Skip to main content

page search

Community Organizations Tropenbos International
Tropenbos International
Tropenbos International
Acronym
TBI
Network
Non-profit organization
Phone number
+31 317 702 020

Location

Lawickse Allee 11
1st floor
Wageningen
Netherlands
Postal address
Tropenbos International
P.O.Box 232
6700 AE Wageningen
The Netherlands
Working languages
Dutch
English

Tropenbos International envisions a future in which forests and trees are used sustainably for the benefit of local people and the global community. By using evidence to make conscious choices and finding the right balance between the needs of all the stakeholders involved, we contribute to sustainable solutions for forested landscapes.

Tropenbos International (TBI) brings the knowledge together to address complex questions regarding sustainable management of forests and trees, organizes interactions with all the stakeholders and actively helps to create broad support.

We started in 1986 as a Dutch non -governmental non-profit organization, in 2017 we became a network of independent member organisations. We work in more than ten countries in the south, through our network of six local members and collaborations with partners elsewhere.

Members:

Resources

Displaying 16 - 20 of 25

CRED - HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING

General

The Civic Response on Environment and Development (CRED): is a non-for-profit institution registered as a national NGO. It’s driving vision is an ”empowered community that promotes equitable utilization and sustainable governance of natural resources forpoverty aleviation and social economic transformation”. The mission is “to implement research, advocacy and outreach initiatives that empowercitizens and local communities to demand for transparency, accountability and participation in decision making and work with duty bearers to promote good Natural Resources governance”. Thematic focuses include promoting land tenure security, ensuring resilientcommunities to climate change, promoting good governance of oil and gas resources, and ensuring good governance of mineral resources and participation of ASMs. Vision An empowered community that promotes equitable utilization and sustainable governance of Natural resources for poverty alleviation and social transformation.” Mission To implement research, advocacy and outreach initiatives that empower citizens and local communities to demand for transparency, accountability and participation in decision making and work with duty bearers to promote good NR governance Values “An empowered community that promotes equitable utilization and sustainable governance of Natural resources for poverty alleviation and social transformation.” To implement research, advocacy and outreach initiatives that empower citizens and local communities to demand fortransparency, accountability and participation in decision makingand work with duty bearers to promote good NR governance The strength of CRED include evidence based programming, promoting socialaccountability, working directly with communities, legalaid provision for those whose livelihoods are threatened by extractives activities, evidence gathering through community monitoring, and engagement of leaders at local and national levels. CRED’s track record and key achievements in the recent past include: (a) Securing land rights of community groups in the Albertine region through advocacy and litigation strategies. Some evicted community groups were supported to regain their land, such as the Rwamutonga community in Bugambe sub county, Hoima while a big number of communities have been supported to strengthen their tenure status. For examples, CRED pioneered the formation of Communal Land Associations (CLAs) in Bulisa district which has helped to secure communal resources such as grazing landsand watering points. (b) Promoting stronger safeguards for human rights in Uganda’s extractives sector. CRED has inputted national laws and company policies leading to relatively more progressive safeguards in the area of business and human rights.These include Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs) for oil and gas activities, District compensation rates, Environment and Social Impact Assessment report for Oil projects (ESIAs) and Human rights impact assessment reports by oil companies. (c) Enhanced compensation packages for Project Affected Persons (PAPs) under the TILenGA, Kingfisher and EACOP projects. Unlike earlier land acquisition processes such as the Refinery land acquisition in Hoima that are associated with multiple rights violations, due to CRED’s contributions, there are considerably better compensation packages for TILenGA, Kingfisher and EACOP, better grievance handling mechanisms and better articulation of gender safeguards. (d) Putting in place a robust community monitoring mechanism that uses technology to track and report human rights violations in a methodical and timely manner. This system has produced information and data that has informed local, national and international advocacy processes leading to the interventions of Total’s chiefexecutive in France, heads of foreign missions in Uganda and a number of UN special rapporteurs on the human rights situation in Uganda’s oil and gas sector. Since the conception of the EACOP project, CRED has participated in most of the processes e.g. the RAP and ESIA processes, preparing the Oxfam led Community-Based Human Rights Impact Assessment (CBHRIA) which is the basis of the ongoingcommunity monitoring initiatives. Therefore, CRED has a good understanding of the issues.Asthe EACOP construction takes shape, it is important that the scope and depth of the community monitoring work is enhanced and vigorous systems are put in place to report and act on human rights violations. CRED has been at the center of all these processes. CRED’S CONRIBUTION ON THE PROJECT: • Organizecommunity feedback and verification engagements on the monitoring findings. • Organize quarterly engagement meetings with International Oil Companies (IOCs), EACOP sub-contractors and local and nationalgovernments on human rights. • Compile annual state of human rights monitoring reports for dissemination to stakeholders. • Conduct a Research on Uganda’s adherence to the international human rights and gender frameworks and protocols in the extractivessector . • Conduct Annual High-level policy dialogue on business and human rights in the extractives sector. • Carry out international collaboration engagements with IOCs, international NGOs, and engagement of UN special rapporteur on human rights regarding concerns in Uganda’s extractives sector. • Conduct annual multi-stakeholder field assessment of environmental concerns along the EACOP project (involving civil society, IOCs, community monitors and local government officials along the EACOProute). • Conduct community engagements on environmental concerns of the EACOP project.

Responses to challenges and opportunities in enabling and achieving inclusive and sustainable governance of fo

General

GLA Context Analysis: Weak forest and land governance are important underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. Many local communities depend heavily on forests for their daily livelihoods. They are often disproportionally impacted by deforestation, while their contribution to ecological destruction and their access to possible benefits is often relatively limited. Trends in global markets and policies provide both risks and opportunities for positive change towards inclusive and sustainable governance of forested landscapes. The Forest and Land Governance (FLG) thematic programme aims to help civil society in the GLA landscapes to build their capacity to deal with and manage the risks of international initiatives around the sustainable management of forested landscapes while fully engaging in their development and sharing in the benefits these intend to produce. The work in this programme will complement the work at the country programme level. It aims to bring about change in some of the international policies (both public and private) that are most relevant to forest governance, the accessibility of decision making processes and the capacity and competencies of CSO partners to influence these processes. It also aims to link southern CSOs amongst each other, and to link Southern with Northern NGOs that work on advocacy and policy solutions, so they can learn from each other, share experiences and take joint action.

Objectives

GLA Theory of Change 2016-2020: The GLA programme aims to address the risks and opportunities at international level that improve access to land and resources for local communities, ensure their participation in decision making processes, and support the introduction of nature-based approaches to land and forest management. The programme focuses its efforts on: A) International policies that support locally controlled and sustainable management of forested landscapes; B) Diminished illegal logging; C) The scaling up of certification of forestry, agro-forestry, commodities and landscapes; and D) Public and private financing that support inclusive and sustainable management of forested landscapes. The alliance will strengthen the capacities of participating CSOs in the south, in particular their capacities to engage with international actors such as multilateral organisations, international companies, etc.; conduct international lobbying and advocacy efforts; their ability to develop and present convincing cases and alternatives development visions; and work in (international) coalitions.

Other

See attached document for a brief summary of the Annual plans of the implementing organisations

Water Stewardship Activities, Ica’

General

ContextThe Peruvian coast receives in only 3 months almost all the water it will use during the year. Together with Trujillo (Chao-Viru) and Piura, Ica is an agro-export hub of great importance for the Peruvian economy and its products are largely exported to European markets via the port of Rotterdam. Peru has three major basins: western (Pacific Ocean), eastern (Atlantic Ocean) and Titicaca (Peruvian-Bolivian border). The Pacific basin, where Ica is located, only represents 2.18% of the water available to the country; however, it provides water to 66% of the Peruvian population, which is why it is vital to ensure sustainable and environmental friendly value chains.The Villacuri aquifer in Ica continues to be the most exploited in Peru and its recharge is of vital importance to continue with agro-exporting. The Ica region in Peru is a major sourcing region for agro-exporting companies and deals with several challenges related to water scarcity: (1) less water availability during the dry season in the Ica catchment due to climate change and melting (or non-existence) of glaciers and permanent snow, (2) erosion caused by wind and precipitation upstream, (3) degradation of ecosystems, (4) increased runoff of freshwater to the sea during the rainy season causing floods and (5) lack of water availability for livelihoods in the rural communities upstream. AmbitionThe overall ambition is to increase water infiltration in upstream Ica combined with a reduction in soil erosion, in order to improve the livelihoods of upstream communities. Learnings of those interventions are to be embedded in a sound, locally validated and date-driven water stewardship plan that promotes catchment-wide water management.The approach of this project is two-fold, it focuses on water management and livelihoods. In terms of water management, the approach will be to support ongoing landscape interventions and to evaluate the impact of these interventions against the hypothesized benefits. This is done by quantitative monitoring specifically focused at better understanding the infiltration benefits of the infiltration ditches, reforestation, and natural vegetation restoration. In terms of livelihoods, the approach will be to use participatory processes to identify community-based land management plans and to validate those plans through a local water stewardship approach. The required maintenance of the infiltration ditches will be addressed as part of the community livelihoods and community-based land management component of the approach.ActivitiesThe scope of activities includes the following:1. Create capacity with community stakeholders on land (and water) management and restoration strategies and practices, that support livelihoods (livestock and agriculture) while at the same time generating catchment outcomes like flood and erosion control and, direct livelihood benefits of the nature-based solution of infiltration ditches and tree planting.2. Co-develop a feasible and financeable plan for community-based land management and restoration activity in the Tambo region.3. Generate pilot activity by community members for land management and restoration. Activities focus on improvement of livelihood, using rural socio economical sustainable development, for example: improvement of local markets and basin local value chain.4. Embed results, learnings, and further plans for the landscape-intervention & nature-based solutions into the water stewardship plan.5. Based on the outcomes of the activities during this project, develop a project plan on how to continue the project and possibly scale-up in consecutive.

Strenghtening Local Communities Resilience to Climate Change Sudan

General

Co-funding PMF EUR 480,000. To contribute to the strengthening of local communities' resilience and sustainable livelihoods' to better respond to and cope with climate change: The overall objective of the proposed action is in line with the objective of the European Union (EU) GCCA+ programme, aiming at reducing communities’ vulnerability to climate change. The action will contribute to an increase of income at household level in targeted communities, gained from sustainable, adapted farming and pastoralism and/or alternative Income Generating Activities (IGA)s. This increase of income is used as a proxy indicator for resilience. NLRC lead in partnership with SRCS, Danish RC, Swedish RC and Spanish RC

Objectives

Activities under Result 1: A 1.1.1 Conduct a natural resource mapping and feasibility studies for better land use planning and implementation (as a baseline). A 1.1.2 Set up and train community based natural resources management (CBNRM) groups to develop and follow up on CBNRM plans based on participatory assessments. A 1.1.3 Conduct awareness campaigns to all stakeholders on implications of climate change and climate variability as well as the available of early warning information sources and relevant early action A 1.1.4 Facilitate exchange of knowledge and good practices (Case studies) on natural resource management and CCA between communities. A 1.1.5 Carry out capacity building of local partner (SRCS) on climate change adaptation (CCA), NRM and project management. Activities under Result 2: A1.2.1 Support the establishment/improvement (esp. targeting women), of nurseries to support rehabilitation of communal farmland, forests and home gardens as IGA. A 1.2.2 Rehabilitate/expand/establish community forest and/or shelterbelts and windbreaks (depending on relevance and feasibility). A 1.2.3 Construct/rehabilitate water harvesting structures for reforestation, water conservation and other water provision facilities for subsistence/communal /small-scale farmers and farmland to adapt to the variation in climate change. A 1.2.4 Provide training to community water committees on operation and maintenance of water structures and energy facilities. A 1.2.5 Enhance the household flexibility and resilience to handle climate change and external stresses and shocks by a range of gender-sensitive enhancement initiatives, e.g. access to credit/loan as IGA (VSLA), as identified in the NRM assessments A 1.2.6 To cope with climate changes and combat desertification, provide support to local government agriculture, forestry and veterinary extension services and research centers to reach out to the target communities for training on agriculture techniques, applying smart agricultural approach principles adapted to climate change and the sustainable management of natural resources through field schools /demonstration plots. Activities under Result 3: A 1.3.1 Increase available irrigation water through the maintenance of existing boreholes and improving equipment and installations using solar power energy. A 1.3.2 Promote the use of improved/alternative solutions for cooking, such as fuel-efficient stoves or biogas, making use of revolving fund or IGA development for sustainability. A 1.3.3 Conduct community awareness campaign and facilitate exchange of knowledge and good practices on the use of renewable energy between communities through exchange visits.

Target Groups

90,330 beneficiaries (across all activities)

Republic of Congo - Population Movement

General

On Sunday 16th December 2018, some villages in the Province of Mai-Nambiar, Democratic Republic of Congo, neighboring the district of Makotimpoko in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) were affected by inter-ethnic conflict. The fighting has resulted in 400 fatalities and the destruction of property. A large number of the population of the conflict affected areas were forced to cross the river Congo and find refuge in several localities in the Cuvette (Konda and Youmba) and Plateaux (Makotimpoko, Bouemba, Patrick) areas in Congo-Brazzaville

Objectives

Health and Water, sanitation and hygiene

Target Groups

The DREF operation intends to assist a total of 500 displaced households (i.e. 3000 people) with special emphasis on people with special needs, including • Elderly; • Female headed households • Unaccompanied children • Pregnant women • Women with children under the age of five