The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has entered into an agreement that will see it get paid a fee for the rights to the sequestration of 100 million tons of carbon dioxide of its rainforest and peatlands for a decade. The Central African nation has signed an MoU with US-based dClimate, a company specialising in decentralised climate data infrastructure, to safeguard the biodiverse-rich Congo Basin rainforest and peatlands. Angola’s peatlands trap carbon and clean the region’s waterLast year, the Centre for Global Development said that as the largest tropical rainforest acting as a significant carbon absorber, the Congo Basin forest provides a service to the world by removing carbon from the atmosphere with a value of $55 billion per year. This is equivalent to 36% of the GDP of the six countries that are home to the forest (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon). “Forests around the world are ‘carbon sinks’: they absorb carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it within biomass, soil, and litter, contributing to the global carbon stock,” the Centre said.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 15, 2023 13:14 UTC