River Partners: Applying Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in the Lukaya Basin, Democratic Republic of the Congo

In 2013-2016, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Commission (EC) supported a pilot demonstration project on Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Eco-DRR project aimed to reduce flood and gully erosion risks and support community livelihoods through applying Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in the Lukaya River basin, located in the outskirts of the capital Kinshasa. The project clearly demonstrated that Eco-DRR can be successfully applied through an IWRM framework. The overall success of the field demonstrations is evident by the strong community uptake of the interventions for their multiple benefits, including soil stabilization, flood and gully erosion risk reduction, as well as boosting agricultural yields and household incomes.