Under Provincial Decree LEZ/CAB/GP-MMA-2026 signed on 20 February 2026, the Governor of Maniema has appointed Aruna Sefu Josué as roving ambassador in charge of investments and partnerships in Kindu. The decision aims to strengthen the mobilization of partners around the province’s environmental, climate, agricultural, and conservation priorities.
In Kindu—an isolated yet strategic capital in the central-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo—a provincial decree signed on 20 February 2026 has reshaped part of the institutional architecture tasked with opening Maniema to economic and environmental partnerships. According to Provincial Decree No. LEZ/CAB/GP-MMA-2026, Governor Moïse Mussa Kabwankubi appointed Aruna Sefu Josué as roving ambassador for investments and partnerships, a cross-cutting role to be exercised both nationwide and internationally.
The decision follows a conventional legal framework that nonetheless reveals the provincial executive’s stated priorities. The decree cites the revised Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, laws governing provincial autonomy, public-private partnerships, and—most significantly for a forested territory—the 2014 law on nature conservation. These foundations are complemented by ordinances and decrees organizing the provincial government, as well as the motion approving its program adopted by the provincial assembly in July 2024.
Within this framework, the missions assigned to the new roving ambassador span a broad spectrum: promoting Maniema’s economic attractiveness; identifying and facilitating investment opportunities; negotiating national and international partnerships; and representing the province at events and meetings with economic, environmental, or climate relevance. The decree specifies that these activities must be reported regularly to the supervising authority and that their costs will be covered by the provincial budget following validation by the Council of Ministers.
Beyond administrative mechanics, the appointment comes at a specific moment in the province’s political and environmental calendar. It follows the First Conference on Agriculture, Environment, Tourism, and Water for Sustainable Development in Maniema, scheduled to take place in Kindu at the UNIKI – Lwama II site from 8 to 10 April 2026. Presented as a space for diagnosis and forward planning, the conference seeks to lay the groundwork for a structured dialogue among authorities, investors, and technical partners around sectors deemed priorities for the province.
Maniema arrives at this meeting with a natural capital few Congolese provinces can claim. Created in 1988 following the breakup of the former Kivu, the province counts nearly 5.49 million inhabitants spread across one city, seven territories, and a mosaic of chiefdoms and villages. Nearly 8 million hectares—around two-thirds of its territory—are covered by humid primary forests, including peatland areas and zones of high conservation value. These landscapes host emblematic species such as the bonobo, the okapi, and the Congo peafowl, as well as recently described primates like the lesula and the likweli.
This ecological heritage—often cited as a potential lever for ecotourism and carbon credits—is nevertheless under increasing pressure. According to data compiled in the conference’s preparatory documents, Maniema is estimated to have lost about 36% of its humid primary forests between 2002 and 2024, due to the combined effects of shifting slash-and-burn agriculture, unsustainable logging, urbanization, and mining activities. Rural poverty and food insecurity deepen dependence on forest resources, heightening ecosystem fragility.
On the hydrological front, the province benefits from a dense network structured by the Congo River and its tributaries, offering prospects for irrigated agriculture, access to drinking water, and energy. Yet infrastructure remains limited in both urban and rural areas. Once considered an agricultural breadbasket, Maniema has seen the decline of its historic industrial crops—cotton, coffee, oil palm, and rubber—while food production remains largely subsistence-oriented. Women and young people, though highly involved in agriculture and small trade, struggle to access finance, training, and structured value chains.
It is within this post-conflict and climate-vulnerable context that provincial authorities call for a refounding of the development model aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and international climate commitments. The conference’s terms of reference explicitly echo the Belém Call, adopted at COP30, which emphasizes the protection of tropical forests, biodiversity conservation, and recognition of the role of local communities and Indigenous peoples.
Within this landscape, the role entrusted to Aruna Sefu Josué appears to be that of a bridge-builder. Contacted by the editorial team, he said he intends to “begin with collaboration among stakeholders to defend the province’s image on climate change, the environment, agroecology, biodiversity conservation, and tourism.” He added that the provincial government has mandated him to seek, at the international level, partners capable of supporting this vision, while positioning himself, in his words, “within civil society,” to develop strategic and non-conventional partnerships in service of the environmental cause. The true scope of this appointment will be measured by actions: the ability to turn diagnostics into concrete investments, to reconcile economic attractiveness with conservation requirements, and to embed Maniema within credible cooperation networks. In a province where abundant natural resources contrast with weak infrastructure and basic services, the challenge goes beyond representation. It touches on how a forested territory can negotiate its place in global climate dynamics without sacrificing either its ecosystems or the communities that depend on them.
By Kilalopress