Two new PROFEAAC practical guides

The project is being carried out with funding from the French Global Environment Facility (FGEF) and coordinated by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The overall aim of the project is to reduce the degradation of rural forests in Central Africa by formalising and rationalising small-scale timber harvesting, based on pilot experiments carried out in the DRC and Cameroon.

Component 2 of the project, "Development of local measures for the regeneration and reforestation of woody species and agroforestry", is being implemented by the Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) in the DRC, in the Yalikandja-Yanonge sector in the Territory of Isangi (Tshopo province). In all, more than 200 forest restoration volunteers from eight villages have been trained to build a tree nursery, produce forest and fruit seedlings and reforest areas over which they have customary rights. The choice of tree species and reforestation sites was made by the volunteers. The project provided technical support to the volunteers and supplied the equipment needed to build the nursery, produce the seedlings and plant them.

The two guides, "Nursery production of forest and fruit seedlings in Central Africa" and "Forest restoration in Central Africa" were published in three languages, Lingala, Swahili and French. The guides were illustrated by cartoonist François Ntangu Kibuaka, known as "Targou", with whom CIRAD had already collaborated on the production of practical guides for the Makala project (2009-2014). These guides are available to all and may be shared, copied, reproduced and distributed, except for commercial purposes, without modification and in their entirety.