Towards a community-based concession model in the DRC

In 2014 Decree 14/018 laying down the rules for granting forest concessions to local communities, followed by Ministerial Order 0/25 on the same issue, was published in the DRC. This paper aims to analyse the abovementioned legislation with respect to participatory management of forests. The explicit recognition of the duality of a customary de facto local community forest and a modern legal entity (concession) is an innovation. However, viewed from the perspective of the long-established habits within the country, the question remains whether these legal measures can be sufficient for ensuring the sustainable development of these community-held forested areas. Allowing community concessions up to 50,000 ha demonstrated a shift in the government policy away from the industrial timber cultivation model. However, an area this size is much larger than the communities can monitor, particularly in the case of artisanal charcoal or wood exploitation.