Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

The protected areas of the country cover 13.1 per cent of national territory [ ] 82 The development of sustainable management plans for forest concessions Since 2000, in accordance with the new policy on sustainable forest man- agement, the department in charge of forests carried out a programme for the development of management plans for forest concessions. 32 Forest Management Units (FMU), cover- ing approximately 9,375,399ha, are involved in a programme planned to extend to all forest concessions. In this context, five management series were defined, delineated and mapped in each managed FMU. These are the conservation, pro- tection, research, production, and community development series. Congolese companies, such as Con- golaise Industrielle des Bois, Indus- trie de Transformation des Bois de la Likouala, Bois et Placages de Lopola, have begun the development of management plans, with the support of international expertise, name- ly consulting firms such as Forest Resources Management and Tropical Wood Environment. The forest companies’ funding of the management plans allowed the programme to be carried out in sev- eral FMUs. Currently, 2,277,648ha have already been planned in UFA Kabo, Ngombé, Pokola and Lopola, including 1,891,610ha which have received the forest certification FSC Furthermore, these plans, based on the new concept of sustainable man- agement, recommend the compila- tion of multi-resource inventories in order to obtain information on tim- ber and other biological resources, as well as the state of protected areas. Socioeconomic and ecological studies are also carried out, to take into ac- count the activities of the populations and the environmental impact of forest exploitation and other types of valorization of biological resources. To this end, a number of forest inventories have been undertaken in recent years, particularly in the forest of northern Congo where compa- nies are more engaged in the forest management process. In addition to these botanical survey missions, some plant communities have been characterized in central and northern Congo. All of these missions were coupled with the computerization of exsiccata from the herbarium of the Centre for Studies of Plant Resources, begun in 2008. Currently, of 26,575 computerized specimens, there are 5,137 spontaneous species, distrib- uted among 1,627 genres and 233 families. In the context of international cooperation, such as with the French Development Agency, an assistance project for forest companies oper- ating in the south of the country is being carried out, in order to better involve them in the dynamic of preparation and performance of these management plans. S traddling the equator, the Republic of Congo is situated in Central Africa. Its territory spans 342,000 km 2 and borders the Atlantic on a 170 km-long coast. The vegetation of the country is divided into two main types: forest and grassland. Covering 65 per cent of national territory, the forest comprises three main massifs: the Mayombe, Chaillu, and northern Congo, composed of five forest formations. The grasslands consist of various savannah types, with grass, shrubs, and trees. Due to its position at the crossroads of the lower Guinean and Congolese domains, Congo features a rich diversity of plants, with a current register of 26,575 species Roads of Lekoumou province, Congo JB Dodane on flickr Congo