FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

MENTION ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT

Laboratory of Systems, Biodiversity, Nature Conservation and Endogenous Knowledge

Thesis presented and defended for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Science.

Group: Environment

By

Josée FONU ANAHENDO

Postgraduate Diploma (DEA) in Environmental Sciences

Prof. Dr. Constantin LUBINI A YINGWEU, Professor Emeritus, UNIKIN (Promoter, Member)

Professor Sylvain SHOMBA KINY AMBA, Full Professor, UNIKIN (Co-promoter, Member)

2022

SUMMARY

Sacred forests were studied in the Lukumbe Sector in Sankuru Province.
Indeed, previous studies have shown that the existence of sacred forests and their practice have as their objective the conservation, protection and sustainable use of natural resources. These resources can be rare species that are culturally important and ecologically justifiable. This is why we chose to study the sacred forests of Lukumbe whose main objective is to analyze the reasons for the creation of the sacred forest principle.
To do this, a methodological approach based on direct observation through field exploration was used in order to identify the most characteristic species of flora and fauna.
The harvests were scientifically identified using the flora of Central Africa, Gabon and Cameroon.
For the fauna, we used information from various authors who worked in the Central Congo Basin and whose authors are listed in the final bibliography.
The results obtained indicate 48 sacred forests in the entire Lukumbe Sector.
Let us recall that this Sector is populated by a population whose cultural identity responds to the Aristotelian concept according to which, the management of natural resources by principles which aim at the conservation and sustainable use of the resources of nature.
The identification and inventory of flora and fauna reveals
116 species for all 48 forests, a figure that does not reflect the total richness of the flora because our study does not have the objective of an in-depth study of the flora or even the fauna. The species of flora identified in all the sacred forests highlight the presence of 106 plant species and 59 animal species. In both cases, the species identified here are not endemic to the forests studied, they exist elsewhere.
The Jaccard indices calculated on the basis of comparison reveal that the different types of sacred forests of the communities are practically the same. This is justified by the limited area of the study, the Lukumbe Sector.
This study of sacred forests allows us to conclude that the sacred forest concept is essentially an ancestral strategy whose objective was the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in forest environments. This concept seems to be general in relation to traditional communities living in forest environments.
Keywords: Sacred Forest, Lukumbe Sector, Sankuru, Conservation Strategy, Semi-Evergreen Rainforest