Protected area stewardship

Protected area stewardship is central to our work across the Congo Basin and Central Africa. The Greater Virunga Landscape and the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor are our first protected area priorities chosen for their exceptional ecological significance, the scale of the challenges they face, and the opportunity to support partners already doing critical work on the ground.

The Greater Virunga Landscape

Spanning the borderlands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda along the Albertine Rift, the Greater Virunga Landscape is among the most biologically significant transboundary ecosystems remaining on Earth. Its mosaic of volcanic mountains, tropical forests, savannas, wetlands, and freshwater lakes — including Lakes Edward, George, Kivu, and Albert — supports exceptional levels of biodiversity and endemism. It is one of the world’s last strongholds for mountain gorillas and eastern lowland gorillas, and sustains populations of forest elephants, chimpanzees, lions, hippos, and okapi alongside hundreds of endemic bird, amphibian, and plant species.

The Greater Virunga is also one of the most operationally complex conservation regions in the world. Large parts of eastern Congo have endured decades of armed conflict, population displacement, illegal resource extraction, and deforestation. Human–wildlife conflict, illegal charcoal production, zoonotic disease risk, and habitat fragmentation continue to place serious pressure on both wildlife and surrounding communities.

We partner with protected area authorities, field-based organisations, and local communities across the Greater Virunga to protect its ecosystems and advance sustainable development for the people living within and alongside them.

The landscape is home to some of the highest rural population densities in Africa, where communities depend heavily on agriculture, forests, fisheries, and natural resources for their livelihoods.

Working in close coordination with the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration, we channel resources and expertise to the partners best positioned to deliver lasting impact.

The Greater Virunga remains one of Africa’s most important conservation landscapes, and a demonstration of what sustained investment, trusted partnership, and long-term transboundary cooperation can achieve.

The Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor

Spanning more than 540,000 km² from the eastern provinces of the Albertine Rift and Greater Virunga region toward the Congo River Basin and Kinshasa in the west, the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor is one of the most ambitious integrated conservation and development initiatives ever proposed within the Congo Basin.

Formally launched by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2025, the Corridor encompasses some of the most important remaining tropical forests, peatland, freshwater, savanna, and montane ecosystems in Africa, supporting globally significant populations of great apes, forest elephants, okapi, bonobos, and hundreds of endemic species of the Albertine Rift.

Large areas of eastern Congo remain affected by insecurity, displacement, illegal resource extraction, and chronic poverty.

Deforestation, mining, wildlife trafficking, and the compounding effects of climate change place additional pressure on ecosystems already under strain.

The Corridor responds to these realities by integrating conservation, ecological restoration, community development, green economic growth, renewable energy, and peacebuilding into a single landscape framework — recognising that biodiversity protection and human development are not competing objectives but mutually dependent ones.

Maintaining ecological connectivity across major forest blocks, peatlands, and watersheds at this scale is increasingly critical before fragmentation reaches irreversible thresholds.

We partner with protected area authorities, field-based organisations, and local communities across the Corridor to advance these objectives.

Central to our work is supporting the governance systems, community engagement, and respect for human rights and Free, Prior and Informed Consent that long-term legitimacy demands.

 

Millions of people living across the landscape depend directly on its forests, fisheries, and natural resources for their livelihoods, and ensuring that the Corridor generates tangible benefits for those communities is as important as the ecological outcomes it seeks to achieve.

We channel resources and expertise to the partners best positioned to deliver lasting impact across both.