Multinational - Conservation Concession in Equateur Province, DRC

This pilot project proposes to create a 485,000 ha Conservation Concession in Equateur Province, DRC, by converting a former timber concession to conservation and sustainable natural resource management. The project links together two innovative approaches - conservation concessions and community conservation agreements - for which Conservation International Foundation (CIF) has a proven record of success in other rainforest countries, and brings them to Central Africa where they have not yet been implemented. The project will design two legal contracts, the first between the Management Group (MG) and the government modeled on a standard timber sales agreement, and a second between local stakeholders with customary forest use rights and the MG, which will commit the former to specific conservation outcomes in exchange for a steady stream of benefits. With the participation of local communities, the 32 month project will prepare and implement a legal contractual framework, a management plan, and a financing plan (with investors identified from the emerging carbon market) to implement the first conservation concession in DRC.