DRC, SOLUTION COUNTRY
Managing, developing and protecting natural resources
155.5
Millions of ha of tropical rainforests
101.500
Km2 of peatlands
10%
of the world's fresh water reserves
1.5
Billion tons of carbon dioxide absorbed per year
DRC, a solution country to the climate crisis
Last November, during the COP26, President Félix Tshisekedi presented the DRC as a solution country to the climate crisis.
The organization of the Precop27 in the Democratic Republic of Congo has the advantage of placing the country at the center of the world's climate challenges, as is its positioning as a solution-country to the climate crisis.
Indeed, rich in natural resources, the DRC plays an important role in the fight against climate change.
The natural resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo were at the heart of the current ecological transition and now at the center of the debate on the fight against climate change.
Mrs EVE BAZAIBA
Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
It is around 4 components that the DRC intends to position itself as a Solution Country...
1. The forest massif
2. Water resources
3. The biodiversity
4. Strategic minerals
In 2021, the government adopted a series of measures to improve governance of the forestry sector and combat deforestation. The program to plant one billion trees by 2023 was launched by the President of the Republic, with the aim of contributing to the restoration of ecosystems and increasing forest cover to 63% of the national territory by 2030.
With 155.5 million hectares of tropical rainforest, the Congo Basin is the second largest tropical forest in the world. Two-thirds of the forest is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is also a great reserve of biodiversity.
In addition to this enormous forest massif, there are vast expanses of peatlands, covering about 101,500 km2 of the national territory.
Its main asset is its capacity to absorb carbon, nearly 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year or 4% of global emissions [Central African Forest Initiative, 2021].
The DRC's forests sequester nearly 24.5 Gigatons of greenhouse gases daily, 3/4 of which are concentrated on 43% of the country's surface area. Its peatlands constitute a natural stock of more than 30 Gigatons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to more than two years of global greenhouse gas emissions.
This gives it a strategic role in the fight against climate change as the first lung of the planet.
Unlike most forest countries, the DRC has not practiced industrial logging for the past decades. This explains why many of its forests have remained intact, with a high ecological value.
Together with the countries of the Congo Basin, the DRC advocates the protection of its forests.
The forests of the DRC remain the hope of humanity in terms of carbon sink
The Congolese subsoil is full of important reserves of mineral substances such as COBALT (62% of world reserves), copper (10% of world reserves), Colombo Tantalite (Coltan), Germanium, LITHIUM, nickel, graphite, aluminum, and many others, which are essential to the current ecological transition.
Without ecological transition, it will be impossible to contain the global temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius.
Indeed, COBALT and LITHIUM are used in the manufacture of batteries, motors, and electric vehicle bodies. While Colombo Tantalite (Coltan) and Germanium are needed for electronics and new information and communication technologies.
This is why the DRC is committed to improving the governance of its strategic minerals, with a view to their exploitation in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.
The DRC is a veritable reservoir of fresh water for the planet. The Congo River is 4,700 km long. It is the second longest in Africa after the Nile. It has an average flow of 45,000 m3 per second, second only to the Amazon. It is the deepest river in the world (220 m deep).
The Congo Basin, from which it flows, carries about 10% of the world's fresh water and 52% of that of the African continent. However, the inland waters of the DRC represent about 67% of the waters of the Congo basin.
The biological diversity of the DRC is one of the richest in the world because of the countless and variable faunal and fluoric riches that compose it. The country abounds in 352 species of reptiles, 33 of which are endemic, 168 species of amphibians, 1,086 species of birds, 23 of which are endemic, 421 species of mammals, 28 of which are endemic, and more than a thousand species of fish.
There are emblematic species such as the Bonobo, the peacock, the okapi, the mountain gorilla, etc.
In addition, the country has 9 national parks, more than sixty hunting areas and natural reserves currently covering more than 13.5% of the national territory, an area that the country has committed to increase to 17% of the national territory in the near future.
In spite of protection efforts, this rich and unique heritage is today threatened by various factors including poaching, agricultural expansion, artisanal mining and logging, lack of economic alternatives for the riparian communities, lack of electrical power, and the lack of access to water, Despite efforts to protect it, this rich and unique heritage is threatened by various factors, including poaching, agricultural expansion, artisanal mining and logging, lack of economic alternatives for the communities along the river, lack of electricity, and transhumant Sahelian herders who identify themselves as victims of climate change.