Congo Basin: Unraveling the past to predict the future

NURTURING LOCAL SCIENTISTS

The wood biology laboratory will be an open facility. Open to INERA employees, external researchers with a long-term interest in the DRC, and Master and PhD students of the University of Kisangani (UNIKIS). Kisangani, the DRC’s third largest city, is 90 kilometers up the Congo river from the laboratory —right before a 100 km stretch of rapids that cut the navigation along DRC’s main water highway.

For Mélissa Rousseau, the RMCA scientific collaborator in charge of the facility, the laboratory is all about nurturing the talent of local researchers and facilitating the exchange with experts from other African countries and beyond. “The DRC shares similar forests and sustainable management challenges with other countries in the Congo Basin such as Cameroon and Gabon, so their scientists can learn a lot from each other,” she illustrates.

In 2005, there were only six people with postgraduate degrees working as forestry researchers in DRC. CIFOR and UNIKIS have since trained 220 Master and PhD students, a new generation of Congolese forest experts who will now be able to conduct world-class research right next to the rainforest.

“I know many Congolese researchers who wanted to conduct very interesting studies on wood anatomy, but had to give up because there was no suitable equipment in the region,” regrets Kafuti. He believes the new facility, which includes high-end microscopes and tools for radiocarbon dating, will allow African scientists to pursue their studies and guide the sustainable management of forests.

REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS

Studying wood biology has a number of important, real-life applications, starting with the management of commercially-valuable tree species. “Knowing the age and growth patterns of trees, for example, is vital to determining how much wood we can extract from a forest, and when, without jeopardizing the survival of the species,” explains Beeckman from the RMCA.

Indeed, one of the key challenges for countries in the Congo Basin is developing their own modern silviculture approaches —strategies to manage forests and tree plantations so they can continue responding to the needs of people, biodiversity and the climate for years to come.

Kafuti and Luambua are now conducting some of the first studies globally on how hardwood trees such as Afrormosia (‘Pericopsis elata’) –the second most exported species in the DRC— will react to climate change, and how they can be safeguarded. Their studies will be very much facilitated by the local presence of the wood biology laboratory.

In the future, the facility could also help fight illegal logging through forensic timber identification. That is, by determining the species of harvested trees at the request of local authorities or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY

The forests in the Congo basin provide livelihoods and ecosystem services to 60 million people living in and around them, but they are threatened by population growth, slash-and-burn agriculture and fuelwood harvesting.

Deforestation through unsustainable logging, mining and illegal trade of plant and animal species is exacerbated by poor governance and lack of economic opportunities for local communities.

Deep inside the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve, PhD candidate Nestor Luambua trudges through one of the largest undisturbed stands of tropical forest on the planet. Having inventoried trees in an area the size of 300 football pitches, he knows every twist and turn and is confident he can pick his way through the wilderness.

Likewise, Luambua and his fellow researchers are convinced it is possible to find a way out of the unsustainable exploitation of central African forests. Research, education and the development of alternative livelihoods all have a role to play.

Rousseau from the RMCA agrees: “The wood biology laboratory is the first brick in the building, but it is piece by piece that even the grandest constructions take shape.”