Reforestation campain by ACPDI
Created in 2005, the NGO “Action des Communautés Payssanne pour le Developpement Integré” (Action of Peasant Communities for integrated development) is one of DRCNDF members that aims to contribute to the socio-economic promotion of the peasant community. ACPDI campaigns for the well-being of peasants through Food Security and Nutritional Promotion, Rehabilitation of Road Infrastructure, Social Protection and Promotion of Peace, Health, Water, Hygiene and sanitation; Environmental protection and humanitarian assistance. It is located in Butembo city, Vutetse Quarter, 67 Visogho Cell, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The effect of climate change in the Congolese Nile Basin
The effects of climate change are visible in the Nile Basin region following the countless natural disasters that have occurred in the past months. Floods, landslides, erosions and disruptions of the seasons are among the many signs clearly showing that climate change is having harmful effects and there is an urgency to take concrete action to limit the damage in one way or another.
The heavy rain that fell the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, May 10, 2023 caused several human and material damage in Mbene / Bulambo in the Graben towards Vuholu and Miringathi, in Lubero territory (North Kivu). At least 7 people have already been found by investigators until the evening of this Wednesday.”They were surprised in their homes by a landslide that swept away several houses”, report the sources of RADIOMOTO.NET. They were found during excavations. The delegated state official in Mubana adds that 40 houses and livestock were also washed away by the streaming waters.The situation presented above is the one that particularly affected the Congolese Nile basin. Many other disasters have been observed in April and May 2023 in the province of South Kivu in the territory of Kalehe in the DRC as well as in Rwanda.
Actions taken to combat climate chage
As part of carrying out activities impacting the biotic character, 15 awareness sessions were organized on climate change, climate variation and the emission and its consequences of greenhouse gases. It should be noted that the 490 young members of the peace clubs have resolved to become less and less involved in the emission of greenhouse gases. Peace has a serious impact on environmental protection in the sense that in the DRC and more specifically in the Congolese Nile basin, many armed groups live from logging and the charcoal trade. In Virunga National Park, a large charcoal trading cartel set up by rebel groups serves as a means of self-financing and perpetuates their bad actions against security and deforestation which is a threat to the environment.Raising young people’s awareness of the themes of promoting peace and introducing them to entrepreneurship is an ACPDI contribution to the fight against the massive memb_ership of the latter in armed groups that live off the coal trade after an irrational deforestation, poaching and abusive exploitation of other natural resources thus threatening environmental protection.
The objective is to cultivate a lasting peace so that armed groups exploiting natural resources abusively lack new adherents because it is the lack of employment that negatively influences young people. In these themes of promoting peace, young people are trained in the fight against sexual violence, the peaceful management of conflicts, rural entrepreneurship and agribussness as well as the fight against global warming through the cultivation of fruit trees.
Reforestation is one of the great solutions in the fight against climate change because forests play a big role in balancing the ecosystem. the cultivation of fruit trees has an advantage not only for food security but also the protection environmental.
The Ngeleza health area in which the NGO ACPDI operates has also been facing deforestation for a decade and this has a negative impact on environmental protection in this region, it is for this reason that the young people of this health area are trained and supported to work for reforestation and environmental protection through the planting of fruit trees in their various villages.