A unique Art-Environmental endeavor bringing 3.000 tribal Chiefs guardians of sacred forests in the forefront of the Congo Bassin’s primary forest protection initiative.
House_Of_Trees will host a selection of events to promote the 3-KTC program and exhibit exclusive artworks of Serge Anton and others 3KTC involved photographers.
About the 3KTC initiative
3KTC is an Innovative program to foster the creation of 3,000 sacred climate forests to save and increase more than 10 million ha of tropical forests in the Congo Basin and lift millions of people out of extreme poverty.
A hundred countries representing 85% of the planet's forests pledged at COP 26 to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. The Congo Basin's tropical forests retain the largest carbon stock in the world. A recent study estimates that avoided deforestation and reforestation in the tropics remain the main sources of climate mitigation that can contribute up to 71% of the total global mitigation needed to stay on the healthy course of 1.5°C defined by the Paris Agreement. And Article 5 of this Agreement encourages countries to take measures to conserve and, where appropriate, enhance sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases, including forests.
The DRC, country holding 60% of the Congo Basin's tropical forests, with nearly 100 million inhabitants, ranks among the world's Top 5 poorest, hungry and vulnerable countries to climate change. The rural economy, based on forestry and family farming, accounts for 76% of the population's income and 90% of emissions. Slash-and-burn agriculture, charcoal, artisanal logging, etc. cause annual losses of more than one million ha of forest with high ecological and carbon value.
Traditional cultures in Africa, and specifically mystical ancestral practices and beliefs, have enabled some local communities to keep forest areas intact in the face of the worst anthropogenic threats. Unfortunately, traditional leaders are gradually losing the charism of sustainable management of customary heritage and letting the population destroy everything for their survival, or sell forests to illegal loggers and even end up selling the land, making their community a "landless people". ". The strong pressure of poverty is a major cause of land vulnerability, as communities do not have the means to stand up against buyers and investors in forestry, mining or agriculture. Hence the need to meet the subsistence needs of the populations, secure their traditional land heritage and address the climate emergency through the conservation and restoration of forests.
The 3KTC project consists of producing and marketing physical photo and NFT works of art from customary and traditional authorities in the Congo Basin, to finance community carbon and sustainable development projects. Ultimately, the project will prevent and sequester more than 150 million tons of CO2, get out of extreme poverty and provide drinking water, quality care, electricity to more than 2.5 million people. rural. 3KTC is supported by Clearing Gallery, co-developed with Serge Anton and MACC (Community Carbon Market), in partnership with the Congolese Ministry of Customary Affairs and the National Association of Customary Authority of Congo (ANATC).
1 billion trees, a priority program to respond to the climate emergency initiated by the President of the Republic Félix TSHISEKEDI, aims to engage young people and local communities in the mitigation and climate adaptation of local economies, while fighting against poverty and the exponential degradation of nature.
MACC (Community Carbon Market), a public utility establishment under Congolese law with a philanthropic and scientific vocation, structures projects for the greening of agricultural and forestry activities in rural communities, mobilizes leveraged investments, develops and markets the resulting carbon assets, to finance sustainable endogenous development.
Customary chiefs are recognized by law as the basis of traditional values and are required to preserve them to promote the integral, harmonious and sustainable development of the DRC. As managers and direct guarantors of lands and peoples, under the coordination of the Ministry of Customary Affairs, they will create mystical areas of conservation and natural restoration of forests.
Serge Anton, Franco-Belgian humanist photographer who has immortalized countless faces with neutral emotion and yet so expressive, will capture and direct talented young Congolese photographers, to immortalize 3,000 faces of traditional leaders, who will set up community programs carbon conservation and forest restoration. Each photo will have a digital encryption that will indicate the tons of Co2 avoided or sequestered by this leader, as well as the evolution of the living conditions of the community benefiting from the financing mobilized by the work.