The Central Congo's peatlands represent the world's most extensive tropical peatland, covering 360,000 km² and storing approximately 31 billion tonnes of carbon. Despite being largely intact and currently used sustainably, these peatlands face threats from oil exploration and logging. A five-year research program aims to assess carbon storage, understand peatland functionality, and address key threats, while advocating for increased investment in local scientific capacity.

1. Central Congo’s Peatlands
Professor Simon L. Lewis, University of Leeds and University College London

2. Central Congo Swamps
• Second largest wetland in
the tropics: 360,000 km2
• Mostly swamp forest
• Some of world’s highest
densities of gorilla &
elephants populations
• Remote from markets,
undisturbed.

5. ROC
DRC
Area 145,500 km2
Carbon stock, 30.6 Gt
Dargie et al. 2017 Nature

6. Context
• World’s most extensive tropical peatland
• On 5% of the area peatlands store as much
carbon as in the vegetation of the entire of
RoC and DRC
• 24% of the world’s carbon in tropical peat
is in the central Congo.
• Equivalent to 3 yrs all anthropogenic C
emissions
Reference peat figures from Page et al. 2011. Global Change Biology

7. Brazzaville Declaration

8. What future for the Congo Peatlands?
• The Congo peatlands carbon store is currently
intact, but is under direct threat, from oil
exploration (RoC), logging (DRC)
Dargie et al. 2018, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

9. CongoPeat, 2018-2023
• 5 year, £3.6 million NERC-funded program
• Addresses two major questions:
– How much carbon is stored in the Congo
peatlands?
– How does the peatland complex function?
• We use this understanding to identify the key
threats to the peatlands and quantify their
potential impacts.

10. Jonay Jovani Sancho, Nottingham Uni

11. South-South and Triangular Cooperation
• Build capacity, knowledge transfer, PhD training
• DRC-RoC field, data and knowledge exchanges
• South-South co-operation with Peruvian and
Indonesian scientists
• What is needed on science:
– Greater investment in Congolese scientists and scientific
infrastructure.
– Investment in scientific infrastructure and capacity
building, so there is a generation of professionals to
advocate for the wise management peatlands in RoC and
DRC

12. White et al. 2021 Nature

13. • The central Congo Basin is home to the
world’s largest tropical peatland, shared
between DRC and RoC.
• They store 31 billion tonnes of carbon.
• At present they are used sustainably and are
largely intact.
• Only at the beginning of this journey to
understanding these precious ecosystems.
Take home message

15. Many thanks to Greta Dargie,
Ed Mitchard, Ian Lawson, Ifo
Suspense, Yannick Bocko,
Corneille Ewango, Susan Page,
Greenpeace Africa, NERC, the
Leverhulme Trust, GPI, and the
people of the central Congo
peatlands for hosting our work
Dargie et al. 2017. Nature
Darige et al. 2018. Mitigation & Adaption
Strategies for Global Change
s.l.lewis@leeds.ac.uk