Biodiversity Conservation and Mining : a Study Case of Ecosystem Reconstruction in Katanga (DRC)

The South of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Katanga) and adjoining regions in the North of Zambia comprise some of the largest ore bodies of cobalt and copper in the world. Katangan copper hills harbor about 40 endemics as well as particular steppic plant communities.
This Biological Diversity Action Plan (BDAP) is an activity program for the conservation of copper-cobalt flora and vegetation and mitigation of potential species extinction risk, during the early construction phase of the Tenke Fungurume Mining Corp. (TFM) project.
Six potential taxa of concern (IUCN criteria) have been identified in the TFM concession.
In situ conservation is fulfilled through the setting of a single large reserve.
In parallel, important efforts have been devoted to ex-situ conservation strategy to re-establish vegetation and species after mining activities cessation. This includes:
- Translocation of 3500 individuals of plants of concern to the nature reserve.
- Ecosystem engineering with the reconstruction of an artificial copper/cobalt ecosystem.
- Ex-situ seed bank with 300 seed samples (at least 50 seeds) collected belonging to 40 species and used for short and long term conservation, germination tests and micro-propagation tests.
All these efforts represent an important step towards the conservation of copper-cobalt flora.