Conservationists are trying to pull the Congo Basin’s plight out of the shadows and into the light of scientific research. Conservationist Lee White says it is Africa’s beating heart and without its rainforests the continent will be in big trouble.
The rainforests of the Congo Basin are Africa’s beating heart and if they vanish in the face of relentless slash-and-burn farming, the continent will no longer be “viable” because of lack of the critical moisture they deliver to the Blue Nile and other watersheds.
While this ecological gem is probably now absorbing five times as much CO2 as the Amazon, the Congo Basin’s plight has long been in the scientific shadows cast by the attention devoted to its South American kin.
But conservationists are trying to pull it out of the shadows and into the light of scientific research. British conservationist Lee White, the former environment minister of Gabon who lost that job after the 2023 coup, and 176 other scientists will launch their 800-page report on the Congo Basin on 12 November at the next UN climate conference, COP30, in Brazil.
“If we lose the Congo Basin rainforest, the African continent is not viable. The consequences would be unimaginable…