London, 12th January 2016 - Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) has officially joined the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP). By so doing, RFUK has submitted the required documentation and agrees to abide by the cooperation framework of CBFP members to advance sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa. RFUK’s work and approach fall squarely in line with the CBFP Cooperation Framework, as they share the belief that the well-being of local peoples and the protection and sustainable management of the Congo Basin rainforest are inextricably linked. RFUK also seeks to contribute to capacity building and enhanced participation of local civil society and believes that producing and sharing high quality information (such as community  mapping and monitoring data or a  range of specialised publications) is essential to informing better policy and disseminating good practice in the region.

Therefore, by becoming a CBFP member, RFUK  believes that its organisation, with more than 20 years’ experience working in the Congo Basin in support of forest  peoples’  rights,  would  contribute  to  the  objectives  of  the  Partnership  in  many positive ways, which are described below.

• Since the early 1990s, RFUK has been working in five countries of the Congo Basin – Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon – implementing projects at the regional, national and local levels.  Their  mission  is  “to support indigenous peoples and traditional populations of the world's rainforests in their efforst to protect their environment and fulfil their rights to land, life and livelihood.“
• Their concrete efforts towards this mission include: the largest-scale participatory mapping exercise ever carried out in the region, across the five countries and which is currently being expanded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)  and Cameroon (please visit www.MappingforRights.org for more information). Their projects also include legal capacity building and support for forest communities; research and advocacy related to sustainability and rights; specific policy advocacy and support for indigenous peoples; participatory   land   use   planning   exercises;   and a t community-   based   real-time   forest monitoring initiative called ForestLink. RFUK is based in London with their projects implemented in partnership with a number of Central African NGOs. This approach enables the organisation to pursue their cross-cutting objective of building the capacity of local civil society organisations.

RFUK’s projects also contribute to the advancement of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan. Some examples of their contributions related to their research and mapping activities, as they relate to axis 2, “Resource knowledge and inventory” and 8, “Research”; their participatory land use planning initiatives under axis 3, “Ecosystem management”; their monitoring projects which contribute to axis 5, “Sustainable use of forest resources”; and their general approach by which all their projects include a strong “Capacity development and training” component as provided under axis 7 of the Plan.

In addition to RFUK‘s active partnerships with local NGOs in the Congo Basin, the organisation maintains very active collaboration with several CBFP members. In particular, RFUK‘s work benefits from financial support from the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States and from the European Commission. RFUK also has partnerships with non-governmental members such as the World Resources Institute and maintain a close dialogue with organisations such as WWF, AWF, CI and WCS. In addition, RFUK collaborates with governments at the national and local levels in several ways, including by providing training on forest governance issues such as mapping and forest peoples’ rights; and feeding into the formulation and implementation of laws and policies such as community forests in DRC and Central African Republic (CAR), the Indigenous Peoples’ law in the Republic of Congo, land use planning in Cameroon and benefit sharing mechanisms in Gabon. RFUK would be happy to provide more details about these initiatives if necessary.

In summary, RFUK’s track record and approach would represent a very positive contribution to the CBFP.

Welcome to our New Partner "Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK)!”

For more Information, please see contact persons that have been appointed to follow up on this matter at RFUK namely Research and Policy Coordinator Joe Eisen (joe@rainforesuk.org),  and Policy Advisor Maud Salber (mauds@rainforesruk.org), and consult the Official website of the " Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK)