Kinshasa, April 3rd, 2025 (CPA) – The efforts made by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the elaboration of the national forestry policy (ONF) with the involvement of all stakeholders, were hailed on Wednesday at the opening of a seminar, held from April 2nd to 3rd in Kinshasa, the country’s capital.
‘The current efforts to elaborate the national forestry policy after so many years is a strong signal and a determination from the Government through the Ministry in charge of the Environment and Sustainable Development, by mobilising all stakeholders for a successful process’, has declared Bienvenu Ngoy, coordinator of the Forestry Working Group (FWG).
‘By organising this seminar, we want to mobilise representative stakeholders, including local communities and indigenous peoples, to build a common understanding of the process of developing national forest policy in DRC, by contributing to the practice of knowledge management’, has declared Bienvenue Ngoy, coordinator of the Forest Working Group (FWG).
The two-day seminar is being supported by RRI, an American NGO, and is aimed at sharing information and exchanging views on the process, so that the next steps can be envisaged with greater inclusiveness and synergy of action on the policy document, the current version of draft 01, the roadmap, the methodology and the next steps on provincial consultations, he has said. DRC has been engaged in a process of forestry reform since August 2002, the year of the promulgation of the Forestry Code, which has indeed introduced a number of innovations, notably the official recognition of local community forests and the obligation for the government to elaborate a Forestry Policy in accordance with articles 4 and 5 of the Forestry Code. However, despite the fact that the Forestry Code obliges the government to elaborate a Forestry Policy with the participation of all stakeholders to improve the management of forest resources, more than 22 years later, the Forestry Policy has still not been adopted, it is recalled.