The future of the Congo Basin will be at the center of discussions at the Conference of the Parties (COP) from October 31 to November 12, 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland through the initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG ). In this perspective, the Congo Basin countries recently published a plea for scientific research on climate issues to be supported in Central Africa. An initiative requiring the mobilization of more than $ 150 million over the next ten years including a research program of $ 100 million and a fund of $ 50 million intended for the training of experts.
On the basis of this plea, it emerges that the tropical forests of Central Africa, which nevertheless constitute the largest forest in the world after the Amazon, are neglected, even abandoned. According to statistics, between 2008 and 2017, the Congo Basin received only 11.5% of international financial flows for forest protection and sustainable management in tropical areas, against 55% for South Asia. Southeast and 34% for the Amazon region. According to experts, even research missions initiated within the continent do not take sufficient account of this potential, such as the British initiative Future Climate for Africa, which has invested $ 27 million in the modeling of four projects in East, West and Southern Africa and none in Central Africa.
Emphasis on scientific research and academic training for better preservation of the Congo Basin ecosystem are necessary, especially as Central Africa and the southern tip of South America are the two regions of the Congo Basin. world not to have enough data for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to assess past trends in extreme heat in its 2021 Working Group I report.
The second natural lung of the planet, the Congo Basin has trees within it that are capable of capturing the CO2 emitted elsewhere and transforming it into plant matter. On global warming, if these forests were to be destroyed, 20% of greenhouse gas emissions would be returned to nature, thus accelerating global warming and its serious consequences for the future of the planet.