The Socio-ecology Observatory focuses on understanding and enhancing the interactions between people and forest ecosystems in the Congo Basin. Recognising that sustainable forest management is fundamentally a socio-ecological challenge, the Observatory combines empirical research on community land use and governance with participatory approaches to data collection and decision-making.
Lead researchers and institutions
The Observatory is co-led by Prof Michel Bisa (University of Kinshasa) and Prof Alphonse Maindo (University of Kisangani), with support from Prof Jerome Lewis (University College London, UK), an anthropologist with extensive experience in Indigenous rights, participatory mapping, and forest governance. Prof Guy Moussavou has taken on an important new role setting up a university in RoC, and now has an independent advisory role in the observatory.
The Observatory currently supports three one-year MRes (Masters by Research) scholars at UCL, for training in social science methods, followed by registration for PhD programmes in Congo Basin establishments. In addition, two PhD scholars are supported at the University of Kisangani supervised by Prof Maindo and one at University of Kinshasa, supervised by Prof Bisa. The six trainees will conduct their research projects and fieldwork with local communities in Cameroon, Republic of the Congo and DRC. To read more about the training programme for CRAFT scholars, visit the project page here.
Research objectives
The Observatory has three core aims:
- To understand the diversity of traditional territories and management in the region, using participatory mapping approaches.
- To select focal communities to build local capacity for environmental monitoring and analysis, using participatory science approaches.
- To improve local evidence-based decision-making, in order to empower communities to develop new solutions to improve forest management, such as direct payments for ecosystem services.
These aims are operationalised through fieldwork across selected landscapes in Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and DRC. Participatory mapping will be used to document customary land tenure systems, natural resource use practices, and governance structures. This information is essential to align scientific and policy initiatives with existing community institutions. Participatory science methods, co-designed with communities, will enable local monitoring of rainfall, river levels, biodiversity, and forest cover—using simplified versions of protocols developed by the other Observatories. Training and equipment will be provided to community members, enabling them to track environmental changes and link this information to land-use decisions, food security, and climate resilience.
Links to other observatories
The Observatory will work closely with the Climate, Hydrology, Vegetation, Biodiversity and Land Cover Observatories to translate state-of-the-art science into participatory science methods for potential adoption by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC). Similarly, Socio-Ecology will work with the same Observatories to ensure that at least some of their methods work for IPLCs and that this new data can assist in the active management of IPLC territories whose land the Observatory scientists are working within.
News and publications
CRAFT Partners
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