Capacity building mission for CLPA and institutional support for legal management entities

The consortium of organizations Brainforest, MINAPYGA, and KEVA INITIATIVE has initiated a capacity-building mission for CLPA and institutional support for legal management entities as part of the project "Greening the land rights of forest communities in the Gabonese Republic " abbreviated as VERDIR, funded by RRI for a duration of 3 years, aimed at promoting the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples over land and natural resources to improve their living conditions and combat deforestation in the Gabonese Republic.

During the first year of the project, 5 communities were selected for the creation of Community Forests. Thus, after several awareness-raising sessions on community forestry, the organization of a Constitutive General Assembly, and the organization of consultation meetings, the documents for the creation of Community Forest associations were submitted to the relevant administrations, including the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Water and Forests. It was now a matter of equipping these associations in association management, financial management, and the responsibilities of each position, hence this mission of institutional support to the legal management entities in the provinces of Ngounié and Nyanga.

The main objective of the mission was to provide institutional support to the legal management entities created since February 2024. Specifically, it aimed to: strengthen the capacities of the Legal Management Entities on the transparent management of an association and prevent conflicts; train the board on maintaining a small accounting and treasury; design the logos and seals of the different associations. Through this mission, the CLPA have seen their capacities in management and governance of an association strengthened.