Forestry Focused
for the Long Term
We’re committed to sustainable and responsible forestry.
We want to develop the economy, improve living conditions & look after people living in & around our concessions.
We’re proud to be the longest holder of FSC® certification in the Congo Basin. Our forest concessions in the Republic of Congo cover around 2 million hectares and around 1.8 million hectares are FSC® certified. We maintain and protect the rest as a conservation area.
How We Protect
A quarter of the area of our certified concessions is permanently protected from forest operations, reserved for the communities and as protected areas. In the harvestable areas, we’re committed to strictly applying Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) techniques, meaning we intensively plan, carefully implement, and do not fell every tree in the area. We harvest at levels significantly below those permitted by national regulations – approximately one tree per hectare every 30 years.
While road development is important to supporting timber operations, we minimise it by closing temporary roads after harvesting. To reduce the impact of temporary access, we’ve developed a digital approach using GPS mapping and customised algorithms to identify the shortest route, protect indigenous trees and minimise damage to young ones. By removing human error, it saves time and fuel, and has significantly reduced the total distance of trails built since its implementation in 2018.
We support eco-guards employed by the government and other organisations to prevent illegal logging and poaching of animals. Partnering with the international NGO, the Wildlife Conservation Society, we run sensitisation campaigns to educate employees and communities about the importance of environment protection, and the laws around this. We maintain dedicated areas within our concessions so that indigenous people can continue to carry out traditional hunting of small game for their family in the local area.
We care about each step in our timber operations – this includes protecting and managing water quality. Our wastewater treatment plant ensures all water used at our sawmills and facilities meets water quality standards before leaving the plant. We analyse all water samples at our on-site laboratory and have these checked and verified independently. We don’t use any hazardous and prohibited chemicals and are committed to minimising the usage of all chemicals across our timber operations.
Fire Prevention & Management
“In Congo, the risk of forest fire is low due to the semi-humid climate. However, forests near savannahs pose a potential risk. We have a fire response plan in industrial sites and we raise awareness of fire risks. We monitor fire incidents with local communities, who sometimes burn land for subsistence agriculture.”
Talk to Us
Whether you’re interested in speaking to our country management team, enquiring about one of our products or partnering with us, we want to hear from you