Where does your support go?
Because the challenges here are not singular, we don't do just one thing.
It takes work on several fronts to crystalize into lasting, systemic change.
If you want to be part of our projects, contact us to talk about it.
You've helped us accomplish...
Trees planted
Chiefdoms served
Hectares of land protected
Community forests secured
And continued work through our projects below will help Grauer's gorilla, other species, and human communities live together and thrive.
Gorilla habitat connectivity
Grauer's gorillas live on a landscape that spans both Maiko and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks, and the Itombwe and Tayna Reserves.
These protected spaces are interrupted by many unprotected tracts of land.
We have worked with dozens of communities to create protected corridors linking these places through community-based management and governance schemes, but more are needed.
Generational poverty
Our programs aim to end sustained, generational poverty.
We do this through education, skills training, job creation, and land ownership initiatives.
Communities can create opportunities where there were none by engaging in conservation.
So they see a future of possibilities.
Reforestation and community-based forest management
To date we have planted almost a million trees around Kahuzi-Biega National Park, reforesting more than 2,000 ha of land.
We plant agroforestry trees with fuelwood species to improve soil conditions, food security, and reduce pressure on the park. With the only increase in Grauer's populations occurring in this region of Kahuzi-Biega, this work proves that agroforestry is good for people and conservation.
We are helping local communities learn and administer these and other science-based approaches in their traditional homes.
Communities & their traditional lands
Traditional knowledge once meant a peaceful, fulfilling life in nature. And it can again.
Over the last decade, Community Forest Law in the DRC made it possible for communities interested in conservation to apply for land tenure. So they can live in and be stewards of their traditional homes.
We work alongside these communities to help them succeed and thrive.