Congo: World’s 2nd-largest rainforest continues to vanish with half a million hectares lost in 2022, says report

Subject :Geography

Section: Places In news

Context:

The Congo, the world’s second-largest rainforest after the Amazon, continues to retreat. The rainforest is spread across six African countries, the largest of which lost half a million hectares (mha) of forest last year, according to a new report.

Report findings:

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) lost over 500,000 hectares in 2022, according to the report made available by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland on Global Forest Watch, an open-source web application to monitor global forests in near real-time.
The rate of primary forest loss in the DRC remains persistently high.
It noted that 4.1 mha of primary tropical forest were lost worldwide last year, an area the size of Switzerland. This is equivalent to the loss of 11 football pitches per minute, stated the WRI.
Of this, Brazil accounted for 43 per cent of the total tropical primary forest loss, at 1.8 million ha, followed by DRC (12.1 per cent) and Bolivia.
Emission due to loss of forest:
- This destruction in natural forests generated 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2 — roughly equivalent to India’s annual emissions — of 43 billion tonnes emitted worldwide each year.

The Congo rainforests:

The Congo rainforest is known for its high levels of biodiversity, including more than 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species.
Some of its most famous residents include forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, leopards, hippos, and lions.
Some of these species have a significant role in shaping the character of their forest home.
- For example, researchers have found that Central African forests generally have taller trees but lower density of small trees than forests in the Amazon or Borneo because the elephants, gorillas, and large herbivores keep the density of small trees very low through predation, reducing competition for large trees.
- But in areas where these animals have been depleted by hunting, forests tend to be shorter and denser with small trees.
Therefore the old-growth forests in Central Africa store huge volumes of carbon in their vegetation and tree trunks (39 billion tons, according to a 2012 study), serving as an important buffer against climate change.
The Congo rainforest is spread across Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. Sixty per cent of the rainforest lies in the DRC.

Loss of Primary forests in DRC:

Primary forests are forests of native tree species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities. These provide numerous ecosystem services, but are under continuing threat.
From 2002 to 2022, DRC lost 6.33 mha of humid primary forest, making up 35 per cent of its total tree cover loss in the same time period.
The total area of humid primary forest in DRC decreased by 6.1 per cent during this period.

Key drivers of loss of Congo rainforests:

Prevalence of Slash-and-Burn technique of agriculture.
Increase in the demand for food has led to shorter fallow periods and the expansion of agriculture into primary forest.
Around 96 per cent of the population uses polluting cooking fuel. These fuel or wood mainly come from primary forests.
Uncontrolled bushfires, charcoal production for local and regional markets, cattle ranching, and illegal (artisanal) logging.
Failure of forest governance in the DRC.
The DRC government in Kinshasa, instead of reducing dependence on fossil fuels, announced its decision to auction oil and gas permits in critically endangered gorilla habitat and the world’s largest tropical peatlands.
Economic condition of DRC:
- DRC is among the world’s five poorest nations according to the World Bank.
- In 2022, nearly 62 per cent of the population or around 60 million people, lived on less than $2.15 a day.