Protecting the Congo Basin could be key to global climate battle

When we talk of deforestation, global attention is almost inevitably drawn to the Amazon rainforest in South America or perhaps the jungles of Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia and Malaysia. Rarely does the Congo Basin figure in these discussions.

Yet, it is every bit as vital to the future of the planet as the other two. In fact, it might even be more important for several reasons. For one, the Congo Basin is one of the most important remaining wilderness areas on the planet. At 500 million acres, it is larger than the state of Alaska and is the world’s second-largest tropical forest. It spreads across six countries in south-central Africa.

Not only does its size make it an important resource for protecting the planet in the battle against climate change, but also the fact that it lies in one of the least-developed parts of the world. As a result, the typical footprints of development — such as activities by multinational corporations, industrial development, road networks or smoke-belching power plants — are almost completely absent.

In many ways, therefore, it might be the largest and most protected, almost virgin, territory in the world and so it is crucial to the health of the planet, given that the forests of Southeast Asia have been affected by large-scale plantations and industrial logging, as has the Amazon.

But while it might not be humming with the sound of industrial activity, the Congo Basin is nonetheless under attack and has been for a while. It is home to more than 75 million people, almost all of whom would figure high on the list of the world’s poorest. An overwhelming number of them are small farmers who follow the ancient practice of shift agriculture, in which they clear a section of forest and use that for a season before moving on to another. This obviously causes damage to the forests, though the scale and geographical footprint is rather limited, even with a rising population.

The Congo Basin is one of the most important remaining wilderness areas on the planet.

Ranvir S. Nayar

Greater damage is collectively caused by other activities that are also practiced on small, almost individual scales by large numbers of people. One of these is mining. The area is rich in diamonds and precious metals and minerals, most notably gold, and thousands of people are engaged in mining them, often manually, which damages soil as well as forests.

Another threat comes in the form of black gold: Crude oil. The Congo Basin has rich deposits of crude and although there has been some industrialization of the area by large oil firms, there are hundreds of smaller, home-grown oil wells that together are causing large-scale, long-lasting damage to the environment.

Over decades of unrest and war, the natural wealth of the region has continued to be plundered, ultimately ending up in markets worldwide. Yet, little international attention is paid to the problem because it is happening in a remote part of the planet that does not really matter to the rest of the world, except perhaps for its natural wealth.

Fortunately, it might not be too late to act. Some nongovernmental organizations have started to teach communities about the importance of working with nature and protecting it, rather than pillaging it or allowing others to steal and rob from the forests.

But for the efforts to be effective not just in preventing the further destruction of forests but also restoring those that have already been lost, much more needs to be done in terms of providing money and manpower to achieve this.

Unless the international community steps up and not only provides the resources that are needed, but also helps to restore peace and stability in the Congo Basin, the situation will continue to deteriorate rapidly and spiral out of control.

• Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group.