Life in the Flooded Forest

Explanation: It was the dry season during my visit to this remote village along the Ubangi River in western Democratic Republic of Congo, although it still rains hard every afternoon, as we trekked through this most unusual forest.

Trees here grow with massive, fluted buttresses so as to remain stable when the rains fall and these lowlands become flooded. In the main photo, above, you can even see the high water marks on the trees.

And in the dry season, now, what remains of that high water are scattered, standing pools, and saturated ground:

Indeed, we are in a unique type of forest known as Fôret Innundée, the innundated forest. When the wet season comes, this area becomes heavily flooded, in part from the storms and in part when the nearby river overfills its banks.

In some of the small pools that remain during the dry season
persist healthy abundances of pondweed and other aquatic vegetation.

I was sent here on a mission to determine how to help local communities valuate and use their timber resources. But I learned a critical lesson here: to view the forest for all its services, not just the trees.

Ah, the trees! These are amazing examples of species locally called mbaka (Copaifera milbraedii) and mokoli (Mammea africana) in the local Lingala language dialect. I was told that mbaka is a quite durable "black wood" that resists decay, even lying on the saturated forest floor for as long as 20 years.

So why not cut the trees and sell the timber?

Because the trees support a rich diversity of local life, and keep the forest healthy. When the rains come, when the river tops, and the area floods, the fish, including large species of catfish, migrate into the forest and occupy this flooded area. And the locals bring their canoes and nets and spears and go fishing in the forest.

This area is a vital source of food and protein for the whole village. Some of the trees produce fleshy seeds that drop into the water and are food ... for the fish. Yes, fruit-eating fish, seed-eating catfish!

More than that, during this dry season, you can still go fishing. If you know where. And how.

And here's how to fish in this
inundated forest during the
dry season.
One of my trekking guides, Paul, is showing me how the
trees form a network of
roots below the ground level.
Occasionally, there may be
an opening -- natural or man-made -- and below
the subsurface are
pools of water.
And this is where you catch
lungfish -- a type of eel --
this remains part of the
locals' diet and critical
source of protein!

Peering into one of the "fishing holes,"
there seems to be little of value, but ...

... dig further, or look at the next hole, and there is indeed water, life,
and habitat of lungfish:

What a fine lesson! The forest, this odd forest, is far more than its trees, more than it standing timber.
It is a giver of food, of life, seasonal and sustainable.

And the community knows not to harvest the trees here for whatever very-temporary value they may provide. They know to sustain this seasonal ecosystem that in turn helps to sustain the community.

As we headed back to the village, I was suddenly both grateful for the lesson and humbled to have seen more ... than just the trees.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week