The good foresters: Inside the Gabonese rainforest supplying Amsterdam’s lock gates
As the world continues to rely on this tropical timber, what does sustainable forest management look like?
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00:00 I do believe that Holland has an important role in order to build more in the tropical hardwoods
00:07 and be a part of the protection of the forests in the Congo Basin.
00:12 We are currently in the Congo Basin.
00:14 It is the second most biodiverse reservoir in the world, after the Amazon Basin.
00:19 It is a very rich forest where animals live
00:23 and which plays an important role in biodiversity, fauna, environmental and social.
00:29 [Music]
00:39 [Foreign Language]
01:03 [Foreign Language]
01:23 [Foreign Language]
01:37 [Music]
01:42 The city of Amsterdam needs a very flat level in the city itself.
01:47 And in order to get the canals at the right levels, they are divided in parts.
01:53 And when you go from the higher part to the lower part, then you need a lock.
01:58 [Music]
02:00 The climate is changing, everybody knows.
02:02 So we have higher waters, lower levels than before.
02:07 And what will come, nobody knows.
02:10 But what we do know is that we have to have lock gates in the future.
02:14 We have to replace lock gates.
02:16 And what better material can be used than a natural growing material?
02:22 The southern west part of Holland was flooded and many people were killed.
02:27 And then the government made a promise to protect the Dutch people more or less forever.
02:35 If we look at Amsterdam, we have, I do believe, 200 sets of lock gates, which are mainly out of wood.
02:43 The lock gates are mainly produced out of the timber species azurbe.
02:48 The botanical name is Lopfera alata.
02:51 The Germans called it bongosi.
02:54 The English called it ecki.
02:56 We use tropical timber for several reasons.
03:00 It's available in big sizes, sizes you need to get the gates ready.
03:05 It is very strong, so you need less material to have the same strength.
03:10 And it is durable.
03:13 For example, an oak gate has a lifetime expectation of 15, 20 years maybe.
03:18 And when you go to tropical hardwood, you can keep it with good maintenance, go up to 50 years.
03:23 We do source FSC certified wood for two reasons.
03:27 Basically, it's good for the forest.
03:29 You have those social, cultural aspects.
03:32 You have the ecological aspects, which are audited.
03:36 So you're protecting the forest more, and also you're looking after people living in the forest.
03:40 So you do have a responsible production.
03:44 I've never seen such beautiful landscapes in Gabon.
03:47 It's very diverse, with very diverse ecosystems.
03:50 So we really need to have some preserves.
03:52 In the Congo Basin forest, we have the Big Five.
03:55 So the five emblematic animals, especially for Gabon,
03:59 are the elephant, the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the panther, and also the very, very large cephalopods.
04:05 Tropical forests are subject to several threats,
04:08 including illegal wood and agricultural exploitation.
04:12 Forestry, in the strict sense of the term, is the production of goods and services for the forest.
04:18 One of the goods produced is wood.
04:20 And this wood also allows us to pay taxes to the state and pay royalties,
04:25 so a community-related fee.
04:27 So if a forest is not managed sustainably,
04:29 there is very little income that goes back to the administration,
04:32 so the government, and also the community.
04:34 And so when there is this lack of income,
04:36 the communities can be brought back to do agricultural exploitation.
04:40 And when it is misused, it becomes a waste of the forest.
04:44 For those who have local development with the communities,
04:49 you should know that we have a system of remuneration to pay royalties to the communities.
04:55 And based on the principle of volume of wood coming out of the forest.
04:59 So per cubic meter coming out of the forest, we pay a certain amount of money to the community.
05:03 This represents about 300,000 euros annually in terms of direct contribution.
05:08 With this money, the communities must write projects that go in the direction of infrastructure,
05:15 health, education, road construction.
05:18 In fact, it is about investing in projects that affect the whole community.
05:21 There was already the arrival of roads, there was the arrival of schools.
05:26 So the children of all the villagers went to school.
05:31 Before they could go very far.
05:32 And because of the roads that we also have,
05:34 the people of the villages who are sick are quickly transported to large hospitals in the city.
05:40 The forest has great value and we do not want to lose this value.
05:51 And we want to preserve it to the end.
05:54 We would like the children of our children to still find this forest.
05:59 (upbeat music)