Investing in innovative approaches to advance peacebuilding in Burundi’s Kibira National Park

??Fernand Nigere/COH?Nursery preparation: community members in Kayanza filling pot made with banana leaves with soil to plant the seeds.

13 September 2023

To help create the conditions for lasting peace in Burundi, the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) is supporting an innovative blended financing project that aims to transform the Kibira National Park – historically used as a rear base by various regional armed groups – into a safer home for its communities and a green, catalytic resource for the country’s sustainable development. The project’s multifaceted approach combines peacebuilding, conservation, and economic development to accelerate the country’s transition toward long-lasting peace through nature-based solutions.

In north-western Burundi, the Kibira National Park constitutes a vital part of the greater Albertine Rift montane forest ecoregion. The region supports a population exceeding half a million, including an estimated 80,000 indigenous Batwa people, widely recognized as the first inhabitants of the country’s forests. It hosts around 644 plant species, 98 mammal species and 200 bird species. The Park also plays serves as a crucial water catchment area, fostering favorable climatic conditions for agricultural activities. It also carries enormous, but still untapped, potential for greater agricultural and sustainable energy production and commercialization at the national level.? ?

The forest’s biodiversity, location and cover have also made the park particularly attractive to various regional armed groups operating in border areas between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda. Prior to 2019, such groups used the Park for escape routes after attacks, as training grounds and to source fresh water, food, medicine and illicit goods, including bush meat, gold, or wood, to fuel their operations and perpetuate cycles of conflict in the region. While the Government elected in 2020 has largely regained control of the forest, residual groups are still active in the Ruzizi plain and continue to use the corridors between Kibira and other national parks in the region. They illegally exploit the forest for timber, fuelwood, bamboo, gold or bush meat, depriving communities of their sources of livelihoods or co-opting them into illegal trafficking and exposing them to violence. Without action, the illegal exploitation of the forest will threaten its biodiversity, jeopardize the security of its communities and prevent the sustainable, legitimate exploitation of its resources for the benefit of its communities and the national economy.

In collaboration with the Government of Burundi, UNCDF and local stakeholders are implementing an innovative project funded by the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). This project aims to improve the security and social cohesion of the forest communities, strengthen their active involvement in forest management and facilitate the sustainable use of the forest’s unique assets, generating financial returns that can be strategically re-invested into economic development. ??

The project has created a dedicated foundation, the Kibira Foundation, co-managed by the Government, with participation from forest communities. Following the signing of the 10-year co-management agreement, the Kibira Foundation became the first private foundation authorized by the Government to execute community and conservation projects within the Park. His Excellency, President ?variste Ndayishimiye, has endorsed the selection of founding local members of the Foundation, led by the Honourable Imelde Sabushimike, Minister of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender, who is the first Twa-indigenous woman elected to the national government.

Under this co-management model, the Government, through l’Office Burundais pour la Protection de l’Environnement, oversees the deployment of eco-guards in the park, largely recruited from forest communities themselves. This has helped improve security for communities, strengthen the state’s presence in the park and serve as a disincentive for armed groups to occupy these spaces. At the same time, the Foundation is working to secure additional resources for the Park and to develop public-private partnerships.

Through funding provided to Communities of Hope (COH), a Burundian NGO, the project has also undertaken reforestation and restoration activities that provide livelihood to local communities while undoing part of the damage done by illegal timber and fuelwood harvesting. 700 local individuals have participated in planting initiatives and a total of 161,000 plants have been cultivated through community nurseries. Furthermore, support has been extended to 122 Batwa people, including 64 women, aiding them in acquiring formal land rights for housing and agricultural pursuits, strengthening the rights of indigenous communities and empowering them as key guardians of the forest and its resources.

??Fernand Nigere/COH?Community members in Kayanza filling beds with Japanese plum seeds.

“The project is empowering the Batwa people and contributing to improving their livelihood. Like most of the members of the Batwa community, I was mainly relying on Bamboo harvesting in the Kibira for my livelihood. Thanks to the project, I have been involved in restoration activities and with the payment received I procured potato seeds. I am now farming even though agriculture is not part of the traditional activities of Batwa. I am expecting financial return to send my children back to school and cater for the daily needs of my family,” said Patrice Banyusura, a 50-year-old Mutwa from Muciro.

The project is also investing $1.5 million in a hydropower public-private partnership initiative selected by the Government of Burundi, which could help the country transition away from unsustainable charcoal reliance while meeting the growing electricity demand. The investment seeks to establish a virtuous cycle: the returns generated by the hydropower facility will be re-invested into the Kibira Foundation, ensuring support for sustainable park management, peacebuilding and social cohesion activities.

Hon. Imelde Sabushimike said, “since the start of the Kibira Project, we have been delighted with the remarkable work of UNCDF, OPBE and COH. The project is allowing the rehabilitation of the Rwegura hydro-power facilities, destroyed during the war in the nineties, and strengthening the livelihoods of the Kibira communities, including the most vulnerable people like the Batwa.”

“The project has provided a financial contribution to our association as part of our active participation in restoration activities. With this contribution, we decided to create a savings and loan mechanism to support our members. We also provided support to each member to build their own income-generating activities. We are happy that each member bought at least one goat. My husband and I bought a cow, a pig, and a sheep to start our livestock activities,” said Astérie Bimenyimana, President of ABAGENZI B'IBIDUKIKIJE community association.

As the project enters its next phase, it will continue to invest in the link between community security, social cohesion and sustainable economic development from initiatives that strengthen conservation and sustainable exploitation of the forest’s resources. $2.25 million in additional funding have already been secured from the UN’s new Nature Finance Facility, thanks to funding from Cartier for Nature – a philanthropic initiative for biodiversity by the Maison Cartier. This contribution will scale up grassroots conservation efforts carried out by the Kibira Foundation. It will facilitate the recruitment of 100 eco-guards, the protection of 500 endangered chimpanzees, the creation of sustainable livelihoods for 3,000 Batwa households and the provision of diverse economic prospects such as agroforestry, restoration, artisan production for at least 20,000 people.

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