 A healthy landscape is made up of many parts – the trees and plants, its wildlife and its people. But if the balance between these elements is not maintained, then the landscape can quickly deteriorate. This is why C4Ecraft, together with over a dozen partners, have been working across the Yungambi landscape since 2007, set at the heart of the world's second largest tropical rainforest. In Northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the landscape is spread across both banks of the Congo River. Since the 1930s, Yungambi has been home to a globally important forestry and agriculture research center, which employs a part of the population and creates indirect opportunities for many more. But decades of budget cuts and political instability have seen the local economy decline in tandem with the research activities. Today, formal income-generating activities are limited for the 200,000-plus rural dwellers. Most households living in this 8,000-square-kilometer landscape rely on the exploitation of natural resources for their livelihoods, including logging, shifting cultivation, hunting and fishing. These activities supply the city of Kisangani, a major urban center with about 2 million people, as well as smaller towns such as Bendamisa, Yungambi, Kisangi and Yanongi. But long-term over-harvesting, land-use changes and rapid urbanization threaten Yungambi's forests and the incomes of dependent communities. Therefore, together with our partners, we are working to intensify agricultural, agroforestry and forestry activities. We also aim to create better jobs that involve individual entrepreneurs in local communities to promote improved living conditions. Our goal is for the Yungambi landscape to become a global reference on how innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainably managed forests can serve as a driver for local development. To succeed, we focus on an engagement landscape model rooted in five principles. Achieving sustainable outcomes requires consistent investment. We have been working in the landscape for 13 years and are committed to stay as long as needed. Financial support from the European Union has enabled us to kick off many activities and to bring in old and new partners that are creating local opportunities in green jobs including large-scale restoration and biomass energy generation. But for these activities to be sustainable in the long term, we need economically viable models and private sector engagement through public-private partnerships. We also need support for local initiatives. This is why we work with local entrepreneurs to ensure that their economic activities improve their living standards and are not harmful for the environment. We support charcoal makers to develop more efficient carbonization, fish farmers to increase their yields and improve preservation, and farmers to plant trees in their fields and diversify and improve their crops. By promoting improved resource management and behavioral change amongst users, we'll ensure that the landscape's biodiversity continues to thrive for the generations to come. But to effectively respond to local needs, these initiatives must be backed by solid research in and for development. We support and conduct many lines of innovative research. Our vision is for the Yungambi landscape to become a scientific hub for the study of how forestry, agroforestry and agricultural activities impact the environment, climate and people. Research into native plant species, how forests adapt to climate change, and socioeconomic drivers and solutions to deforestation are allowing us to better understand human impact on the Congo Basin's biological processes. Making Yungambi a world-class research center also involves investing in infrastructure. Many existing buildings have been renovated, including an important herbarium that is home to Central Africa's largest collection of dried plants. New research facilities have also been built in recent years, such as a wood biology laboratory and an eddy covariance flux tower. Investment in human resources is fundamental. To meet this need, we train local postgraduate students, researchers, cadres and technical staff. We teach them to understand, assess and better manage resources and livelihoods through social and natural sciences. Together with the University of Kisangani, we run an innovative masters and PhD program in sustainable forest management. This program attracts top professors from all over the world who travel to Kisangani to co-teach innovative courses with a Congolese counterpart. Our partnership with the University of Kisangani has been key in training over 220 forest graduate students with many more to come. The postgraduate program is just one example of how every action that takes place in the landscape relies on strong partnerships with Congolese bodies, such as the Congolese Institute for Agronomic Research, as well as international and private entities. This means aligning our goals with the national and provincial government's priorities, informing policies and management decisions, and facilitating the active engagement of village-level authorities. Together, we steer interventions throughout the landscape because sustainable change also requires strong local institutions. Only then can we build a better future for the Yungambi landscape based on applied research and a long-term commitment.