Congo peat: The 'lungs of humanity' which are under threat

 

According to BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding, a massive slab of carbon-rich peat uncovered in central Africa is under threat from unregulated development, posing a serious risk for future climate change.

 

The scientists were finally ready to begin work after traveling 10 hours by automobile, another 10 by river in a dugout boat, three hours carving a route through thick tropical undergrowth with machetes, and another two wading and clambering through a scorching forest swamp.

 

They built a long, metal corkscrew-like device and thrust it deep into a stretch of dark, water-logged dirt, brushing away mud and mosquitos in the process.

 

"Push. Again," said Greta Dargie, the British scientist leading the group, as she and two Congolese colleagues twisted and pushed the rod further into the ground, then pulled out a half-metre cylinder of shiny black peat.

 

"Not bad at all," said Jodrhy Matoko, a doctoral student from Marien N'Gouabi University in Congo-Brazzaville.

 

Over the last decade, the close-knit group has spent months at a time camping in the remote swamps along the Congo River's edge, keeping an eye out for crocodiles, snakes, and lowland gorillas - and mapping the contours of a massive slab of carbon-rich peat that they now believe could cover an area larger than England.

 

"We'd like to fill in the gaps on the map. It's a lot of labor. It is, however, always an adventure. I've been doing it for ten years, so it must be something I enjoy "Dr. Dargie, a quiet but dedicated peat expert from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, said as much.

 

Mr. Matoko was even more enthusiastic: "I'm a hunter who lives in the woods. It's a very soothing environment. There's no need to be concerned."

 

The scientists - mapping each spot with a GPS monitor - photographed the peat cores, then sealed them in plastic to send off to Leeds University for further analysis.

 

"This peat is so important in the context of climate change. We have a very large amount - some 30 billion tonnes - of carbon stored here. And if it is released into the atmosphere it is going to accelerate global change," said Suspense Ifo, Congo-Brazzaville's leading expert on the peatlands, who was visiting the team.

 

"That's about 20 years of US fossil fuel emissions. I think these ecosystems aren't yet valued as they should be at the international level. [The Congo-Brazzaville government] needs the international community to support them financially to ensure these peatlands remain protected," said Dr Dargie.

The enormous forests in which peatlands are found store significantly more carbon than the large forests in which they are found. However, if allowed to dry out, the peat, which has taken thousands of years to accumulate, can be destroyed in a matter of weeks.

 

Longer dry seasons, connected to climate change, and man-made acts like as unsustainable farming methods are the main risks, posing a serious challenge as Congo-Brazzaville and its neighbors struggle to expand their economies and adjust to growing populations.

 

The likelihood of major oil resources being confirmed and exploited near to the peatlands is a more recent source of concern.

 

Congo-Brazzaville's government has already begun parcelling out blocks of land and looking for potential investors, although there is some uncertainty about the extent and significance of the oil reserves.

 

"You can't ask us to keep our natural resources under wraps. If we need to exploit them, we shall exploit them, in a sustainable way and in accordance with environmental rules," said Congo-Brazzaville's Environment Minister Arlette Soudan-Nonault, dismissing concerns about corruption and mismanagement.

 

"You can't keep saying: 'These Africans - they misuse funds.' It's time we understood that it is in our common interest to conserve [the peatlands]. Because if [the West] doesn't help support our conservation work, we shall be obliged to use our own natural resources, because we need money simply to live," she added.

 

Moves to exploit the resources buried beneath the peatlands are already under way across the river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

Its Hydrocarbons Minister, Didier Budimbu, recently announced an auction of land that is to be developed for oil production. Scientists say some of the earmarked sites overlap the peatlands.

 

In a recent cabinet meeting, Mr Budimbu told colleagues that "national oil production must leave the modest zone of 25,000 barrels a day".

 

The hydrocarbons ministry has been tagging the French oil firm Total in its tweets about the auction set for 28 and 29 July in DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, but neither the firm nor the minister responded to the BBC's requests for comment.

 

"If this plan is not stopped it will have disastrous consequences," said Irene Wabiwa Betoko from Greenpeace Africa.

 

"So it's very imperative that the DR Congo government and donors put their effort to stop the oil blocks and start talking renewable energy."

 

Back across the Congo river, Jordan Elenga steers his tiny, wobbling dugout through a swamp clogged with palm trees.

 

"Gently, gently," he says.

 

He clambered on to the roots of one tree, hacked a deep hole in the side with a machete, then used strands of bark to attach a plastic container to catch the palm wine, before moving on to the next tree.

 

"Wine collecting is my primary source of income." Mr Elenga explains, "It's how I feed my wife and children."

 

Professor Suspense Ifo let out a long sigh of frustration as he watched him.

 

"This is destroying the trees." It poses a serious danger to the ecosystem of peatlands. It has the potential to ruin it in the long run.

 

"The issues here are linked to population increase, and if poverty is not addressed, everyone will come to this ecosystem to make money," the professor explained, adding that when trees die, they expose the sensitive peat to dangerous sunlight.

 

On a wide tributary of the Congo river, in the tiny, run-down town of Ntokou, the local administrator, Alphonse Essabe, sat in a half-built government mansion and acknowledged a "public information vacuum" regarding the peatlands.

 

"We live from fishing and hunting here. But if we are to live in harmony with our peatlands, then the big powers, the world's big polluters, need to provide funding to help us," he said.

 

But despite a series of international agreements about the need to protect the peatlands of the Congo Basin, there is growing frustration in the region, with ministers like Ms Soudan-Nonault accusing the West of hypocrisy.

 

"Without the Congo Basin, the rest of the world couldn't breathe. We Africans provide an eco-systemic service for the whole planet. It makes sense that such a service has a price.

 

"Now that the Amazon has lost its role as the regulator of the world climate due to deforestation… the Congo Basin acts as the lungs of humanity. And the kidneys too," she said, of the peatlands' ongoing role in capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.

 

"What has happened to all the promises made by the international community? You can't tell us: 'Tighten your belt so the rich world can breathe.' In the meantime, you get richer, and we are starving.

 

"We won't be able to restrain ourselves indefinitely," said Ms Soudan-Nonault, hinting that Congo-Brazzaville would turn to China for assistance and that "we will accept the best offers" of support.

 

The authoritarian government of Congo-Brazzaville, bolstered by revenues from offshore oil fields and listed as one of the world's most corrupt countries, has dismissed accusations that it is attempting to blackmail the West into funding peatland restoration projects.

 

"Let's not talk in such manner. We're all set. We have a financial strategy in place. There's no reason why we shouldn't get this money, "Ms. Soudan-Nonault stated.