USAID’s Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) works to maintain the ecological integrity of the humid forest ecosystem of the Congo Basin. It strengthens forest management in priority carbon-rich, biologically sensitive, and diverse landscapes across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo (ROC), and the Central African Republic (CAR). U.S. Government assistance also promotes environmental policy reform and forest ecosystems monitoring in six Central African countries (DRC, ROC, CAR, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon). Current activities implemented by NGO and U.S. Government partners focus on protected area management, empowering communities, engaging private sector and strengthening policy and capacity: 

Protected Area Management:

Garamba Chinko Protected Areas Project - African Parks Network

Oct 1, 2016 - Sept 30, 2021; $9,998,650

Strengthens wildlife law enforcement in the protected areas, which in turn improves security for local people.

Garamba National Park in north-east DRC and Chinko Reserve in south-east CAR represent a unique ecosystem on the northern edge of the Congo Basin forest. They support rich biodiversity across a gradation of habitats from forest to savanna, but both have suffered greatly from insecurity over the last 15 years. This activity strengthens law enforcement, builds protected area management capacity, and develops a local and regional constituency in support of conservation.

USAID’s Tulinde mazingira ya Okapi, kwa maendeleo yetu (Protect the Okapi Habitat) Activity - Wildlife Conservation Society

September 18, 2020 – September 17, 2025; $7,000,000

This activity strengthens security in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (OWR), builds effective management of the reserve and law enforcement capacity, and establishes a secure enabling environment to protect its unique biodiversity, especially the remaining population of Okapi, found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project takes a human centered approach by empowering local communities through supporting diversification of income sources and job creation, improving access to education and health services while attracting private investment to sustainably manage the Reserve and the wider landscape. The activity has a particular focus on gender integration and inclusion of the 7,500 indigenous Efe and Mbuti people for whom the OWR is their ancestral home.

Empowering Communities:

Community Based Counter Wildlife Trafficking - African Parks Network

June 18, 2018 - June 29, 2023; $9,998,480

Focuses on conflict-vulnerable communities in north-east DRC and south-east CAR, where unsustainable livelihoods threaten biodiversity. Targets include artisanal miners, pastoralists, and local populations that come into direct conflict, and those engaged in illegal fishing within protected areas. The activity aims to reduce conflicts and develop sustainable livelihoods that support conservation and provide local communities with incentives to support biodiversity conservation.

USAID’ Zamba pona bolamu ya bana mboka/ Msitu juu ya maendeleo yetu” (USAID’ Protect Forest for Community Wellbeing Activity) - Rainforest Foundation UK

September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2025; $4,000,000

The activity works with 20+ communities in Equateur, Maniema and North Kivu provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo to minimize deforestation and to protect biodiversity while providing local communities with improved benefits.through Community Forest Concessions. The activity will support communities to develop concession management plans with agreed limits to logging, to set up forest-friendly cultivation methods (e.g. agroforestry), and support community monitoring of key flora and fauna species. The activity will consolidate and scale up progress made to date supporting an enabling institutional and policy environment while building the capacity of stakeholders to support the Community Forest Concessions process. 

Engaging the private sector:

Tourism Expansion in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of the Congo - Wildlife Conservation Society

April 9, 2020 - April 8, 2024; $5,500,000

Strengthens the management of the Noubalé-Ndoki National Park and develops community constituencies in support of biodiversity and forest conservation through leveraging private sector resources to promote green economic development. This activity will set the Park on the path to its own Journey to Self-Reliance, while enhancing local communities’ socio-economic incentives (through nature-based tourism, job creation and livelihood diversification) for biodiversity conservation and reduced deforestation.

USAID’s Soso Pona Moto Nyonso (Chicken for everyone) Activity in the Republic of the Congo - Wildlife Conservation Society

September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2024; $3,000,000

This project develops local communities’ constituencies for wildlife protection in the northern Republic of the Congo by providing a sustainable source of animal protein, creating jobs, increasing household revenues, and enhancing their social and economic wellbeing. The activity leverages private sector resources to address the unsustainable harvesting of bushmeat, one of the major threats to biodiversity in the area, and advances the country’s economic development objectives by improving the enabling conditions (i.e. access to finance and market) for rural communities to engage in alternative livelihood activities.

USAID’ Gesi ni nishati kwa kila mtu (Gas is affordable alternatives to charcoal Project) Activity - BBOXX Capital DRC

September 30, 2020 – September 30, 2023; $2,999,630

The project promotes private-sector led solutions that decrease charcoal-led deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions by replacing charcoal with Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), which in turn improve the health of thousands of people, primarily women, by reducing the inhalation of fumes caused by charcoal cooking. The project aims at providing 15,000 households and small businesses with clean and affordable cooking alternatives in the south sector of Virunga National Park in East Democratic Republic of Congo where charcoal production is responsible for 91% of deforestation and, averting 40,000 mt equivalent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. 

Policy and Capacity Building:

Forest Resource Management - U.S. Forest Service

June 15, 2015 - May 31, 2025 ; $13,414,387.00

This project aims at providing technical support focused on sustainable forest management through a variety of activities, including training workshops, short-term technical assistance, long-term technical and policy support, and the development and use of tools and best practice approaches for effective policy-level decision-making to conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable landscapes in Central Africa.

USAID’s Forest and Biodiversity Support Activity (FABS) - Tetra Tech Inc

August 11, 2020 – August 10, 2025; $24,900,000

FABS assists environmental actors in the Congo Basin to implement strategies and actions that address the large-scale threats to biodiversity conservation and forest management. FABS pursues policy reforms and institutional strengthening objectives related to conservation and forest management while also training and providing tools to government agencies and local organizations to shape issues at a national and regional scale in Central Africa. FABS also increases the engagement of the private sector in developing green enterprises (ecotourism, etc.) which support biodiversity and forest conservation.