For the first time, Congolese NGO to manage a DRC protected area

For the first time in the DRC's modern history, a Congolese NGO will co-manage a protected area: Strong Roots takes on the Itombwe Nature Reserve in South Kivu for the next decade under a public-private deal, with the Congolese Wildlife Authority retaining oversight.

Founder Dominique Bikaba, himself from a community once evicted for another park, says the group's decade of work building a million-hectare community forestry corridor near Kahuzi-Biega earned the government's trust. The reserve, created in 2006, spans 760,000 hectares and shelters nearly 600 bird species and the critically endangered Grauer's gorilla.

The area also sees clashes involving M23, Wazalendo and Mai-Mai armed groups, and Strong Roots plans to recruit local patrol members and move away from militarized enforcement toward community-based conservation.

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