Congo: Reforestation

Creation - not for sale

Reforestation in Katanga Province

Young reformer: Cedrick Yumba Kitwa

Church: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Congo

Implementation period: 31/10/15-31/12/2016

How many people were involved? 5

How many people did you reach (total)? 27

What did you aim at?

Supporting reforestation and develop environmental education in the province of Katanga, specifically in the districts of Upper Katanga, Haut Lomami, and Tanganyika.

What did you achieve?

The planting of 71 trees and creation of a reforestation park with a variety of plants that will cover the region and will help fight global warming in the years to come;
Environmental education in primary and secondary schools in communities of the districts of Haut Katanga, Haut Lomami, and Tanganyika;
Raising the awareness of coal miners and farmers on illegal logging, which is done commonly to produce charcoal and clear fields for agriculture;
The campaign to reduce deforestation and promote reforestation

What did you do?

We had started to raise awareness in schools, churches, and youth movements by talking about climate change and telling them that this can be corrected by creating reforestation and sanitation projects where we live.

Interview with young reformers

What is the ongoing reformation you want to see in your church?: In my church we want to see a development of climate justice. We want to see the church involved in climate actions because we are suffering very much with climate change. We want to see collaboration with LWF and our church. There is not as much group collaboration between our church and LWF as in other countries and we want to feel the LWF in our communities.
What has been the reaction of the project among the youth?: We received some help from the LWF last year and we began our project with many youth. They were very, very glad to see LWF support this project. We are working on this project because we are suffering from the climate here in Congo. The climate is very hot and the youth are working to help the issue without any salary. When the LWF helped with funding, the youth were very glad.
How has been the participation of the youth in the reformation project?: Congo is very big and when we started this project we did not have money for travel, so only youth in the Lubumbashi area could help. It was difficult to get all of the youth in Congo to participate because the country is so big. 27 youth have been a part of this project. Many parishes sent us one or two youth to represent their parish. The youth also continued the project when they went back to their parishes and their villages.
What has been challenging about creating the project?: In Lubumbashi there isn’t a space to plant trees, so we needed to plant them far out of town. It was difficult to get to the place where we could plant trees. Also, when we got there we had a problem with power because it was not our habit to cultivate fields. We did it by ourselves and it was difficult. As well, we did not have all the fertilizer we needed to make sure the trees could grow.
Did everything go as planned?: We planted 71 trees, but not all the trees are growing as we had hoped since we are missing some fertilizer. About 80% of the trees are growing, but we had hoped for 100% to grow.
How do you see the continuity of the project?: Yes. It is a big need of youth, of Congo. Even if the world is talking about climate change, other countries don’t necessarily know the true impacts of climate change as we see here in Congo. We have needs to continue everyday. We want to let youth continue with this project and eventually we want all Lutheran youth to continue this project. For Congo, this project is the most important. As Congo youth, we can change this situation and participate to correct climate change.