The Congo Rainforest

Congo basin is the 2nd largest Rainforest in the world. It covers 500 million acres and because of this the Basin has many protected areas which all receive a lot of money from international donations. 

The Tropical Rain Forest of Congo Basin is the situated in Central Africa and it is considered to be the second largest rainforest in the world, after Amazon. This forest also contains 60 percent of African lowland forest. Congo Basin Ran Forest has an area of approximately 178 million hectares and this area covers six countries: Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial, Guinea, and Gabon. A large amount of this forest is situated at the Democratic Republic of Congo, approximately 107 million hectares.

A video that shows the historical perspective of the ecosystem

Historical state of the rainforest ecosystem

Looking at the tropical rainforest in Congo from a historical perspective you can tell that there have been some major changes. Deforestation has fallen in Congo Basin countries over the past decade, despite a sharp increase in the rate of forest clearing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This issue covers a range of issues relating to the rainforests of Congo Basin which includes deforestation and those impacts of global change.

According to scientist’s research from University of Bremen in Germany, they created the first detailed temperature record for tropical central Africa over the past 25,000 years. The results confirm that Congo basin has been way much drier than it is today. According to an article published March 2007 researchers believe that much of Congo Basin was not a tropical rainforest. It was covered with savanna during past ice ages due to drier, cooler conditions. This theory has been an explanation to why there is biodiversity across the region. 

About 3000 years ago, the congo forests were affected by natural climate drying and forests retreated and got replaced by grasslands instead. Also about 2500 years ago, Iron age humans settled in much of the forest. They cleared the forest with iron axes, but then the population collapsed around 1000 years ago and then the forest regrew. This is a very different history if you compare it to the biggest rainforest which is the Amazon rainforest. In the Amazon, there has been a pretty continuous forest over human history and even earlier than that. Also at those places where there was a human impact, was not with iron instruments as it was in the Congo rainforest. The Congo rainforest has also been inhabited by people for 50 000 years and it is a home to over 150 different ethnic groups. Some of them died out but some of them still survive by hunting and gathering in the rich rainforest.  

The historical perspective of the combination of the drying in the climate and the wide scale feeling of trees resulted in fewer species of trees compared to other tropical forests. That does not have to mean that it is a bad thing, because the species that are left seem to be relatively resilient to a large extent. They can spread quickly and regrow very quickly and also recolonize disturbed areas quite quickly. That leads to if one area gets deforested, there is still a way for you to find the species somewhere else.

                                                The human impact of the ecosystem

The Forest of Congo Basin has been populated by humans for ten thousand years. The population encounters in these forest diverse useful resources, like for example: water, food, medicine, and materials that are used to construct habitation for millions of people. The population that lives in these forests is very dependent on the materials that forest provides. Even though this type use of the forests is not damaging for the ecosystem, there are others that are, like for example industrial logging. Industrial logging is causing a big problem with deforestation on these forests mainly on at the Democratic Republic of Congo, like the graph bellow shows.

People cut these trees in order to sell them, or to build roads that give a better access to the center of these dense forests. One of the reasons that this is bag for this ecosystem is that the opening of these logging roads gave access to the Congo population to exercise commercial hunting; and one of the bad impacts for this is for example, the elephant population dropped 60 percent in less than 10 years.

The construction of logging roads promoted expansion of the urban population on this areas, people clear land around those areas for subsistence agriculture, meaning that people move to these natural rich areas and vacate the soil so they can produce their own products; two examples are fuel wood and charcoal. Statistics shows that even though the Democratic Republic of Congo contains the largest area of these forests, it is also the country with the less density of logging roads.

                                             Future of The Congo Rainforest 

To envision the Congo Rain forest to have a sustainable environment in the future, can be very hard because right now too much of corruption exists. All the countries that make up the Congo rain forest all share the same problem. It is lack of money to enforce laws to save their forestry, the deforestation rate increases which is threating the future existence of its rain forest. There is a too much of civil strife, clear cutting of the Congo parks and a lot of rebel threats. There are a lot of refugees that continuous to destroy the forestry, they kill the parks vast array of animals and even murder park staff. 

The rainforest is in danger because according to The Central African Forests Commission, the regions annual gross deforestation rate has already doubled from 0.13 percent to 0.26 percent within 10-15 years. The gross degradation is caused by logging, fire and other impacts that also increased from 0.07 percent to 0.14 percent on an annual basis.

The Congo rainforest will likely begin to decay at dangerous rates as soon as these parks reach the level of danger that these rain forest preservation parks not longer can be established.  If the cutting down of these forests and the slaughtering of its inhabitants does not decrease very soon, we might have to say goodbye to the Congo Rain Forest. 

                                                    Benefits  for the people from the ecosystem

The population encounters in the forest's diverse useful resources. People benefits from water, food, medicine, and materials that are used to construct habitation for millions of people. The population that lives in these forests is very dependent on the materials that forest provides.

                                                              Protected areas

The are some protected areas often The Congo rainforest. The Status of these protected areas are very worrisome and some are hardly documented. 25 of these areas have reported that the indigenous people that use the Rainforest in their daily routines have been relocated without sufficient compensation and benefit-sharing going towards these communities. Also despite the millions of dollars being spent towards these protective areas, there is still hardly any data that shows whether the areas have been successful in protecting the rainforests bio-diversity.

                                                    Maintain balance

One way to maintain the balance between the ecosystem and people is to allow the indigenous people to roam freely in the rainforest. How they have been doing for 100’s of years. Their subsistent way of living and using forest resources has contributed to forest protection and some believe add to its growth. Also, the countries that the rainforest lies in need to review their policies regarding national forests, and how they can protect the basin against logging, mineral extract and other problems.

Project by : Paulina Hersler, Jordin Vale, Larry Ndjock, Luiana Livulo 

References (text)

http://blog.mappingforrights.org/wp-content/uploads/37804-RFUK-World-Park-Online.pdf 

Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com (March 20,2012) Deforestation increases in the Congo rainforest

http://www.hngn.com/articles/8332/20130722/deforestation-african-rainforest-slows-humans-further-reduce-harm-limiting-burning.htm

http://www.worldwildlife.org/places/congo-basin 

References (pictures)

http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0722-congo-basin-rainforest.html 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/09/12/898902/-Instability-threatens-Congo-rainforest 

http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0618-schulze-drc-education.html#sthash.Q8pIs3kR.dpbs