Writing for Mongabay.com” Jeremy Hance reports on a new initiative that Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) is spearheading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that aims to advance tenure security for some of the country’s indigenous communities.

RFUK has trained 66 so-called ‘Master Mappers’ to assist more than 500 Congolese villagers in using GPS technology to map their communities’ forestlands and identify important points within their territories like villages” sacred places” and hunting grounds. The rationale behind the initiative is that the maps provide a basis for strengthening tenure security in a country where forest peoples’ land rights have historically been precarious. From 1996-1997″ and then again from 1998-2003″ civil war raged in the DRC” ravaging the Congo rainforest” the world’s second largest. Now” the rainforest that was once exploited by armed combatants to the DRC’s civil wars is under siege by domestic industry and international logging interests. According to Rene Ngongo” a representative from a local NGO” “What is at stake is enormous. Two-thirds of the people in Congo depend on this forest to provide food” medicines and building materials. It is critical for the survival of people and animals.”

The absence of formal documentation attesting to indigenous land claims is part of the reason why the DRC government and the governments of other countries like it have left forest peoples out of the processes that determine policy for managing forestland. The RFUK initiative in the DRC seeks to remedy this problem. Cath Long” the RFUK Project Director envisions that the villagers’ maps “will be a vital tool for the communities to negotiate with the government. It will allow them to demonstrate that they are there” and that they need to be taken into account when decisions are made about the forest they live in.”

The indigenous communities’ maps are scheduled to be ready for inclusion in a May 8 meeting where DRC government officials will consider potentially far-reaching forest policy decisions for the country. Unlike in the past” these decisions will now be made with input from the forest peoples whose livelihoods are most at stake.

Read the article in its entirety here.