In October 2023, representatives from the Amazon, Congo and Borneo‑Mekong forest regions met in Brazzaville to discuss how to halt the accelerating loss of the world’s tropical forests. The gathering was important to those involved but drew little attention beyond central Africa, according to Prof Simon Lewis of Leeds and UCL, co‑chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI). He says the event failed to generate the wider policy traction or investment pledges the region needs.
The Congo Basin is the planet’s second‑largest rainforest and a major carbon sink, yet it often sits at the margins of global climate conversations and funding decisions. Stretching across six central African countries and supporting about 130 million people, the basin is often described as the ‘lungs of Africa.’ Its forests contain roughly 10,000 plant species, about 30% of which are found nowhere else, and provide habitat for threatened animals including forest elephants, okapis, mountain gorillas and bonobos, notes ecologist Dr Yadvinder Malhi.
Beyond biodiversity, the basin plays a pivotal role in continental water cycles. Rainfall within these forests feeds key rivers and influences rainfall patterns far beyond central Africa — affecting areas as distant as the Sahel and the Nile basin. ‘Africa is largely an arid continent,’ Malhi says. ‘This fountain of water in the heart of the continent circulates and ultimately helps feed the Nile. That sustains the lives of millions.’
Much of the forest is still relatively intact, and scientists have long treated the Congo as one of the last large tropical forest systems that still absorbs more carbon than it emits. But data gaps make that status uncertain. Lewis warns that, while recent studies have tracked a decline in carbon uptake in the Amazon, equivalent up‑to‑date measurements for the Congo are limited.
A report from the Science Panel for the Congo Basin, published as COP30 began in Belém, estimates the basin currently absorbs about 600 million tonnes of CO2 each year — a service that is declining as deforestation speeds up. Panel co‑chair Prof Bonaventure Sonké said the analysis was intended to shine an international spotlight on what he calls ‘one of Earth’s most important but least studied tropical rainforests.’
The funding record underscores the imbalance. A CIFOR‑ICRAF review of international finance from 2008–2022 shows the three major tropical forest regions received roughly $20 billion in external support over that period: $9.3 billion (47%) went to the Amazon, $7.4 billion (37%) to south‑east Asia, and only $3.2 billion (16%) to the Congo Basin. Top supporters of central Africa were Germany (about 24% of the funding), the Global Environment Facility (12%), the World Bank (9.4%) and the United States (8.8%). Around 30% of the money funded biodiversity protection projects and 27% went to environmental policy work; investment in scientific research was only about 0.1%.
The lack of research funding shows up in academic output. A 2023 comparison of climate and biodiversity studies across rainforests found about 2,000 published papers on the Congo Basin versus 10,611 for the Amazon. ‘You have this crucial ecosystem, but far too few locally based scientists studying it,’ says Lee White, former environment minister of Gabon.
To close that gap, White and Lewis have urged a rapid expansion of scientific capacity, recommending the training of at least 1,000 PhD‑level researchers in Congo Basin countries over the next decade. Local leaders and CBSI co‑chairs such as Raphael Tshimanga of the University of Kinshasa insist the effort must start immediately. ‘We can’t wait ten years,’ he says. ‘We need to mobilise people and funds now, not just offer speeches at summits.’
Several reasons help explain why the basin is underfunded and understudied. Longstanding perceptions that central Africa is politically unstable or corrupt — images traceable in part to colonial literature — have discouraged investors and donors, says Lee White. Corruption is a genuine issue in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which holds about 60% of the basin), but those reputational arguments are sometimes used to justify underinvestment. Republic of Congo environment minister Arlette Soudan‑Nonault warns that blaming corruption can be ‘the tree that hides the forest,’ and calls it ‘very easy and lazy’ to dismiss African countries on that basis.
Practical hurdles also complicate conservation and research: ongoing insecurity in parts of the DRC, poor transport and scientific infrastructure, and limited institutional capacity make monitoring and managing large forest areas difficult. Ministers and advocates argue these challenges are reasons to increase, not reduce, targeted and sustained support. Soudan‑Nonault frames the issue as both justice and enlightened self‑interest: communities in the basin ‘have tightened their belts so that the world can breathe — and we receive no compensation.’
Conservationists are pressing wealthy countries and international institutions to rebalance funding, boost research investment and rapidly build local scientific and management capacity. The Congo Basin’s forests are a global asset: protecting them reduces emissions, conserves unique biodiversity and preserves hydrological systems that affect millions outside the region. Without greater attention and financing, the world risks losing a critical buffer against climate breakdown, while the people who have preserved that buffer would bear a disproportionate share of the costs.