Systèmes traditionnels de gestion des ressources naturelles et persistance des conflits autour des aires protégées de la RD Congo : cas du Parc National de la Salonga

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the hybrid system of land law does not favour a harmonious understanding between the political-administrative authorities, the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (CICN) and the forest populations who live near the protected areas. For some, the soil and subsoil belong to the State (according to the Bakajika law of 1966), for others, the forests are the heritage of their ancestors and it is up to the representatives of the customary power to manage them. The Salonga National Park (SNP) and its natural resources represent, for the local communities, a subsistence base to ensure their vital needs. However, it is perceived as an impediment to the subsistence and economic activities of the populations originating from the villages that were displaced at the time of its creation. Their forest and water heritage is inaccessible, because remained within the Park's boundaries. This has resulted in pitting the conservation sector, including CICN, against local communities in Monkoto. Through an analysis of traditional natural resource management systems in Monkoto territory supported by a plural methodological approach, we have shown that, although the State is legally the holder of land and resources throughout the country, natural resource management bodies and different spaces remain monopolised by customary powers. Control over the exploitation of these resources is a matter for community regulation. Access to certain resources is reserved for certain social groups, and strategic resources are frequently under the exclusive control of clans and families. These traditional resource management systems are maintained through links with ancestral lands and the exercise of traditional rights over the forests and rivers around Salonga National Park. Analysis of the conflicts around Salonga National Park reveals that the eviction of indigenous people and the alienation of their lands in favour of conservation; the location of the legal limit of the SNP and its physical demarcation by CICN, are at the root of the conflicts between the local communities of the displaced villages and CICN. While the process of exclusion, which goes hand in hand with the denial of traditional rights to the rivers and ponds remained within the Park, is creating a climate of tension, and a persistence of conflicts based mainly on issues of access to the rivers and ponds bordering and within Salonga National Park. All the results obtained in this case study have inspired a suggestion for the establishment of a collaborative management process for the fisheries resources of SNP, hence our proposal of the matrix of a multidimensional space for negotiation, between different fisheries stakeholders in the water bodies inside SNP, in Monkoto territory.