Regional Economic Integration Framework between the DRC and Rwanda Tshisekedi and Trump or THE GAME CHANGERS

December 2025

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda (Rwanda) (collectively referred to as “the Participants”)

Welcoming the Declaration of Principles signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, Olivier Nduhungirehe, in Washington on 25 April 2025;

Determined to support the implementation of the Peace Agreement of 27 June 2025 between the DRC and Rwanda by assuming that illicit trade fuels violence or finances armed groups and by building a future where cross-border cooperation strengthens peace and prosperity for both countries;

Recognising the potential for synergy with continental and regional organisations, including the possibility of revitalising the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL);

Intending to build a future characterised by mutually beneficial partnerships, greater connectivity with international and regional economic development initiatives, and investment opportunities across sectors, including mining, infrastructure, industrial development, agribusiness, public health and national park management.

Hereby establish a Regional Economic Integration Framework (REIF). The Participants reaffirm that these initiatives must be carried out in full respect of the sovereignty, laws and regulations of each country.

In addition to the Priority Areas described below, the Participants agree that the REIF constitutes an evolving platform allowing them to add new mutually acceptable objectives and initiatives:

I. EXPECTATIONS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PARTICIPANTS

The Participants affirm their shared commitment to the promotion of peace, regional stability and sustainable economic development. Based on the principles of sovereignty, mutual respect and regional cooperation, the present REIF offers a shared vision of action to address long-standing challenges and promote shared prosperity in the Great Lakes region.

As a priority, the Participants aim to combat and progressively eliminate illicit activities linked to the extraction, trade, circulation and transformation of mineral resources, which undermine peace, security and good governance in the region.

The Participants consider that the development of energy and infrastructure is a prerequisite for industrialisation, particularly in the mining sector, and for improving the quality of life of local communities.

The Participants have as an objective of cooperation the promotion of a professional, regulated and productive regional economy, particularly with regard to mineral value chains, which primarily benefit the populations of the region.

The Participants affirm that each country exercises full sovereign control over the exploitation, transformation and export of its natural resources. Each country deserves to derive adequate economic benefits from these resources by promoting the industrialisation of the mining sector in accordance with the policies and legal frameworks of each country. Each country also emphasises that local communities must benefit from the revenues and other advantages arising from their extraction, transformation and commercialisation.

II. PRIORITY AREAS OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION

A) ENERGY

In coordination with neighbouring Great Lakes countries and taking into account the African Union’s Continental Power Systems Master Plan, the Participants commit to developing projects for electricity production and transmission to meet the needs of the region’s inhabitants and industries. The Participants give priority to the financial closure of the Ruzizi III hydroelectric project, as well as the cooperative and sustainable exploitation of Lake Kivu methane for electricity production and transmission. Both initiatives can benefit from the multilateral governance arrangements of the CEPGL, with the participation of the Great Lakes Energy (EGL) and the International Electricity Company of the Great Lakes Countries (SINELAC). The Participants also cooperate to ensure that increased production increases access to electricity for industry and households.

Implementation measures:

In support of this effort, the Participants intend, in coordination with Burundi, to increase “clean” electricity from the Ruzizi III project and potentially from other sources such as other hydroelectric projects, Lake Kivu methane extraction, or new technologies such as small modular reactors to power households, commerce, and industry, including mining and mineral processing in each country. The Participants intend, with the support of the AU and its partners, to work towards the establishment of a regional energy pool. The Participants seek to increase household, school, hospital, business and other institutional access to electricity and may seek to use public-private partnerships or joint venture agreements between their public utilities and private sector participants to achieve results more quickly and strengthen operations.

The Participants seek to ensure that abundant and reliable energy benefits local communities and the development and expansion of the sectors targeted in the REIF.

B) INFRASTRUCTURE

The Participants intend to cooperate on the development of mutually beneficial infrastructure, particularly transport, logistics and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.

The Participants commit to developing passenger and freight transport infrastructure as well as warehousing infrastructure, port infrastructure and market infrastructure, and to cooperate to attract and leverage private sector investments in infrastructure that demonstrates economic growth in the Great Lakes region.

The Participants commit to ensuring that these efforts are linked to the Lobito Corridor and to advancing both countries towards better regional and international connectivity in the areas of transport, logistics and ICT.

1) Transport infrastructure and services:

a. Land transport:

The Participants commit to improving land transport infrastructure on their respective territories to promote integration and overall economic growth and to facilitate the expansion of reliable communication lines and electricity transmission networks. The Participants will study and improve the feasibility of ways to improve road infrastructure for the safe and efficient transport of people and goods. The Participants commit to collaborating with the United States and concerned international partners on future links with the Lobito Corridor.

b. Waterway transport:

The Participants commit to giving priority to measures aimed at improving the capacity for passenger and freight transport on Lake Kivu, including port infrastructure, and to improving passenger safety.

The Participants commit to revitalising and strengthening the framework of the 2017 Lake Kivu Integrated Transport Programme under the aegis of the Inter-State Ministerial Council of the Central Corridor in order to contribute to reducing transport costs, mitigating road congestion and promoting trade and tourism.

The Participants commit to facilitating the concerted use of lake transport infrastructure without unjustified and identified restrictions and designating official entry and exit ports, curbing illicit activities passing through the lake.

c. Air transport:

The Participants commit to defining joint training programmes for air sector personnel and to modernising air traffic control systems. The Participants commit to reflecting on ways to improve air connectivity to catalyse regional integration, support trade and tourism and enable the safe and efficient movement of people and goods.

2) Trade facilitation, logistics and ICT infrastructure:

The Participants commit to developing trade facilitation, transport, logistics and ICT infrastructure so that cross-border trade and transit are faster, easier, more transparent and more cost-effective. The Participants commit to establishing commercial information portals for cross-border traders and to considering other digital tools, such as real-time trajectory visibility or goods tracking, to facilitate transparency and the conduct of business.

Implementation measures:

In support of this effort, the Participants have as their objective to increase economic growth in eastern DRC, Rwanda and neighbouring Great Lakes countries by developing reliable access to efficient and well-designed infrastructure and low-cost export corridors dependent on the region to the world’s major economies, including through the Lobito Corridor.

The Participants intend to put in place effective, safe, resilient and transparent cross-border trade facilitation, logistics and ICT infrastructure and policies, intensifying the economic competitiveness of the two countries, improving access to markets and ensuring that goods and people can cross the border safely and easily.

The Participants intend to ensure that physical and digital infrastructure supports the other sectors targeted by the REIF.

To realise this shared vision, the Participants intend to implement the following measures, which are intended to be instructive and non-normative:

First phase: The Participants are developing a shared way forward on joint transport, trade facilitation, logistics and ICT infrastructure, in coordination with regional partners, the private sector and other experts, to identify priority projects.

The Participants are expanding and strengthening existing mechanisms for coordinating local administrations for the implementation of transport, trade facilitation, logistics and ICT infrastructure projects, including on Lake Kivu, as well as related policies and initiatives aimed at improving the security and transparency of cross-border movement of goods and people.

The Participants are considering increasing one-stop border posts and are working to identify infrastructure investments that facilitate the efficient passage of goods in the region. The Participants are developing a roadmap to reopen airspace and air transport services between the two countries.

Second phase: The Participants are working to promote coherent and adequate investments in transport infrastructure – including through public investments, public-private partnerships and private sector investments – in the Great Lakes region to maximise the value produced by special economic zones and other mechanisms created under the REIF.

The Participants are establishing commercial offices and digital tools, including information portals and digital trade facilitation tools.

The Participants are promising the establishment of digital infrastructure, including cross-border fibre optic links and “last mile” connectivity, and are coordinating the harmonisation of regulations so that interoperability between telecommunications systems is provided for in implementation plans, as appropriate.

The Participants are consulting the United States and Lobito Corridor partners on the establishment of a plan to ensure connectivity with the Lobito Corridor in the future, and are working on possible feasibility studies or other preparatory activities.

C) MINERAL SUPPLY CHAINS

The Participants commit to following mining sector policies and legal frameworks that allow for increased investment in industrial mining, as well as better management of a transparent and traceable artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector that is beneficial to the local communities concerned by mining activities, whether artisanal or industrial.

These policies will aim to neutralise the financing networks of armed groups, as well as those that enable any form of destabilisation or insecurity in the region in the future. The two competent Participants commit, in their respective countries and by collaborating with each other, to provide international markets with a regular supply of “clean” minerals.

The Participants commit to cooperating to fill the gaps in cross-border trade regulation. The Participants commit to cooperating to ensure that mineral trade [1] no longer finances armed groups and to create in the region, from mine sites to end users, an international-calibre industrial mining sector, by retreating much more value from this sector for the two countries and by improving its reputation.

The Participants also commit to formalising ASM, thereby opening the way to more substitution livelihood opportunities in the future, and to undertaking joint initiatives to improve transparency and combat corruption and illicit trade, including by improving traceability and professional standards.

The Participants commit to ensuring better cross-border interoperability, including by strengthening border management, and to promoting value sharing, notably through joint industrial development initiatives.

The Participants have as a common objective to create the necessary conditions for the world’s largest mining and mineral processing companies to invest in the region.

1) Regulatory initiatives aimed at improving transparency and licit trade:

a) Prevention of conflict financing: The Participants agree on the need to prevent conflict financing through complete mineral supply chains to sustain stability and prosperity in the region.

As a fundamental step towards deeper cooperation, the Participants commit to identifying, investigating, prosecuting and preventing from participating in the sector all operators, including mining companies and cooperatives, small traders, traders, and smelters/refiners – depending on their legal form or jurisdiction – who may have contributed to the financing of illicit armed groups, the feeding of regional tensions or serious human rights violations.

The Participants commit to prohibiting, preventing and sanctioning, including through strengthened law enforcement cooperation, any form of fraud or activity likely to reactivate the networks or dynamics that have in the past contributed to inter-state tensions or instability within the communities concerned.

b) Regional CIRGL Initiative aimed at improving transparency mechanisms: In order to strengthen the confidence of markets and consumers worldwide, the Participants commit again to actively implementing the OECD due diligence guidelines, including the Guide on Due Diligence for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict and High-Risk Areas and the six tools of the CIRGL Regional Initiative against the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources (IRRN), notably through the full application of the Regional Certification Mechanism, the harmonisation of relevant national legislation, the establishment of a regional database on mineral flows, the formalisation of the artisanal mining sector, active participation in efforts to improve the transparency of extractive activities (including through the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards) and the use of a joint reporting mechanism.

c) Partnerships aimed at strengthening inspections, licensing and credible and transparent certifications: The Participants commit to strengthening the capacities of their respective licensing and inspection bodies, notably through partnerships with third parties, in order to strengthen the transparency, quality and credibility of the regulatory functions of the mineral sector.

The Participants commit to supporting, where appropriate, the use of transparent and credible third parties for the inspection and validation of mining sites, the verification of smelters/refiners, audits, traceable supply chain systems, and export certifications to improve the traceability of mineral trade, from the mining site to the point of export, and to strengthen transparency in order to standardise formal cross-border commercial activities.

The Participants commit to regularly publishing, on a platform accessible to all actors in the supply chain and investors, relevant data on inspections, licensing and certification of mines, and mineral trade.

The Participants commit to leveraging data-driven digital tools, including by potentially establishing end-to-end digital traceability infrastructure, and to studying the possibilities of interoperability between different public and private platforms on either side of the border.

d) Harmonisation of fiscal policies, prohibition of harmful tax competition and combating illegal local levies: The Participants will endeavour to harmonise their fiscal policies – including royalties, levies and any other form of taxes or fees – to eliminate incentives for smuggling and ensure that cross-border mineral trade is licit and economically advantageous for both countries.

The Participants commit not to engage in harmful tax competition practices that could reduce their respective tax bases, leading to distortions in the Great Lakes regional market or harming the objectives of the REIF. The Participants also commit to respecting these principles within other regional bodies of which they are members, in order to avoid the transfer of fiscal arbitrage practices to neighbouring jurisdictions. The Participants also commit to combating illegal local levies.

e) Coordination with international partners: The Participants commit to collaborating with the United States and other international partners to develop other regulatory initiatives or necessary reforms to cost-effectively reduce risks associated with private sector investment.

Implementation measures: In support of this effort, the Participants have as their objective to improve economic prosperity through strengthened cooperation in the area of mineral trade and increased cross-border transparency and market and consumer confidence worldwide.

The Participants also have as their objective to implement reforms that will have the combined effect of increasing the transparency and traceability of the regional mineral supply chain, allowing national public authorities to derive more revenue from economic activities linked to mining on their respective territories and strengthening the conditions for intervention by credible investors.

To realise this shared vision, the Participants intend to implement the following measures, which are intended to be instructive and non-normative:

First phase: A joint technical working group composed of national and sub-national representatives – including law enforcement, security and financial intelligence services – plans to facilitate cooperation on issues related to corruption and transparency in the mining sector.

Second phase: The regulatory bodies of the Participants publish, on an accessible platform, relevant data on inspections, licensing and certification of mines, including information on beneficial ownership, and data on production, processing and export of mineral products.

The Participants take measurable steps to develop and/or improve systems for: inspection and validation of mining sites by their respective national mining authorities and/or designated transparent and credible third parties; national and cross-border supply chain monitoring; audits; mineral export certification and data management and exchange between them.

Third phase: The Participants implement, in accordance with their national priorities and processes, the appropriate reforms to strengthen the rule of law, increase financial transparency and consolidate investigative structures.

f) Cooperation of customs authorities and detection and law enforcement services: The Participants commit to improving, in accordance with applicable law, cross-border interoperability, information sharing on mining activity statistics, economic integration and mineral traceability.

The Participants commit to strengthening cooperation between their customs agents, detection and law enforcement services and sovereign financial intelligence units in order to identify the sources of financing for illicit mineral trade, whether they occur in the informal or formal financial sector, and to prevent and combat illicit activities.

The Participants commit to investigating illicit activities and initiating the necessary prosecutions, and/or collaborating on such investigations and prosecutions, and to strengthening their efforts to prevent and combat these illicit activities, as well as to cooperating to this end with competent international partners.

Implementation measures: In support of this effort, the Participants have as their objective to adopt effective measures to prevent smuggling, the propagation of smuggling and other illicit activities linked to minerals, improving regional economic integration and essentially corruption.

The Participants also have as their objective to combat the use by criminal organisations and armed groups of minerals to finance illicit activities, including acts of terrorism.

Effective cross-border cooperation between detection and law enforcement services and financial intelligence units leads to regularly sharing information and conducting joint operations, which is translated into better results in the fight against crime and improves the international reputation of the two countries in terms of adequate control of money laundering.

To realise this shared vision, the Participants intend to implement the following measures, which are intended to be instructive and non-normative:

First phase: The Participants commit to identifying and designating one-stop border posts (one-stop border posts) and to allocating resources to the maintenance of existing posts.

The Participants commit to identifying points of contact to enable cooperation between competent detection and law enforcement services and financial intelligence units, including with regard to compliance with the rules of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), with particular attention to the mining sector.

Second phase: The Participants consult external experts on the training and support necessary to have the required human capacities, on a national or collaborative basis, with regionally or internationally agreed partners.

Immigration agents, customs agents and other members of detection and law enforcement services at the borders of the Participants carry out quality inspections at all border posts, including risk-based controls (random checks, cargo inspection, secondary interrogations) in order to reconcile efficiency and security.

Control mechanisms are put in place to promote transparency and combat corruption. The heads of detection and law enforcement services and the financial intelligence units of the Participants cooperate to prevent and combat illicit activities.

Third phase: The Participants apply the best international practices and standards in cross-border cooperation, enabling the sharing of information to manage cross-border flows in collaboration.

2) Mining and industrial development policies and initiatives:

a) Mining policy and supply chain: The Participants affirm that the establishment of high-quality industrial extraction and processing activities in the region, including subcontractors and other service providers to the industry, is essential to sustain peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes region, and accordingly commit to mutually supporting each other in achieving the objectives of their mining and industrial policy in this regard.

The Participants commit to consulting to define a transparent and progressive way forward for adding value in both countries, strengthening local capacities and making the best use of markets. The Participants commit to prioritising predictability and stability within their regulatory regimes in order to improve the business climate.

b) Structuring equitable value sharing in the regional mineral supply chain: The Participants commit to establishing economic links that leverage the respective strengths of each country in order to position both countries as world leaders in responsible and ethical mining, processing and refining.

The Participants commit to collaborating with investors to establish in both countries, including through offtake contracts and blended financing instruments, mineral processing plants that support the development of licit supply chain systems and transparent supply chains facilitating licit cross-border trade and processing of minerals, prioritising tin, tantalum, tungsten, niobium, and gold.

The Participants reaffirm their determined strategic objectives, namely to strengthen their own mineral processing and refining capacities and to export mineral products directly to international markets.

The Participants affirm that these objectives are not contradictory, but rather constitute opportunities for synergy and mutually beneficial cooperation if they are structured and regulated appropriately.

Implementation measures: In support of this effort, the Participants have as their objective to become an attractive and safe destination for mining investment in order to promote increased economic development in each country, in accordance with their roles and contributions to the respective value chain.

The Participants also have as their objective to benefit from greater industrial development, responsible mining practices, improved labour and environmental standards, a high level of mineral traceability and a harmonised cross-border customs system that allows both countries to equitably benefit from revenue generation through extraction and value-adding processing.

To realise this shared vision, the Participants intend to implement the following measures, which are intended to be instructive and non-normative:

First phase: The Participants establish a working group to define the methods to be used to mutually support their mining and industrial policies and to develop the processing capacities of each Participant, including the role of special economic zones, tolling facilities or other traceability measures, the priority areas of industrial investment and the long-term pathways to achieve transformation in both countries.

The Participants also begin to assess the necessary enabling policies to support the efforts deployed and the feasibility of possibilities for cross-border investment instruments.

The Participants call on the United States and other international partners, local and international private sector actors and civil society.

Second phase: The Participants carry out feasibility assessments to complete the general framework, building on the relevant work of other technical working groups and sub-national platforms.

The Participants facilitate the establishment of cross-border investment instruments in relation to priority projects to support the general framework.

Third phase: The Participants implement projects and initiatives of mutual interest aligned with the principles of peaceful and sustainable economic growth in the Great Lakes region.

The Participants may use cross-border investment instruments and call on regional and international partners so that these efforts benefit from international investments and assistance.

3) Artisanal mining, formalisation and substitution livelihoods:

Using the national laws and regulations of the Participants, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, and the six tools of the CIRGL IRRN, the Participants commit to formalising and professionalising artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – notably through public-private partnerships or partnerships with civil society – in ways that respect the limits set for ASM-designated sites, prioritising worker health and safety, and are consistent with national regulations and mutually acceptable responsible supply chain standards, including the OECD Due Diligence Guidance.

Each Participant commits to improving mining site operating standards, supply chain systems, worker health and safety, investments in licit commercial systems and financial regulation in order to reduce risks associated with international supply chains with regard to ASM production. The Participants commit to cooperating with the private sector and other actors to combat and mitigate human rights violations often associated with ASM, including child labour and forced labour, violence against women and girls, dangerous working conditions and other negative impacts on local communities.

The Participants commit to examining former partnerships with international actors to improve the image in the rest of the world of minerals originating respectively from the DRC and Rwanda.

A. Strengthening confidence in cross-border transparency and traceability:

The Participants commit to taking reciprocal measures to improve confidence in production and procedures and data relating to mineral exports from one and the other.

The Participants affirm the principle of public-private tolling centres – notably leveraging one-stop border posts and/or special economic zones – to preserve revenues and establish a coordination system aimed at ensuring the legal transport of mineral products.

Tolling centres must be located in both countries in order to guarantee that any unpaid tax and duty is automatically returned to the jurisdiction concerned under the supervision of mutually agreed independent verification partners, within the framework of a cooperation strategy aimed at combating smuggling.

The Participants commit to strengthening the governance control of ASM cooperatives in order to ensure that they are owned and represented by cooperative members and are not subject to undue influence from external parties.

B. Supporting local communities during the transition:

Given the economic importance of ASM for local communities, each Participant commits to considering, on its own territory, ways to help communities that depend on artisanal mining to formalise and professionalise their activities or to move to substitution livelihoods, such as professional small-scale mining operations, agribusiness, and other activities, notably by leveraging sustainable sub-national platforms likely to channel the contribution of these communities to the implementation of the REIF and by promoting the grouping of artisanal miners into cooperatives, this being a strategy to facilitate formalisation and regulation.

The Participants commit to improving the sharing of economic benefits by ensuring that revenues from mining-related activities reach local communities, as appropriate, in an open and transparent manner in order to strengthen community capacities in terms of resilience, to strengthen peace and regional stability efforts.

Implementation measures:

In support of this effort, the Participants have as their objective to take measures aimed at ensuring that ASM production in the Great Lakes region complies with world market standards and expectations through considerable improvements in regulation, the availability of data at all stages, and compliance with due diligence principles, thereby enabling an increase in international investments and a positive perception and global promotion of minerals originating from Rwanda and the DRC.

The Participants also have as their objective to ensure that ASM workers are ready to work in other growing economic sectors, earning a better salary to meet the needs of their families and their surroundings.

The Participants also have as their objective to promote increased private sector investment, leading to prosperity throughout the region through the existence of prosperous small, medium and large enterprises.

To realise this shared vision, the Participants intend to implement the following measures, which are intended to be instructive and non-normative:

First phase:

The Participants have developed and are reforming the process to allow ASM cooperatives. The Participants commit to identifying priority areas for joint training or other programmes for actors in the supply chain.

The Participants begin to identify priority possibilities for granting financing to licit ASM operators who do not participate in conflicts, to formalise this sector, to associate international actors and the private sector with their action, and to develop the possibilities of joint mechanisms to promote large-scale lending and to harmonise, where appropriate, regulatory regimes.

Second phase:

The Participants ensure that quality standards apply to more mining sites, favouring systematic inspections and audits, strengthened supply chain systems, local governance models, financial inclusion and improvements in occupational health and safety.

The Participants regularly publish data on production, trading partners and exports using government publication systems and within the framework of regional databases, duly taking into account the confidentiality of commercial information.

The Participants benefit from better governance and greater transparency of mining rights, and from the designation of artisanal exploitation zones.

The Participants begin to organise training or other programmes so that workers affected by ASM formalisation can access substitution livelihoods.

The Participants deploy and extend the granting of financing to ASM operators, tackling the remaining obstacles to their financial inclusion.

The Participants demonstrate that they are constantly progressing in their efforts to formalise ASM supply chains and to offer substitution livelihoods to local communities.

Third phase:

ASM operators can benefit from more licit and productive sites, under the clear supervision of public authorities and with the contribution of civil society actors.

The Participants ensure that ASM supply chain actors benefit from training, safer and more secure working conditions, financial inclusion and public authority support.

The Participants cooperate with the private sector and other experts to ensure that investments support ASM formalisation and local community development through direct and indirect job creation in local enterprises and large-scale professional development of former ASM supply chain actors.

The formalisation of ASM directly supports the results of peace consolidation, including the reduction of violence and conflict financing, the improvement of the human rights situation and the strengthening of community stability. The Participants verify that local and national public authorities achieve higher revenues through the improvement of traceability processes.

D) NATIONAL PARK MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM

The Participants intend to cooperate to strengthen cross-border conservation and park management activities and to ensure science-based biodiversity and ecosystem management. The Participants commit to developing an enhanced cross-border security strategy along the entire border in order to improve coordination and cooperation in the face of threats in their parks. The Participants commit to creating a favourable environment for the development of a sustainable cross-border tourism industry and to supporting tourism operators in both countries.

The Participants also commit to empowering and associating local communities with conservation activities through equitable benefit sharing and sustainable livelihoods, including the introduction of a harmonised system for sharing tourism revenues and a standardised community development policy for livelihoods.

1) Virunga National Park and Volcanoes National Park: The Participants know that Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and the DRC’s Virunga National Park, as well as the adjacent conservation areas of Uganda, form a vast ecosystem harbouring unique species and extraordinary biodiversity.

In consultation with key partners, including, where appropriate, with Uganda, the Participants commit to improving the joint mechanisms that exist within the framework of the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC) in order to strengthen cross-border conservation and park management activities, including the implementation of the “One Health” approach in the Greater Virunga area.

Within the framework of the GVTC, the Participants commit to defining an expanded cross-border security strategy across the entire transboundary area in order to improve coordination and cooperation between park managers, rangers and law enforcement services in the face of security threats and disease and pandemic hotspots inside and near the parks.

The Participants also commit to defining an intersectoral One Health strategy focusing on zoonotic disease surveillance, vaccination campaigns and health services in buffer communities, through intersectoral collaboration between health, veterinary care and conservation institutions.

The Participants commit to creating a favourable environment by formalising cooperation on the conservation of migratory and transboundary species; as well as by establishing a sustainable cross-border tourism industry focused on Virunga and Volcanoes National Parks that benefits both the countries concerned and the region.

The Participants commit to studying the possibilities of extending these areas of cooperation to Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Itombwe Reserve, Nyungwe National Park and other conservation areas as opportunities arise, in accordance with the legal framework of each country.

The Participants commit to further associating the private sector and international partners, including with the United States Foundation for International Preservation, in the management of nature reserves.

Tourism Promotion: The Participants commit to positioning the Grand Virunga area as an integrated ecotourism destination of international calibre by leveraging shared resources and concerted governance.

In addition to the tourism opportunities linked to the national parks, the Participants commit to using the coordination mechanisms created within the framework of the REIF to study ways of extending their collaboration to other aspects of international tourism that present a common interest, including by facilitating package tourism for visitors wishing to visit the tourist sites of both countries and the coordination of immigration procedures for the purposes of special arrangements on tourist visas and tourist security protocols, by reasonably suppressing the single tourist visa regime of the North Corridor integration project or a distinct bilateral process.

The Participants commit to coordinating joint visa regimes intended for business travellers and tourists in the special economic zones created within the framework of the REIF and to other investors working on projects that present a common interest.

3) Fight against illegal exploitation of natural resources

The Participants commit to strengthening cooperation in the area of surveillance, detection and repression in the common protected areas in order to combat illegal activities, including those linked to mining exploitation, deforestation, charcoal production and the trafficking of wildlife species.

Implementation measures: In support of this effort, the Participants commit to cooperating to protect the relevant areas of their common responsibility in the Virunga and Volcanoes National Parks, through a unique transboundary management plan or other reforms that will allow the inhabitants of the wildlife private sector and private sector actors and rangers and other categories of personnel responsible for the conservation of each country, including researchers.

Under the auspices of the Working Group on National Parks and Tourism, the participants create a bilateral commission benefiting from the advice of private sector experts and other experts with a view to establishing the means to achieve safe, sustainable and responsible cross-border tourism in the region, by suppressing from each side and the surrounding areas, including preliminary discussions on a unified approach to tourism standards, joint pricing of park products and the sharing of tourism revenues, joint investments to facilitate the exploitation of parks, cross-border tourism and the conditions conducive to private investments in cross-border tourism. The participants begin preliminary discussions on the creation of joint visa regimes intended for tourists visiting the Great Lakes sites.

Third phase: The Participants launch the several phases, reciprocal visit programmes or exchanges between their rangers, researchers and other categories of personnel responsible for conservation, joint training activities, visits to rangers, researchers, and other categories of personnel responsible for conservation, and joint transboundary ranger patrols.

The participants bring together experienced tourism entrepreneurs and related activity sectors (logistics, transport and insurance) to discuss the prospects for the development of a cross-border tourism industry through a harmonised strategy.

(To be continued in MNN of January 2026)