In April, the Kabo concession, one of five managed by Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), part of the DLH/ tt-Timber Group, became the first area of Forest Stewardship Council-certified forest in the Congo Basin.

CIB had to go to enormous lengths to satisfy SGS – the certifier undertaking the assessment – that it conformed to the FSC standard. The concession covers 296,000ha of dense tropical rainforest and is home to semi-nomadic and other indigenous communities and a vast range of animal and plant life.

The barriers to FSC certification in a region like Kabo are particularly high due to both the sensitivity of the environment and a general lack of effective state forestry regulation and certification infrastructure. There is also a need to overcome scepticism of environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) that there is any legitimate role for timber harvesting in natural tropical forest.

In seeking certification, CIB collaborated with a wide range of organisations to help raise its environmental performance. Since February 2004, it has had technical support from the International Tropical Forest Trust (ITTO), which advises organisations seeking FSC certification. International agencies, including ITTO, the German overseas development assistance agency GTZ and the French Global Environment Fund (FFEM), have provided over US$2.5m in support of the certification.

The certification process has encouraged CIB to be open about how it tackles social and environmental issues. In December 2004, it gave Greenpeace unprecedented access to its operations which resulted in a 70-page report.

The most immediate challenge facing CIB was to develop a forest management framework that allowed harvesting while at the same time avoiding any long-term forest degradation. Since the whole forest is classified by FSC as a “high conservation value forest”, there are special obligations to undertake a full assessment of conservation attributes and for extensive consultation prior to forestry operations. A first step was to decide which parts of the concession should be protected. Based on a detailed forest inventory and following consultations with government agencies, NGOs, and local communities, 75,000ha of particular ecological interest were set aside. The protected area also creates buffer zones with neighbouring national parks.

The certification process has encouraged CIB to be open about how it tackles social and environmental issues

The remaining 214,000ha of the concession is designated as production forest where commercial harvesting is subject to tight control. The area is divided into production units, each with an equivalent volume of harvestable timber. Harvesting is selective, so that only a small number of mature trees over a minimum diameter are removed per hectare, and it is carefully planned to avoid damage to the residual stand.

Once harvested, each production unit is closed and not logged for 30 years. CIB regularly monitors operations to ensure adequate implementation of the management plan and conformance to environmental standards. The SGS certification assessment found that this system is effective at maintaining the integrity of the forest, noting that “generally, artificial canopy openings do not exceed the natural openings” and “the structure of the remaining stand is comparable to that of a natural forest”.

But maintaining the integrity of the forest is only a small part of certification: the FSC standards emphasise indigenous people's rights. These issues are difficult enough to deal with in countries where legal procedures exist to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples; the problems are profound in countries like Congo Republic where there are no reliable procedures to resolve land disputes.

The semi-nomadic pygmy groups, which are indigenous to Kabo, have suffered particularly from discrimination. Western concepts of land ownership are alien to pygmy societies which do not accumulate property or store surpluses. Groups operate a culture of obligatory sharing and decisions are taken collectively. This egalitarianism makes it difficult for these small, isolated groups to organise themselves to oppose powerful outside forces. As a result, there has been a systematic failure throughout the Congo region to recognise pygmy land rights.

To achieve certification, CIB has had to take the initiative. Not only has it formally recognised the rights of indigenous people within the reserve, but it has also facilitated a process for identifying and mapping these rights. A GPS hand-held computer mapping system has been developed in association with technology company Helveta and anthropologist Dr Jerome Lewis, who has lived with pygmies in the region for over 10 years. The system uses icons that are familiar to indigenous people so that they can locate and map key forest resources such as smaller fruit-bearing trees, hunting zones, and culturally important sites. Their data is integrated into commercial logging plans so that these resources are protected.

Maintaining the integrity of the forest is only a small part of certification

CIB has also developed procedures to ensure active involvement of local and indigenous populations in forest management decisions, establishing a social office within the CIB forest management department. A monitoring system has also been set up in collaboration with local NGOs to assess the extent to which the indigenous population has given informed consent to forestry operations. World Bank funding has helped to establish a local radio service to improve communication between forest communities. There are now plans to set up new village association structures to help support indigenous people in their interactions and negotiations with other forest stakeholders.

The first shipment of FSC-certified logs from the Kabo concession – around 132m3 of sapele, sipo and acajou – arrived in Germany in September, destined for a Swiss buyer. While this is a start, DLH in the UK is keen to stress that the Kabo certification will not lead to an immediate significant increase in availability of FSC-certified African sawn lumber. In isolation Kabo is only capable of supplying relatively modest volumes, the majority of which is directed to existing, long-term customers.

The good news is that more significant volumes should become available following certification of CIB's other concessions in the Congo Republic. CIB is finalising management plans for these, which cover an additional 1 million hectares, with a view to seeking certification next year. CIB's success is also encouraging other suppliers in the region to pursue FSC certification. There are reports that Industrie Forestière d'Ouesso, part of the Danzer Group based in the Congo Republic, is making real progress towards FSC certification.

All this demonstrates the lengths to which tropical suppliers are willing to go in order to satisfy western consumers' demand for certified wood. It shows that such demands can have a profound and positive impact on social and environmental practices in tropical supplying countries.