Precious Woods in Gabon – Projects for the protection of flora, fauna, and biodiversity
With the FSC and PEFC sustainability standards, PW Gabon goes far beyond other standards and legal requirements – for example in our monitoring and inspection of concession areas, the analysis of timber harvest and usage areas, as well as the professional and environmentally sound disposal of fuels, lubricants, batteries, and chemical substances. Over the past few years, an average of only 1–3 trees per hectare have been logged in the protected zones of the concession, corresponding to about 14 m3/ha. Thanks to this gentle use, the share of the forest impacted by logging has been kept very low. Cutting, access roads, and loading areas take up less than 8 % of the used area on average, which is two and a half times better than the average in Gabon as determined by a study of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Precious Woods devotes special attention to wildlife protection: the company is involved in the training and education of its employees and the local population through its own fauna teams. In cooperation with several universities, PW Gabon also works to collect data on big game, the diversity of species, and other aspects of biodiversity. We also combat illegal activities, especially poaching as part of a public-private partnership with the NGO Conversation Justice and the Gabon government. In this context, it is important to prevent access via forestry roads and logging trails into the zones that have already been used.
Our contribution to ongoing protection of the forests
4 : 1
- Up to 4 m3/ha/year growth in sustainably managed forests compared with less than 1 m3/ha/year in protection zones
- 20 years measurement of wood volume growth
Carbon pool
- PW forests permanently store 330 000 000 tons of carbon
- Through our sustainable management we promote growth and thus generate an additional annual carbon uptake of 5.5 tons CO2 / ha / year
Fauna / Flora
- Large populations of elephants and gorillas (Gabon)
- protection of biodiversity through RIL (reduced-impact logging)