09 Aug 2007 - By Constance
Hegner* - A siren is heard blasting over the
town of Pokola in the northern part of the
Republic of Congo, warning hordes of passers-by
to immediately clear the way for a rapidly
approaching airplane.
When not being used for arriving and departing
flights, Pokola’s makeshift landing strip
in the middle of town serves as an important
thoroughfare and gathering point. Originally,
the landing strip was situated outside of
town in a clearing in the dense tropical rainforest.
But as the settlement grew from a small timber
camp to a bustling town of over 13,000 inhabitants,
houses and markets started to spring up around
the strip.
Today, business in Pokola is booming, especially
its forestry sector, which exploits the rich
natural resources of the Congo. Many wonder
how long the economic growth can continue.
“Timber companies are not always out to empty
the rainforest of trees,” said Jacob Sterling,
Conservation Director at WWF-Denmark. “In
spite of all the hurdles, there are some companies
working on ensuring that the industry is sustainable
and can benefit the local community and contribute
to the development of the national economy.”
Investing in people
One such timber company is CIB (Congolaise
Industrielle des Bois), the town’s largest
employer, with over 1,700 employees. The company,
owned by Danish timber giant Dalhoff Larsen
& Horneman A/S (DLH), has at its disposal
huge concessions in northern Congo (1.3 million
hectares), constituting the largest economic
activity in the region with its numerous logging-related
activities and sawmill plants.
As is often the case, makeshift sawmills
in the middle of a forest — far away from
government control and oversight — can be
a recipe for deforestation. But it’s not like
that in Pokola. Here, sustainable forestry
is the norm in a region plagued by illegal
logging and forest conversion.
“Guided by sustainable management policies,
we are investing in the area based on a long-term
vision to preserve the forest’s resources,”
said Lucas van der Walt, CIB’s environmental
coordinator.
“This is not only for the benefit of the
forest, but for the benefit of local communities
that are dependent on these forests.”
As many of Pokola’s children will one day
be working at a nearby sawmill, CIB feels
it has a direct interest in its future workforce
and is investing in the local schools. The
forest company has also established a hospital
where it offers affordable medical care for
the employees and their families.
“It is the company’s social responsibility
to invest in future generations,” van der
Walt added.
Responsible forestry
But this environmental and social consciousness
was not always the trademark of CIB.
In the 11000s, the company was repeatedly
criticized by several environmental groups,
including WWF, for its inability to control
the poaching of such threatened species as
gorillas and chimpanzees, and for its mistreatment
of the indigenous pygmy population. Some of
its forestry practices were also questioned
for the impact they were having on the rainforest.
By the end of that decade, however, CIB started
to heed the groups’ concerns and began to
move to sustainable forestry.
As part of the process, they developed a
forest management plan based on sustainable
felling, as well as a comprehensive inventory
of tree species and wildlife. It took three
years and hundreds of employees to map their
forest concessions in northern Congo.
“This knowledge allows us to carefully plan
the selective extraction of certain trees
in order to minimize our impact on the forests
and to avoid areas of cultural importance
and other sensitive habitats,” van der Walt
said.
Today, the company harvests on average only
one tree per hectare over a 30-year period.
By any tree-felling standard this practice
is considered very cautious, giving the forest
the right conditions to regenerate after the
chainsaws are silenced.
If too many trees are cut, not only will
the forest degenerate but it would mean an
end to CIB’s timber business, and by extension,
an end to the town’s improved social benefits.
Part of the forest management plan also includes
working with the largely disenfranchised forest-dwelling
pygmy groups living inside CIB’s concessions.
To help avoid felling trees in areas important
to the pygmies, they were asked to mark where
they live, their burial grounds, and hunting
and fishing spots with satellite-tracking
GPS coordinates. This unique participatory
forest management is providing a good basis
for dialogue between the pygmies and the company
on the use of the forest.
FSC certified
CIB’s efforts to implement responsible forestry
reached a significant milestone in 2006 when
its Kabo concession (296,000 hectares) received
certification from the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) as proof of sustainable forest
management.
The FSC, supported by WWF and others, is
an independent, non-profit NGO that works
to promote environmentally appropriate, socially
beneficial and economically viable management
of the world’s forests. In particular, FSC
provides standard setting, trademark assurance,
and accreditation services to companies and
organizations interested in responsible forestry.
But CIB hasn’t stopped there. Their goal
is to have all their concessions in the Republic
of Congo FSC certified in the future.
“Just 2-3 years ago there were not many who
believed that it would be achievable to have
FSC certification of tropical rainforests
in Central Africa,” Sterling said. “One can
hope that other timber companies will follow
CIB’s lead.”
* Constance Hegner is Communications Officer
at WWF-Denmark.
END NOTES:
• WWF visited the Republic of Congo together
with Investeringsfonden for Udviklingslande
(IFU) – a Danish State Fund – that has invested
in CIB. WWF is helping IFU ensure that the
exploration of the forest is done in a responsible
way.
• The Congo Basin forests — the world's second
largest rainforest after the Amazon — covers
an expanse of more than 1.8 million km2, spreading
across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon
and Equatorial Guinea.
• The Congo Basin forests contain more than
half of Africa's animal species, including
most of the forest elephants left in the continent
and the entire world population of lowland
gorilla. They also provide food, materials
and shelter to some 20 million people. Estimates
indicate that the region loses 1.5 million
hectares of forests each year due mainly to
illegal and destructive logging. Other threats
include mining, poaching and smuggling of
wildlife, and the illicit bushmeat trade.
If present trends continue, two-thirds of
the Congo Basin forests could be lost within
50 years.
