Let's say it, it is since the beginning of April 2023 that the CRREBaC led by Professor Raphaël Tshimanga has deployed its commanders and empirical/scientific research troops in the wetlands of the DR Congo in search of scientific knowledge on the peatlands of the DRC.

Thanks to the Secretary General for Research, Professor Antoine Tshimpi, and to the Rector, Professor Jean-Marie Kayembe for the dynamic encouragement and leadership.

Let us emphasize that these surveys concern 7 regions of the greater Congo, namely:

1. Equateur-Bikoro (Sectors of Élanga, Ekonda and Lake Tumba);
2. Maindombe-Inongo, Selenge sector
3. Tshopo-Isangi, Kombe sector
4. Tshuapa-Befale, Befumbo sector
5. Central Kongo, Bas-fleuve, Muanda, Banana in the Mangrove.
6. Mongala, Bumba, Molua
7. South Ubangi, Kungu.

The Mbandaka-Bikoro team, composed of 8 professional researchers from UNIKIN (CRREBaC, OG, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine), University of Kisangani, two experts from the Peatland Management Unit, an expert from the provincial coordination of the Environment at the Equator as well as more than thirty local guides and a driver, was supervised by Professor Michel Bisa Kibul of OG-UNIKIN-UPGI and Doctor Godet Bola, hydro-climatologist trained at CRREBaC and attached to the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University dear to Monsignor Luc Gilon.

This team worked with the indigenous Pygmy people of Lokolama and with the local populations of Penzele in the Elanga sector, who are predominantly Bantu. They also investigated animals, water resources, forests, peat, epidemics, livelihoods, etc.

As a reminder, this is a fundamental and applied research project, financed by ENABEL (Belgian cooperation), supervised by the Peatland Management Unit (technical body of the Ministry of State for the Environment).

This project, led by Professor Raphaël Tshimanga of the Unikin Water School, is implemented in the following four areas:

1. Climate threats, information on hydrology and the level of saturation of peatlands. Principal investigator of the axis - Doctor Godet Bola accompanied by several doctoral students and experts;
2. Botany and vegetation associated with peatlands in the DRC. Principal investigator: Professor Papt-Claude Bolalwembe accompanied by doctoral students.
3. Socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and socio-anthropological data related to the subsistence activities of local communities in peatland areas. Principal investigator of the research, Professor Michel Bisa Kibul, accompanied by several doctoral students.
4. Zoonotic diseases associated with Pan Panicus (bonobos), cercopithecus, and Pan troglodytes (chimpanzees), diseases that may originate in peat bogs. Principal investigator, Professor Dr. Éric, accompanied by several doctoral students, Veterinarians.

What is a peat bog?

In simple terms, it's a type of soil composed of leaves and wood that resist decomposition for centuries due to the perpetual humidity of these ecosystems. These soils are called peat and store carbon.

For those in the know, it is worth noting that the central basin of the Congo Basin is the second largest wetland in the tropics, with several ecosystems and a high rate of faunal and floral endemism.

Recent studies show that several forest areas on hydromorphic (or marshy) soils characteristic of these areas are made up mainly of peat bogs whose surface area is estimated at nearly 145,500 km2 and which store around 30.6 pentagrams of carbon (D'argile et all, 2017).

Although the large part of the central basin (75%) is DR Congolese and despite the fact that this Country of Mama Eve Bazaïba contains the largest complex of tropical peatlands and accumulates a stock of underground Carbon equivalent to that of the stock of tropical forest Carbon of the aerial biomass for the whole of the Congo Basin (Saatchi et all, 2011) this area has not benefited from sufficient scientific and political attention at the local, provincial, national and international levels.

With the clear data produced by Congolese scientists, it is clear that the peatlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo represent a significant opportunity in the fight against global warming. However, these peatlands are not immune to threats related to human activities affecting the lives and survival of peatland-dwelling communities.

Hence, let us adhere to the idea: to protect peat bogs for the people and nature.

NB. This study is a real case study of an investigation in difficult terrain, particularly marshy terrain, without internet, telephone network or electricity, let alone an adequate hotel, restaurant or health center...

There is, however, an abundance of ferocious animals including snakes, crocodiles and other wild animals.
How can we investigate in such a context? - that will be the subject of our next column, this Monday evening. For now, let me call my darling Sandrine and my four little ones, whom I haven't been able to talk to all these times when I was away from the machines.

Michel Bisa Kibul