{
  "id": 537076,
  "title": "Congo basin critically understudied",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/11/congo-basin-critically-understudied",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-11T05:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "IOL",
    "slug": "iol",
    "url": "https://iol.co.za/ios/news/2026-08-11-congo-basin-critically-understudied/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The vast Congo Basin, the world's largest tropical carbon storehouse, spans nearly the entire African continent, covering an area larger than India. A coalition of nearly 200 scientists, comprising the Science Panel for the Congo Basin, aims to change the under-researched status of this vital region. Launched in Brazzaville in May, the panel seeks to secure funding for training 1,000 PhDs over the next decade. The Congo Basin, which influences weather patterns across the continent, is home to a fifth of the world's living species and absorbs as much CO2 as Germany emits annually, according to experts. However, the forest faces threats from slash-and-burn agriculture, logging, mining, and the growing demand for charcoal. Panel Special Envoy Lee White, a UK-born zoologist and former Gabonese environment minister, emphasizes the need for investment in understanding the Congo Basin and for nurturing a generation of Congo Basin scientists to defend the ecosystem. He states, \"I'm convinced that if we lose the Congo basin, Africa is not viable.\" This push mirrors the successful Brazilian research efforts in the Amazon basin over the past three decades, which significantly increased knowledge about the rainforest. Despite surveys indicating about 120 Congo basin scientists publishing on forest-related issues, this is a mere fraction of the thousands dedicated to Amazonian research. The panel is approaching potential funding sources such as the African Development Bank and the Hasso Plattner Foundation to back the initiative, estimating the cost at tens of millions of dollars. Currently, £9 million ($12.1 million) has been raised from the UK government, sufficient to fund up to 30 master's degrees and around 15 PhDs. However, Congo basin universities are often under-resourced, and scientists face limited career paths, leading many to seek better job offers abroad. To address this, the panel advocates for twinning better-resourced universities in Europe and the US with institutions in the Congo Basin, which stretches from Nigeria to East Africa. Emma Torres, strategic coordinator for the Amazon science panel, highlights the importance of sustaining support from Brazil's government, which was crucial for the Amazon initiative launched in 2019. Despite Central Africa's status as some of the world's poorest countries, White argues that the Congo Basin has led the world in creating new protected areas, contradicting the negative stigma surrounding the region. Lydie-Stella Koutika, a soil scientist from the Republic of the Congo and co-chair of the science panel, reflects on her own experiences, stating, \"I did my PhD on the Amazonian Brazilian ecosystem. So that is very, kind of funny. I saw the forest of the Amazon before seeing the forest ecosystem in the Congo basin.\"",
  "summary": "The Congo Basin is the world’s biggest tropical storehouse of carbon, its forest stretching almost across the African continent and covering an area larger than India. Yet little is known about it. Now a group of almost 200 scientists are trying to change that.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}