Enabling Landscapes: INTERHOLCO's Sustainability Report 2017

Total drinking and industry water withdrawal
2016 data. Scope: IFO
95’754 m 3
Water
from the Sangha river
-21%
compared with 2014
due to 'Eau pour Tous'
drinking water
government initiative
Working together to address forest fires
Early in 2016, several fires originated all
over Africa and also within our forest
concession, in open woodland forests,
characterised by a dense Marantaceae and
Zingiberaceae undergrowth. We carried out
an exploratory mission, in cooperation with
the local authorities. With the largest
cluster being estimated at 10 x 15 km, the
fires appeared to have irregularly
punctuated different areas, no longer or
not yet affected by forest operations.
A few months later, we launched an
independent Working Group on Forest
Fires in Open Marantaceae Forests (click
here or scan the QR code to find out more),
to see how best to address the impact of
extreme weather events, such as El Niño.
Some 20 experts from international
research institutes and NGOs joined the
working group. The experts agreed that the
presence of Marantaceae vegetation is a
sign that forest fires had already taken
place in the past, over many years, without
harvest. This can be explained by higher
presence of charcoal in the soil and signs
of a similar sized fire about 50 years ago.
Contrary to what might be expected,
science and on-the-ground studies showed
that tree harvesting in these forests
stimulates natural regeneration, which is
inhibited in ‘intact’ forests. Further to the
working group findings (click here or scan
the QR code to find out more), fire-risk
awareness-raising will be integrated in the
activities that our social team already
carries out with the local communities and
Indigenous Peoples.
61 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017 INTERHOLCO