CONGO BASIN INSTITUTE (CBI)

The institute aims to promote scientific work by facilitating visiting scientists and encouraging them to collaborate meaningfully with Cameroonian colleagues. We conduct research projects to address key issues. We build partnerships with other organizations.

CBI brings together scientists from UCLA, the Congo Basin, and around the world to learn from each other and build scientific capacity in the region. The team also works with local and indigenous communities in Central Africa to weave traditional and local knowledge with scientific understanding to help conserve forest and biodiversity. In the process, we work with businesses and civil society organizations with shared goals.

CBI seeks to co-create a new model for science in the Congo Basin that is deep, equitable, and permanent — one that harnesses research, partnerships, and community engagement to build lasting solutions for Africa’s people, landscapes, and food systems. It focuses on six intersectional themes: community knowledge and participation; ecosystem function, services, and payment; climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience; sustainable agricultural intensification; agroforestry; and land use planning. It is a regional nexus for interdisciplinary research, education, training, and technology development focused on critical issues facing the Congo Basin with implications for both the developing and developed world: climate change, water and food security, biodiversity, and human and animal health.