Below, please find the non-technical summary of the ESDD carried out in late 2025 in Odzala-Kokoua.
Background
Odzala-Kokoua National Park (OKNP) is one of the largest intact primary forests in Africa and the largest national park in Congo, positioned at the heart of the Congo Basin. It is one of the world’s most biologically diverse areas, a Key Biodiversity Area, a RAMSAR site and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
OKNP was first protected in 1935, declared a biosphere reserve in 1977, and granted official designation by presidential decree in 2001. In 2010, African Parks signed a Public Private Partnership with the Congolese Government, collaborating to manage the park for an initial period of 25 years.
OKNP covers a total of 13,544 km² and is divided into three zones with varying degrees of access and use regulations. 10,000-12,000 people are living across the 54 villages located around OKNP, hosting a diverse number of cultures and socio-economic groups. Some of these groups are formally recognized as Indigenous Peoples.
In 2021, an initial Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) of OKNP was conducted for Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) development bank. This ESDD process resulted in the development of an Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) that has subsequently been implemented by OKNP.
In 2025, African Parks requested Triple R Alliance (TRA) to conduct an ESDD Update for OKNP and to support the revision of the ESAP. TRA is a collective of social performance and human rights experts that supports companies and other organizations in their efforts to reduce human rights risk and ensure positive relations with local community, NGO, and government stakeholders.
Methodology
The ESDD Update process, which was co-designed with LLF, included two park visits. The first visit was focused on a comprehensive stakeholder engagement sample of communities (with separate focus groups for men, women, youth and Indigenous Peoples). It was conducted by TRA’s local experts in September 2025. The second visit was an independent verification visit by TRA’s team leader in early December 2025, and included further engagement with communities and Indigenous Peoples, as well as engagement with other relevant internal and external stakeholders relevant to key ESDD topics.
Through these park visits the perspectives of communities and Indigenous Peoples were considered in the identification and prioritization of the key environmental, social and human rights risks for OKNP.
The ESDD process also included an extensive document review process, which supported the assessment of OKNP’s progress in implementing the prior ESAP and closing gaps against the relevant international standards, including the World Bank Environmental and Social Standards (WBESS), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and the laws and policies of the Republic of Congo.
Environmental and Social Risks
The ESDD Update reviewed and validated the main risks identified in the prior ESDD process. These included risks related to human rights, gender, cumulative impacts (with the activities of other economic actors), labour and working conditions, pollution (primarily related to artisanal and small-scale mining activities in the park), human-wildlife conflict, law enforcement, resettlement and land access, Indigenous Peoples, cultural heritage, stakeholder engagement and grievance mechanisms.
The ESDD Update concluded that OKNP has made strong progress in implementing and/or completing most of the prior ESAP items. Over 80% of the prior ESAP actions have been closed, and the remaining actions have been initiated and are in progress. Consequently, the risk ratings have broadly diminished in terms of likelihood, severity (impact) and overall significance. Furthermore, African Parks and OKNP have implemented other complementary actions since the development of the ESAP to address key risk areas such as human rights, law enforcement and grievance mechanisms.
At this point in time, the ESDD Update concluded that there are no extreme risks from an ESDD and human rights perspective. The extreme risks identified in the prior ESDD have been addressed with sufficient seriousness to reduce these risk ratings. Nonetheless, several high and substantial risks remain given the inherent complexity of park-community coexistence and the relative recency of many mitigation measures and due diligence strategies. The updated risk assessments are summarized below:
- High risks: Human-wildlife conflict, resettlement and land access, Indigenous Peoples.
- Substantial risks: Human rights, gender, cumulative impacts (with the activities of other economic actors), pollution (primarily related to artisanal and small-scale mining activities in the park), law enforcement.
- Moderate risks: labour and working conditions, cultural heritage, stakeholder engagement and grievance mechanisms.
ESDD Categorization
In terms of the overall ESDD categorization, OKNP has been classified as category B+ (substantial risk) based on the findings of the ESDD Update and through discussions between TRA, African Parks and LLF. This is a reduction from the prior ESDD categorization (i.e. between A and B+).
While acknowledging the progress made by OKNP to implement the prior ESAP actions, the overall risk level remains substantial based on the complexity of the context in which OKNP operates. It is anticipated that continued implementation of the revised ESAP – including in terms of proposed multistakeholder mitigation strategies – should contribute to a progressive reduction of OKNP’s overall risk categorization over time.
ESAP Update
The ESDD Update verified that the majority of the recommended ESAP actions from the ESDD process have been implemented by OKNP, and the remaining actions have been initiated and are in progress.
The following are a non-exhaustive overview of key ESAP actions that will be pursued and were highlighted and appreciated by stakeholders, and which contributed to the reduced risk assessments in the ESDD Update:
- Implementation of a variety of human rights initiatives and development of partnerships with three national human rights NGOs for community training and monitoring activities.
- Rigorous human rights training for law enforcement officials to reduce potential misconduct and conflict with community members.
- Implementation and promotion of a community grievance mechanism to support the reporting and resolution of community concerns.
- Establishment of community Focal Points in the villages around the park to support improved communications and consultations.
- Conduct of a participatory land-use planning process to support community members in developing additional livelihood activities in the buffer zone around the park.
- Strengthened land access protocols to allow community members to access the park for traditional livelihood and cultural activities.
- Development of an Indigenous Peoples Plan and strengthening protocols for Free, Prior and Informed Consent for new park activities.
- Implementation of a Gender Plan.
- Review of community-level governance structures to improve community participation in park affairs and enhance the transparency and sustainability of community benefits from the park.
- Conduct of an artisanal and small-scale mining study to understand the potential environmental, social and human rights risks and to identify strategies for engagement with relevant actors to address the risks.
It is important to recognize that many of the key actions and initiatives from the prior ESAP have been implemented relatively recently. On some topics, important policies and procedures have been developed, but their action plans cover several years into the future. Therefore, the revised ESAP aims to reinforce continuity and strengthen internal capacity and governance with a view of enhancing the effectiveness of the risk mitigation strategies initiated in the prior ESAP.
The ESDD Update highlights that the full realization of the ESAP objectives and further mitigation of the highest risks will face ongoing logistical challenges related to operating in such a large geographic area with so many remote communities, in addition to resource constraints in terms of human resources and budgets. Ultimately, the more resources that can be mobilized for the mitigation measures and due diligence strategies should help to diminish these risks more quickly and effectively. Therefore, the revised ESAP recommends that OKNP and its partners invest time and effort in developing multistakeholder approaches with government and other economic actors around the park to maximize resources available for further environmental, social and human rights initiatives.
Click here to read the Non-Technical Summary of the Odzala-Kokoua ESDD conducted in 2021
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