Mapping For Rights
MappingForRights is a set of tools and approaches aimed at putting rainforest communities on the map and promoting sustainable, transparent and equitable governance of the Congo Basin.
The Congo Basin forests are home to an estimated 50 million people but forest dwellers typically lack rights to land they have inhabited for generations and are largely excluded from decisions about the forests they depend on. Underlying this marginalisation is often a lack of reliable and transparent information on their use, ownership and possession of forests as well as the threats facing them.
MappingForRights, the initiative of the Rainforest Foundation UK and its local partners, equips forest guardians with simple, low-cost tools to map, monitor and protect their lands, and uses this information to bring about greater accountability and transparency in the planning and management of forests. In 2016, it was awarded the UN Momentum for Change award from the UN Climate Change Secretariat, in recognition of its innovative approach and value for tackling climate change.
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Key programme features
Congo Basin Community Atlas
This interactive atlas contains over a thousand forest tenure and resource maps and land use plans produced by forest communities. Users can analyse the maps in the context of other forest claims and uses such as logging activities, extractive industries, agribusiness, protected areas and REDD+ projects.
Parks and People
This online platform contains information on the funding, human rights and other social impacts of 35 protected areas in the Congo Basin as part of an ongoing effort to improve transparency, accountability and effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in the region.
ForestLink
Currently being rolled out in seven countries across Africa and Latin America, the ForestLink monitoring system enables communities to send real-time alerts on for example illegal logging in their forests, even in remote areas with no mobile connectivity.
Resources
Access data-driven map stories, research publications and multi-media content about threats to tropical forests and innovative community-centred conservation approaches. Also download community mapping and monitoring tools to support your own work fieldwork.
Partners
