* Mha = million hectares
In DRC, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have 226,149 hectares of forestland designated for their use as of July 2018; 56,149 hectares of this was recognized in the first half of 2018. [Source: RRI 2018 (At a Crossroads)]
No land was recognized for Indigenous Peoples and local communities as of 2015. [Source: RRI 2015 (A Global Baseline)]
DRC voted for the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, but does not officially recognize Indigenous Peoples. DRC has not ratified ILO Convention 169.
Secure community land rights are an intrinsic component of poverty alleviation goals and the achievement of national and global economic development goals.
Almost a third of the world’s population manages and depends on community-held lands. Land use by rural communities is more sustainable, benefits more people, and generates better environmental outcomes than large-scale plantations and extractive projects. Secure community rights are therefore vital to poverty reduction and sustainable development. [Source: RRI 2017 (Securing Community Land Rights)]
Where Indigenous Peoples and local communities have secure rights, climate outcomes improve: deforestation rates are lower and carbon storage higher.
Globally, Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage at least 17 percent (nearly 300 billion metric tons) of the total carbon stored in the forestlands of assessed countries—a global estimate that is 5 times greater than shown in a previous analysis of aboveground tropical forest carbon, and equivalent to 33 times the global energy emissions of 2017. [Source: RRI et al. 2018 (A Global Baseline of Carbon Storage in Collective Lands)]
In DRC, 0.07 billion metric tons of aboveground, belowground, and soil carbon is stored in forestlands that are legally owned or designated for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 19 billion metric tons of aboveground, belowground, and soil carbon is stored in forestlands that are collectively held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities but not legally recognized. [Source: RRI et al. 2018 (A Global Baseline of Carbon Storage in Collective Lands)]
Vast amounts of carbon stored in DRC’s community forestlands are under- or undocumented, as the full extent of lands held by indigenous and local communities in DRC remains unknown. [Source: RRI et al. 2018 (A Global Baseline of Carbon Storage in Collective Lands)]
Indigenous and community women’s land and forest rights are crucial for the achievement of global development goals.
According to a legal analysis of 30 low- and middle-income countries, governments are not respecting indigenous and rural women’s tenure rights and are failing to meet international obligations to do so. Countries reviewed in Africa (11 countries) provide the most consistent affirmation of women’s property rights and greatest recognition of women’s community-level dispute-resolution rights, but they also afford indigenous and community women the weakest community-level inheritance and voting rights. [Source: RRI 2017, Power and Potential]
National law in DRC affirms equal rights to property for men and women (Art. 9 of Law No. 15/013 of 2015). [Source: RRI 2017, Power and Potential]
Insecure land rights can result in conflicts that threaten sustainable + inclusive economic development as well as corporate profits.
According to a case study on tenure conflict conducted in Africa by RRI and TMP Systems, 63% of private sector land and natural resource investment disputes on the continent began when communities were forced to leave their territories. In more than two-thirds of the cases, there was a significant labor stoppage or legal intervention, demonstrating that tenure-related conflicts affect investors financially and significantly on several occasions. [Source: RRI and TMP Systems 2017, Tenure and Investment in Africa]
Insecure land rights are driving conflict, insecurity, and a human rights crisis.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 8 land and environmental defenders were reported killed in 2018, out of 14 total reported killings in Africa (this low number may be due to a shortage of evidence from the region). [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]