Gamboma
AFOREST CONGO
Context
Large areas of the Nkéni-Alima plateau are savanna, shaped over decades by regular fires. The Gamboma project is asc impact's long-term investment in this landscape, combining forestry, agriculture and native forest while creating formal local employment.
What is in place
AFOREST CONGO holds a 30-year emphyteutic lease from the Republic of the Congo, signed in 2025 under the National Afforestation and Reforestation Programme.
In February 2026 a Cahier des Charges was signed with the Prefecture, the Departmental Council, the Ministry of Forest Economy, the Sub-Prefectures of Gamboma and Abala and representatives of the village chiefs, setting out the project's commitments to the communities.
An environmental and social impact assessment has been completed by independent specialists; the national impact assessment process continues. The project is listed with Verra as VCS 5820.
The project
The concession of 102,560 hectares is the legal perimeter within which the project is assessed and planned. The areas that will actually be planted are smaller.
They are defined step by step from the environmental and social studies and checks on the ground, leaving out areas used by the communities, areas of high value for nature and protective buffers.
The project combines three parts on savanna: agriculture, with a mix of local staple crops, legumes in the rotation and the soil kept covered to limit erosion; timber plantations for the domestic and regional market, including native species; and native forest that is not harvested. The detailed design follows the impact assessment.
Planting is planned only on savanna. Gallery forest, wetlands and other areas of high ecological value are excluded from planting.
Working with the communities
We work with the villages, customary landowners and local authorities of the Gamboma and Abala districts. Consultation is a continuous process: it started before the lease was signed and goes on today.
Before the lease was signed, State missions held information meetings in the villages and identified the families holding customary rights. These families released their rights voluntarily through the Franc Symbolique, a procedure led by the State in which they receive a payment. In late 2025 a socio-economic study mapped with the villagers the areas they use for farming, gathering and water. From it an exclusion map was drawn: fields, gathering areas, village land, sacred sites and areas of high value for nature are left out of planting. The Cahier des Charges was then negotiated with the authorities and village representatives, and meetings with the villages continue.
The commitments in the Cahier des Charges include community roads, school buildings, drinking water, a bridge, vocational training for young people and support for health care. Delivery has started with the roads: by August 2026 a first road axis of about 23 km had been completed. Recruitment gives priority to the villages of the project area.