This story excerpt was translated from French. To read the original story in full, visit Journal Karibu. You may also view the original story on the Rainforest Journalism Fund website here. Our website is available in English, Spanish, bahasa Indonesia, French, and Portuguese.
DRC, Tshopo, Isangi territory— Straddling the Congo River, the Yangambi landscape is well known for the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve, 25,000 hectares of forest located in the town of the same name downstream from the Congo River, one hundred kilometers from Kisangani. For ten years, environmental organizations have been flocking there to fight against deforestation. Long and short term projects for farmers' economic activities to reduce their dependence on forests. In the wake of this, we have seen the arrival of a series of organizations characterized by their method and their very long-term vision.
With the support of the Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF) in partnership with the Pulitzer Center, reporters Orphée Fundi and Jean Fundi Kiparamoto, armed with pen, tape recorder, and camera, set off for Yangambi, the El Dorado. The motorcycle cabs arrive in the evening at the Beach of Yangambi. At the parking lot, everyone knows the Base Vie camp where they have many clients. The camp is located behind the convent Marie de l'Assomption. The land had offered since 2017 by Catholic priests. At present, it is offices and prefabricated houses under the shade of 5ha covered with trees, where the workers of CIFOR-ICRAF and RSD live: foresters, mechanics, cleaners, cooks, electricians, logisticians, sensitizers, machine operators.
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From Yangambi, reporters will cover the village of Yaoseko, further southeast of Yangambi, 32 km from Kisangani, where Tropenbos DRC works; Yanonge and the town of Isangi and surrounding areas, where OCEAN and PRAPO had operated, and where Jadora-Isangi REDD+, CIFOR, and Enabel also operate. It is respectively 62 km and 100 km from Kisangani. Here is the first part of this multimedia report.