HIGHLIGHTS
The Yangambi Biosphere Reserve (YBR) in DRC is highly threatened through unsustainable activities undertaken by riparian communities in the reserve.
Restrictions imposed on access to resources by the zoning of the YBR have forced riparian populations into over-exploitation of village lands.
Zoning applied to the reserve did not take into account the social dynamics nor the participation of riparian communities in the Yangambi region.
Variations in the reserve boundaries have led to substantial uncertainty and were found to be at the root of clashes and latent conflicts between the local population and the YBR managers.
To reduce the pressure on the resources of the YBR, we suggest an improvement in agricultural techniques coupled with the participatory delimitation of village exploitation zones, as well as a revitalization of participatory structures.
SUMMARY
Riparian communities activities threaten conservation in biosphere reserves in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Yangambi Biosphere Reserve (YBR) is no exception to this degradation. Thus, the objective of the presents study was to elucidate the local factors underlying the high pressure on natural resources and analyze the complexity of biosphere reserve zoning management using an interdisciplinary approach combining document review, field surveys and semi-structured interviews.
Our results revealed that the zoning applied to the YBR did not take into account social dynamics. With population growth, the riparian community is doomed to remain in restricted areas, leading to over-exploitation of the space and land degradation, forcing the population to travel long distances to reach fertile plots into the protected area. Also, the lack of employment and the absence of participatory zoning also exacerbate tensions between the manager and the riparian community. For an effective management of the YBR, political authorities should become more involved in the participatory zoning of conservation areas and village exploitations. In addition, they should improve farming techniques to mitigate soil degradation.
