyingi za samaki hazijawai kuwekwa hapa, hali iliyosababisha makazi yenye ukwasi wa spishi za kimaeneo. Laini katika miongo kadhaa iliyopita, idadi ya samaki imepungua sana kutokana na shughuli zisizoendelevu za uvuvi. Wanajamii wamewekeza mapato yanayotokana na hewakaa kwenye vidimbwi endelevu vya samaki ili kuimarisha utoshelevu wa chakula na hatimaye kuongeza idadi ya samaki kwenye ziwa.
TIBA BORA
Pata maelezo zaidi
Matibabu yaliyoboresha ni mojawapo ya shughuli muhimu za mradi huu ambazo jamii katika Mai Ndombe REDD+ huwekeza mapato yao ya hewakaa. Viwango vya vifo vya kina mama wajawazito ni mojawapo ya vya juu zaidi duniani na ⅓ ya watoto wenye umri wa chini ya miaka 5 hawana chakula cha kutosha na wengi wapo katika hatari ya kuambukizwa maleria na ukambi. Hospitali mpya na kliniki tamba za kujibu haraka zinabadilisha ufikiaji wa tiba bora ya afya.
UTAWALA WA JAMII
Kamati za Maendeleo za Eneo zimewekwa kama mfumo muhimu wa utawala wa ndani ya eneo la mradi. Shughuli za mradi huchaguliwa kwa ushauriano na kamati za ndani pamoja na washikadau wengine muhimu na maafisa kutoka viwango tofauti vya serikali.
MAJI SAFI
Pata maelezo zaidi
Tulichuma mapato kutokana na hewakaa kutoka ulinzi wa misitu, jamii zimewekeza kwenye mashine zinazobebeka za kuchimba ili kutafuta maji safi.
KILIMO CHA KUHIFADHI MAZINGIRA
Pata maelezo zaidi
Mihogo ni chakula muhimu kwa mamilioni ya watu kote nchini DRC, lakini uzalishaji wake unatishiwa na wadudu na magonjwa mengi.
Wafanyakazi walioajiriwa kutoka katika eneo hilo hutunza bustani, hufanya kilimo cha msituni na kutoa mafunzo ya ukulima wa kuhifadhi mazingira ili kuongeza ufikiaji wa taarifa kwa wanajamii ili waweze kuboresha mazao yao kwa njia endelevu.
WASHIRIKA
WA JAMII
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° Pan paniscus
BONOBO
Bonobo wanahusiana na binadamu kwa takriban asilimia 98.7, na kuwafanya kuwa jamaa zetu wa karibu zaidi. Wanapatikana tu katika Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Kongo na eneo la mradi wetu kule Mai Ndombe ni mahali muhimu kwa spishi hizi zilizo hatarini kukimbilia usalama wao. Matishio makubwa kwa bonobo ni kupoteza makazi na masoko haramu ya biashara ya wanyama pori. Bonobo huwindwa kwa ajili ya nyama yao au kuuzwa kama wanyama vipendwa. Kutokana na usumbufu kutoka kwa kampuni ya awali ya kutengeneza mbao, kulikuwa na bonobo 20 hadi 30 wakati tulianza mradi wetu. Leo, kuna bonobo 15-20,000 katika eneo la mradi wetu wakati wowote ule. Hii ni muhimu kwa ukuaji wa spishi hii kwa ujumla, kwa kuwa kuna tu idadi inayokadiriwa ya bonobo 30-50,000 msituni.
° Loxodonta cyclotis
NDOVU WA MISITU
Ndovu wa misituni ni wadogo na wapweke zaidi ikilinganishwa na binamu zao wakubwa wa Savana. Ilikuwa ni mwaka 2021 ambapo ndovu wa msituni walitangazwa kuwa spishi tofauti. Kama watunza bustani wakuu wa mwituni, Ndovu wa misituni ni mojawapo wa wapiganaji bora zaidi dhidi ya mabadiliko ya tabianchi. Kwa kula mimea midogo, ndovu hupunguza ushandani wa lishe ya udongoni na mwangaza, hali inayowezesha miti mikubwa kunawiri na kunasa kiasi kikubwa cha Hewakaa ya CO2 hewani. Wanasayansi wanasema kwamba kuwepo kwa mnyama mkubwa mla nyasi ndio sababu ya Ukanda wa Kongo inachukua maradufu ya kiasi cha hewakaa kuliko msitu wa Amazon licha ya kwamba ni nusu yake tu kwa ukubwa. Matishio makubwa kwa ndovu wa msituni ni mabadiliko ya tabianchi, kupoteza makao, ujangili wa kutafuta pembe, na mauaji ya kulipiza kisasi kutokana na mgogoro kati ya binadamu na ndovu. Kabla ya mradi wa uhifadhi wa Wildlife Works, ndovu wa misitu hakuwa wameonekana katika eneo hilo kwa miaka mingi. Leo, idadi ya ndovu wanaopatikana huko imeongezeka na eneo la mradi sasa lina takriban ndovu 100 wa misitu.
° Smutsia gigantea
KAKAKUONA MKUBWA
Kakakuona, wenye magamba na pua refu, wanaokula sisimizi, ni mojawapo ya wanyama wa kipekee duniani. Kwa kula mchwa, wanasaidia kulinda miti na kudumisha usawa wa kiekolojia. Inasikitisha kwamba, pia ndiye mnyama ambaye walanguzi wanamuuza sana duniani, kwa sababu magamba yake yanatumika kama dawa za kienyeji katika eneo la Asia Mashariki.
° Hippopotamus amphibius
VIBOKO
Baada ya ndovu na vifaru, viboko ndio wanyama wa tatu kwa ukubwa duniani, kiboko wa kiume anaweza kuwa na uzani sama na wa magari matatu mazito. Viboko wanaweza kuwa wakali na walinzi wa himaya zao, na kwa wastani, huuwa watu 500 kwa mwaka barani Afrika (karibu mara mbili ya idadi ya watu wanaouawa na simba). Licha ya hadhi yao ya kuvutia na ukali wao, idadi yao inapungua Kusini mwa Jangwa la Sahara, zaidi kwa kasi katika nchi ya DRC. Matishio makubwa kwa viboko ni kupoteza makazi na uwindaji kwa ajili ya nyama na meno yao. Wildlife Works, kwa ushirikiano na jamii za ndani, inaweka mikakati ya wanyama hawa kuishi kwa pamoja na binadamu.
MUHIMU
SPISHI ZA WANYAMA PORI
Picha ya kamera ya tumbili aina ya bonobo (pan paniscus) katika shimo la maji kwenye eneo la mradi la Mai Ndombe REDD+
Picha ya kamera ya ndovu wa msituni (Loxodonta cyclotis) katika mradi wa Mradi wa REDD+ wa Mai Ndombe nchini DRC
Msitu huu wenye ukubwa wa ekari 740,000 kimsingi una miti inayodondosha majani katika vipindi fulani (46%) na (42%) misitu ya kinamasi.
Msitu huu ni nyumbani kwa mti mgumu wa Mwenge (Millettia laurentii), ambao kihistoria ulivutia kampuni kadhaa za viwanda vya kutengeneza mbao. Msitu huu una ukwasi wa viumbe anuwai, huku spishi nyingi za mimea ikiwa bado hazina ufafanuzi wa kisayansi. Timu yetu ya viumbe anuwai bado inaendelea kugundua spishi mpya za mimea na fungi. Ingawa ukanda wa Kongo ni nusu ya msitu wa Amazon, inatumia kiasi maradufu cha hewakaa. Hii inadhaniwa ni kwa sababu ya kuwepo kwa wanyama wakubwa wala nyasi, kama vile ndovu wakubwa, wanaopunguza ushindani wa miti mikubwa inayovuta hewakaa hiyo.
MISITU
MAI NDOMBE FAQ
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ project area comprises two forest concessions along the western shore of Lake Mai Ndombe, totaling over 250,000 ha of rainforest that were actively being logged in the early 2000s. In 2008, following a governmental revision of the DRC National Forest Code, 91 of 156 logging contracts were suspended in an effort to address corruption in the sector. Minimum legal and environmental standards were not being met, which resulted in severe environmental damage. Furthermore, communities in these areas were largely ignored by the logging companies, and received little or no economic benefit.
Two timber concessions extending along the western shore of Lake Mai Ndombe, were among those suspended for review. This suspension was never a permanent cancellation and the subsequent moratorium was only on new logging concessions.
So while the concessions were suspended in February 2010, Ecosystem Restoration Associates (ERA), a Canadian forest restoration company, took the opportunity to submit a formal request to the DRC government to conserve these concessions. The submission proposed something radical for the DRC: using carbon revenues to promote environmental conservation and sustainable development, thereby protecting the area from destructive logging practices, legal and illegal. . This submission was granted under an exception in the new Forest Code that allowed suspended concessions to be awarded without competitive bidding by the logging sector, if the award was of high environmental and community benefit.
ERA then reached out to Wildlife Works to help them design a REDD+ project and we entered a joint venture with ERA to do so. The joint venture was in place until 2014 when Wildlife Works bought out ERA and became the sole operator of the project.
Other suspended forestry concessions were subsequently re-awarded to logging companies. This demonstrates that the forestry concessions that now compose the Mai Ndombe REDD+ project also would’ve been eventually logged.
Wildlife Works does not restrict activities of the communities. Our conservation strategy is founded on holistically partnering with the local communities who choose to protect their surrounding forest by using carbon revenues to fund their self-determined social and economic development plans. Development projects take time to implement and reach all of the communities in the entire project area and zone, especially during the funding gap between project start date and issuance and purchase of credits. Completely stopping deforestation is an unrealistic goal when people live within and around a forest. Decreasing the rate of deforestation in the project area is the expected goal. The project has proven to reduce deforestation against its validated baseline every year since the start of the project because community development investments have helped to curb the communities’ reliance on extraction. Independent, third-party verification audits for this performance period confirm these results. Prior to Wildlife Works’ conservation project, forest elephants hadn’t been seen in the area in decades. Today, the local population has recovered and the project area now supports close to a 100 forest elephants.
Avoiding deforestation under REDD+ projects involves protecting intact forests that are under threat, but that have not yet been cleared. To solve the problem of measuring what would have happened without the project, a reference area must be established to determine the rate that similar areas were deforested. For REDD+ projects, the reference area never overlaps with the project area. This is because the project area, by its very definition, consists of remaining intact forest to be conserved.
For cases of planned deforestation (e.g. logging concessions) the most accurate reference area is likely to be another logging concession operated by the same company in the same general area.
The reference area selected for the Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project was required to meet the following strict criteria:
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It had to be the most recent logging concession, operated by the same logging company that had already operated in the area. Logging companies are not all created equally: those that historically over-harvest and allow others to clear forest within their concession are considered most likely to do so again.
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It had to contain the same amount of forest at the beginning of the historical reference period as the project area concession did at the start of the REDD+project. This helps ensure that the reference area represents the same size of forest as the project area.
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It had to exhibit similar characteristics in terms of commercial tree species composition, landscape topography, access to markets etc. All of these criteria were thoroughly reviewed by the auditor and shown to meet the required level of scientific scrutiny.
The reference area, approximately 600 km southwest of the project area, was selected because it experienced planned commercial harvest similar to what would have occurred in the project accounting area in the baseline scenario. In particular, the logging company SOFORMA was granted a logging concession with boundaries identical to those of the reference area, harvested the merchantable trees, and enabled a cascade of degradation (carried out by secondary agents of deforestation) that led to nearly complete deforestation of the reference area. It should be noted that SOFORMA stands for “La Société Forestière du Mayombe”, and the company was originally formed for the express purpose of logging the Mayombe forest (Thompson and Adloff, 1960). In addition to the planned commercial harvest, the reference area is similar to the project area with respect to ecosystem type, landscape configuration (elevation, slope, etc.), and the socio-economic conditions of local communities. Finally, the reference area is located in the DRC, so the commercial harvest and subsequent logging are subject to the same laws and enforcement as the project area.
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The baseline represents the counterfactual scenario of what would have happened in the absence of the project. Wildlife Works endeavors to reduce projected deforestation based on a scientifically determined and independently audited baseline.
Our project baseline initially reflected the actual annual emissions that occurred in the reference area concession over a 30-year period, which is non-linear: starting slowly when legal logging began, and then accelerating when illegal logging followed and further accelerating as communities cleared the remnant forests after logging was finished in a process now well-known as the “cascade of deforestation.”
The Mai Ndombe project switched to an allocated baseline initially based on the World Bank ER Program for 2021-2023 and then to the National REDD+ program after 2023. Wildlife Works was heavily involved in the design of both of these programs. The result in a different baseline to our originally audited and validated project baseline reflects the difference between the two philosophical approaches to allocating baselines, and in no way reflects the scientific accuracy in the original baseline.
That difference can be summarized as such: project baselines reflect specific local risks to the project forests, based on actual historical deforestation in a nearby reference area. Jurisdictional baselines use an average of historical deforestation across the entire jurisdiction to calculate the jurisdictional baseline.Then a portion of that baseline is allocated to projects nested within the jurisdictional program. Mai Ndombe used a risk-based allocation model. Learn more about risk-based allocation in our DRC Best Practices Guide.
Both approaches use remote sensing. Remote sensing is usually more accurate at the project scale than at larger jurisdictional scale because at the project scale every pixel of forest loss can be identified and manually verified. Larger jurisdictional programs often have to use sampling techniques because it is too expensive and time intensive to assess every pixel in the entire jurisdiction.
Wildlife Works monitors, measures, and reports deforestation everywhere it occurs at the Landsat pixel level (30m x 30m) and deducts any emissions associated with that deforestation from our project performance. The project has been independently verified to have achieved substantial reductions in deforestation against its applicable baseline.
The government of the DRC holds the concessions to the forest. The local communities have customary usage rights to the forest. Wildlife Works has worked with the communities to map traditional community territories.
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project spans 28 villages of various sizes. When the project was being designed 11 years ago, Wildlife Works/ERA Congo obtained written permission from each village, in line with the government’s requirements of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
Wildlife Works’ REDD+ projects follow the Cancun Safeguards for Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), a process protected by international human rights standards that states, ‘all peoples have the right to self-determination’ and ‘all peoples have the right to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.’
Through the FPIC process, communities co-created and signed a document known as the Cahiers de Charge, which states the agreed-upon activities that the project will fund. By signing this document, community members gave their clear consent to develop a REDD+ project in their customary lands. Wildlife Works employees have close communications with community leaders and democratically elected community representatives during the implementation of the project and its activities. This process enables community members to contribute to project design, air grievances, and give or withhold their consent at any point .
There are over 50,000 community members within the project zone, so it should be expected that each village and each individual will have varying degrees of knowledge and direct interaction with the project. Due to limited funding at the start of the project, Wildlife Works was only able to start project activities one village at a time. As project funding grew with credit sales, more villages were able to fund their investment plans. At the end of 2023, all the villages’ Cahiers de Charge have now been fulfilled and the villages’ democratically elected “local carbon committees” are developing plans for future funding. Meanwhile, we have a dedicated and ongoing effort to engage with all community members.. As carbon sales increase, communities will be able to fund more of their own development goals. Stay updated on the latest impacts on the Mai Ndombe project page, signing up for our newsletters and following our social channels.
While the length of the FPIC process can vary due to the nuances of the local culture and government, the initial phases of informing communities about the potential projects take no less than 3 months, and can take up to one year and sometimes more. In the case of Mai Ndombe, the FPIC process took over one year. We believe FPIC is a continuous process, and does not end once communities give their consent for the start of a project. Read more about our continuous, fluid FPIC process here.
Wildlife Works representatives are recognized experts in the FPIC process and co-authored the DRC Best Practices Guide for REDD+ which includes extensive information on the legal and culturally required FPIC process.
For more information about our project development approach, visit Our Process
KASIGAU CORRIDOR
KENYA
Nchini Kenya, mradi wa REDD+ wa Kasigau Corridor hulinda hekari 500,000 za msitu.
ENEO LA KIMAZINGIRA LA AMAZON KOLOMBIA
Katika Eneo la Kimazingira la Kolombia, tuna miradi 3 tunayounda ya kulinda hekari 750,000 ya misitu.
GUNDUA MIRADI YETU MINGINE
ORIGINS
Nearly 300,000 hectares of rainforest along the west side of Lake Mai Ndombe in western DRC was zoned for commercial timber extraction that is highly valued by logging companies. The forest is home to incredible biodiversity and includes some of the most important carbon-rich wetlands in the world. The logging companies largely ignored the rights and health of the 50,000 community members. It brought little or no economic benefit to the local people and drove already threatened wildlife populations down.
In 2008, following a governmental revision of the DRC National Forest Code, 91 of 156 logging contracts were suspended in an effort to address corruption in the sector.
THE PROJECT
Two of these temporarily suspended timber concessions encompassed the rainforest along the western shore of Lake Mai Ndombe. In February 2010, a formal request was made to the DRC government to cease the destructive logging practices and instead use carbon revenues to promote environmental conservation and sustainable development. In 2011, the two concession contracts were successfully reassigned to ERA Congo (the founding project developer) via a Forest Conservation Contract. Today, ERA Congo is a fully owned and operated subsidiary of Wildlife Works managing the Mai Ndombe project under the same agreements with the DRC government.
The communities agreed to partner with Wildlife Works to co-create strategies for improved food security, access to healthcare and education, while maintaining their centuries-long tradition of living in harmony with the forest. Learn more about the impacts, community, wildlife, and forest of this project in the sections below. For detailed information on the verification, third-party validation, and historic issuances of this project, see the useful links section, or explore the Frequently Asked Questions section.