Topsoil and community translocation as a mean to restore metallophyte communities of katangan copper hills (D.R. Congo)

One of the current major challenges consists in integrating economic activities with environmental
integrity. One of the world’s largest concentrations of copper and cobalt deposits
is located in Katanga (Democratic Republic of Congo) and represents an important source
of income for the country. Unique communities and several endemic species are hosted on
copper outcrops and are threatened by the extension of mining activities in the area. In theory,
translocation or transplantation of structuring and/or endemic species is a suitable substitute
to spontaneous succession and a good mean to rescue and conserve the more threatened
species. Here we present the global framework developed with a mining company in order
to conserve and restore the biodiversity of Cu-Co communities, including, translocation and
transplantation of highly threatened species. We recorded low survival of translocated individuals.
An alternative was then to produce seedlings of native species under nursery conditions
for their later transplantation in degraded areas or for conservation purposes. However,
we highlighted that the diversity of plant forms found in such tropical area limited the production
of many species and poor understanding of many of these tropical plants often hampered
their regeneration and their use in restoration. Transplantation results are not always reported,
especially in case of failure, while such results appear as even more important than successes
and have to be presented.