Sustainable Forest Management, Biodiversity and Livelihoods: a good Practice Guide

GOOD PRACTICES

• Pygmy communities use GPS and community radio to protect cultural sites (Congo)
•  
•   

• CASE STUDY

• Source: CTA 2008
•  

• GOOD PRACTICES

• Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB) manages a 1.3 million hectare area of Congolese forest home to 9,000 Mbendjele Pygmies.
• Standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) require CIB to protect ‘sites of special cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance to indigenous peoples’.
• Such information can only come directly from the Mbendjeles, who are dispersed throughout the forest, and most do not speak any European languages.
• The “Indigenous People’s Voices project” allows the Mbendjeles to plot significant forest areas using a geographic information system (GIS), which are then accounted for in CIB’s harvesting plans.
• Using GIS and radio technology, the Mbendjele keep each other informed about areas to be protected and areas to be logged, thereby helping them protect their land and culture.

•