Sweeping across lowlands, dormant volcanoes and high mountains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kahuzi-Biega National Park is a sanctuary for wildlife species found nowhere else on earth, many of them endangered. However, a history of eviction, exclusion and punishment has left local Indigenous Peoples alienated from conservation efforts in the park. The local Church has a unique opportunity to transform these fractured relationships, as the vast majority of locals are practising Christians. As A Rocha DR Congo begins a new project in the region, it is catalyzing this opportunity and taking a community-centred approach to conservation.
Established in 1970, Kahuzi-Biega National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in South Kivu. It is home to many charismatic species such as Eastern Lowland Gorillas, Bongo Antelopes, Bush Elephants, Dwarf Buffaloes, Congo Peafowl and, most notably, Grauer’s Gorillas Gorilla beringei graueri, the world’s largest primate. The national park provides crucial ecosystem services such as climate regulation, water conservation and soil preservation, not only locally but for the entire Congo Basin and the planet.Â
This vital ecosystem now faces intense pressure, which can be linked to the historic exclusion of Indigenous Peoples from the park’s management, combined with rapid population growth and poverty. Threats include deforestation for charcoal, slash-and-burn agriculture, poaching, illegal mining and insecurity caused by armed groups. These pressures destroy ecosystems, pollute water sources, jeopardize food security and impoverish communities. In the current top-down approach to conservation, both people and the landscape are suffering. Transformative action is needed to reconcile conservation with the well-being of the human populations neighbouring the park.
A Vicious Cycle of Economic, Agricultural and Health Crises
A Rocha DR Congo envisions a community of engaged eco-citizens around the park. However, long-standing injustices have forced many into desperate situations. When Kahuzi-Biega National Park was established and expanded, thousands of local Batwa Indigenous Peoples were evicted from its boundaries. Forced to settle on the park’s periphery, they face extreme land insecurity.Â
While surveying communities surrounding the park, A Rocha DR Congo found that the Batwa community harbours a sense of injustice and frustration linked to the loss of their cultural identity, their forest-based livelihoods and their traditional land management practices. During one of A Rocha DR Congo’s focus groups, an Indigenous leader expressed the following:
“For us, the Batwa of Kalonge, the forest is not just a collection of trees to be fenced off; it is our home, our own living environment, which has been taken away from us by the state. Imagine being evicted from your own hut and then being told that you no longer have the right to enter it. That is exactly how we feel about the park’s current boundaries. Yet this forest is our nurturing mother, our pharmacy and our traditional homeland. It is there that our elders used to gather medicinal plants, find our food, breathe pure oxygen, draw crystal-clear waterand perform rituals. It is also there that we practised Busingo, that ancestral knowledge which enables us to produce and light fire using the elements of nature. Busingo was not about destruction; it was the symbol of our alliance with the forest. Today, the fire of Busingo is gradually dying out, and with it, our culture. The impact is profound and painful: we are currently deprived of our natural habitat. We have been turned into spectators of our own land, when we used to be its guardians.”
As many of the Indigenous Peoples surveyed around the park do not own land (52%), they depend on private landowners in order to farm. This land is often leased on a short-term sharecropping basis, which forces farmers – most of whom are women – to over-exploit their small patches of land season after season, leading to a decline in soil fertility. As it is impossible to expand their agricultural land legally, many resort to exploiting the park’s free and accessible resources.
The obligation to pay high rent traps farmers in an unsolvable economic equation, keeping them below the extreme poverty line. Chronic food insecurity follows, leading to alarming health consequences. For instance, two out of three children in the village of Mule suffer from Kwashiorkor, a form of severe protein-energy malnutrition. While A Rocha DR Congo was conducting its community surveys, South Kivu experienced a resurgence of Ebola virus disease, highlighting the urgent need to address the root causes of these health crises.
Humans and Wildlife Depend on a Healthy Ecosystem
Historically, institutions have regarded Batwa Indigenous Peoples as marginalized and illiterate populations. In reality, a large proportion of their population has completed secondary and higher education. The Batwa population is fully aware of its ancestral rights to the forest, and they understand complex issues of biodiversity, conservation and environmental justice. However, opportunities for formal employment in and around Kahuzi-Biega National Park are virtually non-existent. Though illegal, subsistence practices in the park have become necessary for many people’s survival.
A Rocha DR Congo’s surveys revealed that the local Indigenous community appreciates the national park’s vital role in conserving forests, protecting wild animals and serving as a potential opportunity for tourism. Culturally, gorillas, snakes and leopards are highly respected, and their protection is supported by the community.
Indigenous communities also showed a keen, practical understanding of the ecosystem services provided by the park’s forest. Farmers directly link forest loss to local climate disruption, particularly reduced rainfall. They explained how this has resulted in declining harvests, drying water sources, and increasing animal diseases in livestock. Batwa Indigenous Peoples understand the vital link between the park’s conservation and their own agricultural survival, but in the current system, they are driven by extreme necessity to exploit the park’s resources. A Rocha DR Congo seeks to build on this knowledge and provide practical solutions to restore both the forest and community trust in its governing bodies.Â
A Spiritual, Practical and Community-Centred Approach to Conservation
The communities surrounding Kahuzi-Biega National Park do not exploit it out of ignorance or greed, but out of extreme necessity. A holistic approach is needed, and A Rocha DR Congo has identified the local church as a unique venue for transforming this situation. In the Kalongecommunity, which borders the park, the Church is not merely a place of worship; it is a stable, highly influential institution with the power to mobilize social change. 98% of the local population is religious and practising (mostly Protestant and Catholic), making church engagement the most effective way to deliver environmental education.
These churches are also unique spaces for inclusion. The local Batwa community is overwhelmingly Christian and integrated into the same religious networks as the non-Indigenous local communities. While land disputes and historical exclusion surrounding the park often create significant social tensions between these groups, church pews remain one of the few places where people of different backgrounds can come together in a spirit of fraternal equality.
Catholic parishes and Protestant churches in Kalonge offer a neutral venue for dialogue. Within the Church, environmental education can be framed not as a constraint imposed by the park but as a shared spiritual responsibility. Creation care theology is still uncommon in DRC churches, so this initiative from A Rocha will be the first of its kind in the region. Other influential channels for environmental education include Kalonge Community Radio, schools and community associations, which provide ideal spaces for building trust and raising awareness.
To break the cycle of poverty and deforestation around the park, A Rocha DR Congo also aims to implement a green development initiative focused on sustainable livelihoods:
- Agroecological Farming: Establishing small, high-yield vegetable gardens through community-led farmer training, with a strong focus on empowering local women.
- Community Agroforestry: Planting fast-growing species on household farms and bare land to generate income, establish community forests and reduce illegal tree cutting for charcoal.
- Sustainable Livelihoods: Introducing beekeeping and small livestock to diversify household incomes and improve nutrition without exploiting park resources.
Because a large proportion of the population farms land they do not own, they are also less inclined to invest in long-term sustainable practices. The Batwa, in particular, are excluded from private forestry and confined to purely subsistence farming. The green development programme A Rocha envisions will promote land security for farmers by offering incentives and negotiating long-term leases with private landowners. By securing land rights for community farmers, we can break the cycle of dependency.
Institutional changes to how the park is governed are also needed. Often, environmental management at Kahuzi-Biega National Park is top-down and exclusionary, and community trust in park management is exceptionally low. The vast majority of community members told A Rocha DR Congo that they are not sufficiently involved in decision-making. A Rocha advocates for conservation approaches grounded in social equity, which engage the Batwa Indigenous minority and other local community members as co-management partners at every step of the process. While men have historically dominated decision-making, women are the primary drivers of subsistence farming. Because they work the land daily, truly inclusive governance will engage women, as well.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, protecting precious wildlife and ecosystems need not come at the cost of human flourishing. By grounding conservation in the socio-economic, environmental and cultural realities of Indigenous Peoples, A Rocha DR Congo is helping cultivate a future where nature and humanity thrive together.
