Mining and biodiversity: Exploring the conservation strategy of a metallicolous vegetation in the Katangan Copperbelt (D.R.C.)

Integration of economic activities with environmental integrity and social concerns is the greatest contemporary challenge, especially in case of mining activities. Southeastern of the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining regions in the North of Zambia, called the “Copperbelt”, comprise hundreds of Copper-Cobalt outcrops. This region hosts unique vegetation composed of metal tolerant and/or rare and endemic taxa. Most Cu-Co outcrops have now been allocated to mining companies and are expected to be impacted in the coming decades. Mining industries are adding environmental and social concerns in the mining plan, implying reflection ensuring a long term success. New concrete actions have been developed for the conservation and restoration of metallicolous plant communities before, during and after the extraction phase. Actions include in-situ conservation and ex-situ conservation methods through the storage of the most threatened species using species translocation, direct seeding, topsoil and community translocation and seed bank conservation for species having high priority. Also, innovative approaches have been exploring in order use metallicolous plants with high conservation value in site rehabilitation. This presentation will review ten years of challenges and actions, from the first scientific study of the ecosystem to the establishment of concrete strategies to temporarily store, restore an valorize this peculiar part of biological diversity.