Dorsch Impact GmbH

Sound land use planning is one of the most effective instruments communities and governments have to protect forests, secure livelihoods, and meet climate commitments, especially when it is participatory, evidence-based, and locally owned.

We are happy to announce that our Climate & Nature department has been commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, co-funded by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), to support the participatory development and initial implementation of Local Land Use and Sustainable Development Plans (LLUSDP) in four pilot municipalities in Cameroon. Our assignment forms part of the GIZ-implemented module Capacity Building in Land Use Planning in Cameroon (P***T) and covers the full six-phase LLUSDP process from diagnostic and spatial planning through to the launch of priority implementation measures in the municipalities of Ngambe-Tikar, Mfou, Melong, and Akom II.

The work will deliver four validated, gender-sensitive, and climate-resilient LLUSDPs that directly link local territorial governance to Cameroon's national land use framework and international climate commitments, while strengthening the planning capacities of municipal authorities and broadening the participation of women, youth, and Indigenous peoples in land-use decision-making.

👉 Learn more about the project on our website: https://impact.dorsch.com/projects/detail/development-of-local-land-use-and-sustainable-development-plans-llusdp

***T

Development cooperation must reach people where they are, including in high-risk areas such as Mali, where an unpredictable security situation remains a constant challenge.

To enable our project teams across the Mali portfolio to supervise, track, and verify field activities even when direct site access is restricted, we work with a Remote Monitoring, Management, and Verification (RMMV) system. This keeps implementation on track while ensuring transparent, credible reporting to clients, donors, and stakeholders.

Recently, our RMMV champion for the Mali portfolio, Moctar Bah, together with Dr Jennifer Provost, Project Manager at Dorsch Impact and international RMMV expert, presented the RMMV system developed for the Malian context to technical staff across all departments. RMMV is increasingly being explored across different regions and areas of expertise within the Dorsch Impact portfolio.

Read more about how we deploy RMMV systems to ensure reliable, accountable work in high-risk areas https://impact.dorsch.com/news-insights/detail/reliable-work-in-high-risk-environments

🌿 What does it really take to protect nature? 🌿
A question that guides our work at Dorsch Impact GmbH in many projects, and that deserves special highlighting on todays World Nature Conservation Day. More than biodiversity targets and financing mechanisms, it takes trust, communication, and the courage to sit with conflict and work through it.
Our senior expert Bernd Unger has spent three decades doing exactly that. Working across forestry, conservation and natural resource management in fragile contexts from Indonesia to Egypt to Vietnam, he has seen firsthand how the question of who manages natural resources, and how, is rarely just technical. It is, above all, a political and human one.
In a recent interview, Bernd reflects on what effective conservation truly demands:
🌱 Recognising indigenous peoples not as project beneficiaries, but as the most experienced forest managers
🌱 Treating conflict not as a failure, but as an opportunity – if handled professionally
🌱 Understanding that long-term sustainability only emerges when communities genuinely shape the process

Bernd has recently co-authored the chapters on Forests, Agriculture and Natural Resources for Essential Concepts of Environmental Peacebuilding: An A–Z Guide, a landmark reference publication released in June 2026 under the Environmental Peacebuilding Association (EnPAx). This glossary offers clear, grounded language for practitioners and policymakers navigating the complex intersection of environment, conflict and peace.
Nature conservation will not succeed without social cohesion. And social cohesion will not hold without meaningful participation and professional conflict resolution.
Read the full interview 👇
🔗 https://impact.dorsch.com/news-insights/detail/nature-as-common-ground-an-interview-with-bernd-unger-on-environmental-peacebuilding

Accelerating the transition to low-carbon, nature-positive economies requires not only political will, but the right legal, financial and economic conditions for private investment to follow.

We are happy to announce that our Climate & Nature department has been commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH , funded by the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) and the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), to deliver legal, financial and economic advisory services in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of the EU EuroClima programme. Together with our consortium partner Como Consult GmbH, we will support the scaling of transformative climate action across five thematic areas: sustainable mobility, energy transition, biodiversity and nature-based solutions, circular and bioeconomy, and water management.

Through targeted regulatory advisory, business model development, financial structuring, and capacity development, the assignment aims to mobilise public and private investment at scale, strengthen the institutional resilience of key target groups, and contribute to more enabling environments for climate investment in support of national and regional climate commitments across Latin America and the Caribbean.

👉 Learn more about the project on our website: https://impact.dorsch.com/projects/detail/euroclima

Granting access to safe and dignified sanitation prevents water pollution, serious public health risks, and disproportionate burdens on women and girls.

We are happy to announce that our Water & Agriculture department has been commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH to support the Mali SANYA Programme. Our assignment focuses on developing the institutional framework and establishing a sustainable financing mechanism for sanitation infrastructure, including conducting a comprehensive feasibility study on financing instruments for the planning, construction, and operation of sanitation facilities across Mali.

This work is expected to contribute to improved sanitation services for over 1.46 million people across 42 municipalities, advancing progress on health, safety, and equity in line with Mali's National Strategy for Emergence and Sustainable Development (SNEDD 2024–2033) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

👉 Learn more about the project on our website: https://impact.dorsch.com/projects/detail/mobilisation-of-technical-expertise-to-establish-a-financing-mechanism-for-sanitation-infrastructure

We are proud to announce that our Governance & Economic Development Department is implementing the consulting assignment "Preparation of reports on the integration of services relating to regular migration, return and socio-economic reintegration into partner organisations in selected partner countries of the global project ‘Centres for Migration and Development’ / ‘Zentren für Migration und Entwicklung’ (ZME)".

The project aims to promote safe and regular migration by providing advisory services on labour and training migration, whilst enabling the sustainable reintegration of returnees into their countries of origin. Dorsch Impact is responsible for conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the ZME project, encompassing institutional and technical components, from desk reviews and stakeholder consultations to the drafting of country-specific reports, in order to generate rigorous, gender-sensitive evidence on institutional sustainability, capacity development, and partner ownership that will directly inform future BMZ and GIZ migration programming.

Our implementing experts are Isabel Katharina Küppers, Nadja Frercksen, Gabriela Schanz and Marius Jakl.

Learn more about the project: https://impact.dorsch.com/projects/detail/support-to-the-global-centres-for-migration-and-development-project

In early June, our Kronberg colleagues Cédric Kotitschke and Esther-Rosalia Greco-Welle welcomed Nestor AHOUANGAN and Riphath DOSSOU from the Hashtag project in Benin. Since November 2021, Dorsch Impact has been supporting the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH in this programme.
Read more about how this “reversed backstopping” approach strengthened the connection between our headquarters and field team, sharpened our shared understanding of the project context in Benin, and included a few memorable local experiences for our visiting colleagues.
https://impact.dorsch.com/news-insights/detail/learning-from-the-field-a-visit-from-benin

Learning from the Field: A Visit from Benin In the first days of June our colleagues from the Kronberg office welcomed Nestor Ahouangan, Team Leader, and Riphath Dossou, Key Expert and Expert Pool Manager, from the ReFORME project in Benin.

A strong company culture is built not only through working together, but also through taking time to connect beyond the daily routine.

😎 Recently, colleagues from our corporate functions teams in our German offices spent a day together at Seaside Beach Baldeneysee in Essen. We started with a team-building activity in archery, followed by a BBQ, and rounded off the day with table football and mini golf.

Because our teams are based across Germany, in Kronberg, Munich and Essen, and many of our exchanges take place online, these in-person moments are particularly important. They help us strengthen relationships across locations and foster a shared sense of team spirit. And even though the weather was not as warm and summer-like as we had wished for, it stayed dry – and most importantly: the day was filled with good conversations, friendly competition and plenty of fun. 🌻

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making it such a great day.
🧡 💚 💛

We are proud to announce that our Governance & Economic Development Department is implementing the GIZ project "Supporting the Framework Conditions for a Climate-Sensitive Circular Economy in the Caribbean" funded by the BMZ.

The project aims to strengthen the institutional and operational capacities of public and private actors to design and implement climate-sensitive circular economy measures across five Caribbean nations: , , , , and , with a particular sectoral focus on tourism and agriculture, two pillars of Caribbean economies that generate significant waste streams and offer transformative potential for circular innovation.

Learn more about our project activities and its impact: https://impact.dorsch.com/projects/detail/supporting-the-framework-conditions-for-a-climate-sensitive-circular-economy-in-the-caribbean

Dorsch Impact operates across four technical departments. Today, we're sharing a snapshot of our Climate & Nature Department.

24 staff members. 35 active projects. 15 countries. 4 areas of expertise. 3 global projects. 2 regional projects.

Creating resilient systems in which both people and nature can thrive.

Want to learn more about our work? www.dorsch-impact.de