In the Congo Basin lies an immense system of rivers, forests and swamps. Home to a dazzling array of plants and animals, it is one of our Earth’s rarest wonders: an immense tropical forest underlain by carbon-rich soil known as peat. Since its discovery by science in 2017, it has sparked intense interest from scientists and conservationists seeking to understand and protect one of the Earth’s most important places. Though scientists identified this massive ecosystem only recently, it started forming at least 20,000 years ago. Today, it supports the livelihoods of millions of people living in rural riverside settlements along the fringes of this wet and wonderful ecosystem.
Shona Jenkins, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, has studied human influence on the central Congo Basin peatlands, Democratic Republic of Congo, for the last four years. She first used satellite data to examine how the peatland forest may have been affected by local pressures. However, Shona felt that in order to prioritise local people’s wellbeing in peatland conservation policies, this bird’s eye view needed to be complemented by understanding how peatland communities understand, value and manage the peatland forest.
A local community member showing Shona the fishing basket he just finished weaving from palm tree fibre
The Power of Peat
Peat, associated with the smoky aroma of Scotland’s famous whiskies, plays a critical role in global climate regulation. It stores twice as much carbon as the world’s forests despite covering only 3% of the Earth’s land surface. The peatlands of the Congo Basin are especially significant, holding carbon equivalent to 20 years of US carbon emissions.
Peat has a deep history, starting life as trees, grasses and sedges that lived on the earth tens of thousands of years ago. Instead of decaying quickly, this plant material decomposes slowly in waterlogged areas due to the lack of oxygen. This leads to the slow build-up of semi-decomposed plant matter, creating a carbon-rich organic layer we call peat.
Seeing the Peatland Forest Through Local Eyes
Shona’s approach to her research was immersive, spending five months living with two communities. She employed participatory methods to identify valuable, culturally significant and useful peatland resources and habitats, from drawing exercises to and walks in the forest with local community members. Sometimes, her research included spending time chatting with local women while baking banana bread in an exchange of ideas, stories and, eventually, something fresh to eat.
Shona (centre, in purple) with Esther Bokungu (research assistant) running a participatory activity with mothers to map how the flooding regime affects livelihoods
Shona and her team travelled by plane, car and canoe to navigate the complex system of rivers that thread through the region to reach the small communities living on the edge of the peatland forest. Bringing all their supplies with them, the team slept in tents and hired local people to cook and act as forest guides. Whilst fresh vegetables were in short supply, the peatland forest’s regular fish diet satisfied them.
From left: local forest guide, Ovide Emba (research assistant), Esther Bokungu (research assistant) and local forest guide trekking through the peatland forest
Navigating the Waters
Community lives are entwined with the peatland. Living on the banks of the river, the people that Shona met described themselves as “River People”, with their houses built on stilts to deal with seasonal flooding. These communities experience life dictated by the flooding regime, which brings an influx of fresh fish and rains vital for planting food staples like cassava. Shona found a vast repertoire of local knowledge connecting communities to fishing and fish, focused on their kinds, their breeding habits, how, where and when to catch different species, and how to make the right tools. However, the wealth and breadth of local knowledge extends far beyond fishing by helping forge a local sense of identity and enabling local people to live and adapt to this dynamic and challenging environment.
Axes to Oil: Unmet Needs Undermine Peatland Forests
Despite their knowledge and resilience, these communities face significant hardships including lack of access to high-quality and affordable clean water, healthcare and primary education. Insufficient social infrastructure undermines people’s ability to perform the demanding physical labour required to live in this environment, and so, people seek alternative economic opportunities to pay for the education of their children, healthcare and necessities. In particular, some young men are pushed towards artisanal logging in the wet peatland forest.
At the banks of the Congo River, young men arrange logs to assemble a raft, which is then floated downriver for sale
Currently, logging is performed with an axe: large-scale tree extraction is not yet commercially viable because of flooding in the forest, lack of roads and the need to transport logs by the river —nonetheless, more significant threats to the peatland forest loom on the horizon. The Congolese government, seeking economic development, is auctioning oil exploration licenses for oil located underneath the peatland forests. Oil drilling, along with associated road building enabled by draining the peatlands would radically transform this landscape. Not only would this devastate attempts to combat climate change due to the emissions released through land-use changes, but it would also not necessarily improve local livelihoods. Economic development based on transforming intact forests into other land uses has mainly benefited the already wealthy in other regions, such as Amazonia.
Bridging Communities and Conservation
As scientists and conservationists scramble to protect the vital ecosystem services the central Congo Basin peatland forest provides, Shona’s research exposes the connections between local people and the peat. It forces us to take a moment to think: how can we develop creative strategies that support both humans and ecological well-being? Identifying why people turn to artisanal logging is a start. Shona’s work elevates these local voices, their knowledge and their concerns to start creating new conservation approaches that serve local livelihoods and the forest. Without this support, one of the world’s most important carbon stores could turn into a ticking carbon time bomb.
Shona’s research is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council through the CongoPeat project, in addition to science crowdfunders via Experiment.com and funding from the British Ecological Society (BES) and the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society (SAGES).
