Climate adaptation, carbon fixation and sustainable development through Robusta coffee agroforestry in and around Yangambi (DR Congo) (Climcoff)

In this project, knowledge about coffee and agroforestry, and experience from other projects will be integrated by creating production, demo and trial fields on the sites of INERA-Yangambi. This will make it possible to realise various functions in one cultivation system: food supply (fruit-bearing shade trees, plantain & bananas, host trees for the popular edible caterpillars that are an important source of protein, organic waste and wood for mushroom production), energy and construction wood (shade trees), income from cash crops such as coffee, carbon storage in wood, and so on. This agricultural system makes it possible to reduce the pressure on natural forests from current but unsustainable slash-and-burn agriculture and to drastically reduce or even reverse carbon emissions from agriculture to a net fixation. By implanting the project on a site where other projects are already running, both on coffee, and on carbon cycle and sequestration, we guarantee the continuity and embedding of this project in a broader framework and can build on already existing structures and cooperation agreements. Cooperation with local and international partners will continue. In addition, the project will also be able to make an important contribution to the development of research and sustainable economic activities in the buffer zone of the "Man and Biosphere Reserve Yangambi". In this project: 1. agroforestry trial fields will be constructed which will be monitored and evaluated; 2. infrastructure and equipment for processing coffee berries into high-quality marketable coffee beans will be provided; 3. agroforestry production fields will be established for the benefit of the local population. All this with a view to evaluating and developing a sustainable and climate-resilient production of quality Robusta coffee as an engine for developing a green economy in the Yangambi region and contributing to carbon capture in the context of REDD+. The agroforestry system will also be evaluated by constructing and following up the experimental plots.