The rainforest the world forgot

The Congo basin is the second largest on Earth, so why is it being neglected?

- Tam Patachako

In October 2023, leaders, scientists and policymakers from three of the world's great rainforest regions - the Amazon, the Congo, and the Borneo-Mekong basins - assembled in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. They were there to discuss one urgent question: how to save the planet's last great tropical forests from accelerating destruction.

For those present, the question was existential. But to their dismay, almost no one noticed. “There was very little acknowledgment that this was happening, outside of the Congo basin region,” said Prof Simon Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Leeds and University College London, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI).

“It didn’t really fly as a conference or a set of policy proposals to better invest in that region of the world.”

Despite being the second-largest rainforest on Earth - and one of the most vital carbon sinks - the Congo basin remains the rainforest the world forgot, often overlooked when it comes to global climate policy and funding.

Spanning six countries across central Africa and home to roughly 130 million people, the basin is often called the “lungs of Africa”. Its vast canopy shelters thousands of rare species.

“It has about 10,000 plant species and 30% of these can only be found in the region,” said Dr Yadvinder Malhi, a leading ecologist at Oxford University. Unlike the Amazon, the Congo’s forests remain largely intact - home to endangered animals such as forest elephants, okapis, mountain gorillas and bonobos.

Its significance extends far beyond its borders. The basin’s rainfall feeds main river systems across the continent, sustaining life as far away as the Sahel.