This handbook recounts the support provided by GRET for the creation of an agroforestry perimeter in the province of Haut-Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the way in which the perimeter’s governance has been structured. In response to growing pressure on the miombo ecosystem, which has been degraded by urbanisation, charcoal production and slash-and-burn agriculture, and to the difficulty faced by households to generate decent income through dominant agricultural production systems, in 2012 GRET and its partners, the Belgian NGO Nature+ and the Centre de promotion du paysannat (CPP), launched a project to create a 2,000 hectare agroforestry perimeter. This handbook explains how the evolution of GRET’s strategy from a “turnkey” project logic to a commonsbased approach enabled farmers to take ownership of the perimeter’s governance.
It also examines how a development operator can drive a commons-based dynamic from an initially exogenous proposal. Intended for associations, NGOs and donors promoting initiatives around commons, this document focuses on lessons learned that can be useful for continuing the dynamic undertaken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and for designing and implementing similar approaches in other contexts.
