The Congo River

The Congo River is the second-largest river in the world by discharge after the Amazon and the largest river system in Africa. Stretching more than 4,700 kilometres across Central Africa, the river and its network of tributaries form the ecological backbone of the Congo Basin and sustain one of the most biologically diverse freshwater systems on Earth.

The basin supports more than 700 fish species, many of which are endemic and found nowhere else in the world, with new species continuing to be discovered across isolated river systems, deep channels, flooded forests, and rapids. The river system also supports major wetland ecosystems, floodplain forests, migratory bird populations, and habitat for numerous mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

Forest Ecosystems

The Congo Basin contains some of the oldest and most intact tropical forest ecosystems remaining on Earth, encompassing lowland rainforest, swamp forest, montane forest, bamboo zones, and flooded forest systems across an area second in scale only to the Amazon.

These forests support thousands of plant species, many poorly studied, alongside iconic canopy trees including moabi, African mahogany, iroko, ebony, and sapele, some of which live for centuries and reach massive dimensions within the primary forest. Many species carry significant ecological, cultural, and economic importance for surrounding communities through traditional medicine, food systems, construction materials, and non-timber forest products.

Intact forest systems regulate regional rainfall patterns, stabilise soils and watersheds, and provide habitat connectivity for wildlife across Central Africa. As fragmentation, deforestation, and extractive pressures continue to expand, the protection of connected primary forest landscapes remains critical for both biodiversity conservation and global climate resilience

Peatlands & the Cuvette Centrale

The Cuvette Centrale is the largest tropical peatland complex on Earth, sitting at the geographical centre of the Congo Basin and spanning the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo across more than 167,600 square kilometres.

Formed over 10,600 years through the slow accumulation of waterlogged plant matter, it functions as a natural climate vault: as long as it remains intact and flooded, the carbon within it stays locked in the ground.

 

 

 

 

Its soils hold an estimated 30.6 billion tonnes of carbon, equal to the carbon stored in every tree across the entire Congo Basin and equivalent to roughly three years of total global fossil fuel emissions (Dargie et al., Nature, 2017). Yet only 8% of the peatland currently falls within formally protected areas, leaving the vast majority vulnerable to drainage, agricultural conversion, and extractive industry.

The Cuvette Centrale also provides critical habitat for lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and other threatened species. Its protection represents one of the most significant climate and conservation opportunities available in the Congo Basin today.

The consequences of large-scale disturbance would be irreversible on any human timescale: carbon accumulated over millennia would be released within years.