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With funding from the AVINA Foundation's BASE programme, PIFEVA and its partner CCAO replicated a proven approach across nine new villages, adding a climate rationality mechanism. A textbook consolidation phase.

Replicating a project is harder than launching one. It requires adapting without diluting, absorbing the lessons of the pilot phase, and winning over new communities. The PIFEVA-CCAO consortium took on that challenge in nine additional villages of the Lwindi chiefdom: Irangi, Chafunda, Kabukimba, Kitale, Ilibo, Buzinda, Mulole, Lushale and Ngole.

Qualitative replication, not mere duplication

The intervention mobilised and built the capacity of 355 Indigenous young people and 355 Indigenous women in climate rationality and biodiversity restoration, then supported them in rehabilitating degraded community forest blocks through the planting of edible caterpillar host trees and in the sound, sustainable management of those forests. In total, 710 Indigenous young people and women and 4,970 members of their families are seeing their livelihoods steadily improve.

Nine nurseries of fast-growing forest species were created and developed by trained Indigenous young people and women organised into a local nursery committee. Two planting campaign phases covered 540 hectares, divided into nine community forest blocks of 60 hectares each.

The short term and the long term

Biodiversity restoration operates over the medium and long term. The pilot phase evaluation recommended pairing that horizon with immediate responses. The 710 beneficiaries were therefore also supported in setting up group income-generating activities — specifically fast-maturing, climate-resilient vegetable crops — to withstand the immediate effects of economic crisis and food insecurity, and to prevent a return to deforestation while the trees grow.

An observable shift in gender dynamics

In this area, unregulated tree felling for charcoal production was largely carried out by Indigenous young people for economic reasons. Seeing 710 Indigenous young people and women now actively engaged in rehabilitating degraded ecosystems and managing forests sustainably is a strong qualitative indicator: it reflects growing participation by women in finding solutions to the socio-environmental problems facing their communities.

The consortium also drew on the non-discriminatory historical knowledge of Mwenga's Indigenous ancestors, who had ensured the forest met the needs of both men and women without destroying it. That knowledge was disseminated among beneficiaries and local communities, with measurable effects: a marked decline in charcoal production within the forests covered by the project.

Structured local governance

To consolidate community engagement, the consortium created and supported a local nursery workers' committee, a Local Committee for the Fight Against Deforestation and nine Indigenous Forest Monitoring Committees. These bodies handle nursery expansion and maintenance and the restoration of forest patches, in line with local regulations and a management plan established and adapted by the committees themselves.

THE PROJECT IN NUMBERS

540 ha planted across 9 blocks of 60 ha

9 villages in the Lwindi chiefdom

9 community nurseries created

710 Indigenous young people and women benefiting

4,970 family members reached

11 local committees established and supported