June 17, 2025

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Congo peat: ‘human lungs’ in danger

Congo peat: ‘human lungs’ in danger

Aerial view of a peat forest in Lokolama/Penzele around Mbandaka, Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Greenpeace Africa documents ground-based research by satellite data on vast areas of peatlands recently discovered by scientists in the rainforest swamps of the Congo Basin, as well as affected communities and the natural environment.  It is estimated that the world's carbon-rich tropical region stores the equivalent of three years' worth of all the world's fossil fuels.  Daniel Beltra / Greenpeace Africa 2017

photo credit, Daniel Beltra / Greenpeace Africa

BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says a huge slab of carbon-rich peat, discovered in central Africa, is threatened by uncontrolled development, posing a major threat to future climate change.

After ten hours in the car, another ten hours in a canoe in a river, three hours cutting their way with a machete through dense tropical bush, and then two more wading and mountaineering in a swampy forest gorge, the scientists were finally ready to begin their work.

To read exclusively on BBC Africa:

Brushing on mud and mosquitoes, they assembled a long metallic device resembling a key and pushed it deep into a dark spot of dirt.