Resources
Communities

  • Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are actors and beneficiaries of conservation efforts. They contribute directly or indirectly, as staff or partners, through consultations held as part of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent processes, and benefit from employment opportunities and economic activities, as well as social benefits. 

    Photo credit : Scott Ramsay
  • Education is essential for any community. In the villages surrounding Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, the park has supported the construction of schools and the employment of teachers to ensure access to primary education. 

    Photo credit : Scott Ramsay
  • Rivers play a key role in life in the heart of the Congo Basin’s forest, serving as transport and trade routes as well as sources of protein and income. 

    Photo credit : Thomas Nicolon
  • The swamp forests of northern Congo are home to an endemic species of dwarf crocodiles that are prized by communities. Easy to hunt, they can be transported alive to be sold or traded without risk of the meat spoiling. 

    Photo credit : Thomas Nicolon
  • Conservation efforts draw on communities' unparalleled traditional knowledge of ecosystems, which is passed down from one generation to the next around the campfire. The practical application of this knowledge in support of conservation values this intangible heritage and encourages its preservation. 

    Photo credit : Scott Ramsay
  • The Indigenous Peoples of the Congo Basin’s forest make perfect use of the forest, in which they hunt and gather everything they need for their subsistence and medicine, in a traditionally semi-nomadic lifestyle. 

    Photo credit : Scott Ramsay
  • An indigenous BaAka woman builds a shelter out of marantaceae leaves, which will remain waterproof for weeks before drying and needing to be rebuilt. 

    Photo credit : Scott Ramsay
  • With paint and raffia skirts, these indigenous dancers follow the rhythms of traditional percussion instruments on International Indigenous Peoples' Day, celebrated every August 9 in the village of Bomassa, on the edge of which lies the headquarters of Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. 

    Photo credit : Clément Kolopp
  • Guns have replaced the spears, crossbows, and nets traditionally used, facilitating subsistence hunting but also the poaching of protected species. Poaching has also benefited from the increase in access roads built for logging, which have made areas with high animal densities increasingly accessible. 

    Photo credit : Brent Stirton
  • Woven baskets are used to transport wood and crops, as seen here in a cassava field, from which both the leaves and tubers are consumed. 

    Photo credit : Scott Ramsay