{"id":149317,"date":"2019-03-11T15:07:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/?p=149317"},"modified":"2019-03-11T15:07:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:07:32","slug":"turberas-del-congo-y-cambio-climatico-el-problema-de-la-carencia-de-los-inventarios-de-suelos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/2019\/03\/11\/149317","title":{"rendered":"Turberas del Congo y Cambio Clim\u00e1tico (El problema de la carencia de los inventarios de suelos)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"turberas-del-congo\"<\/p>\n

Turberas del Congo, sus pueblos abor\u00edgenes y testigo de su abundancia en materia org\u00e1nica. Fuente Google Im\u00e1genes<\/span><\/p>\n

La primera noticia de la que vamos a hablar hoy lleva por t\u00edtulo (traducido del suajili): \u201c<\/span>Los pantanos de turba de la cuenca del Congo son un nuevo frente en la batalla del cambio clim\u00e1tico<\/span><\/a>\u201d<\/strong>. Ya<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> nos quedamos horrorizados cuando salt\u00f3 la noticia a la prensa mundial hace casi \u201cdiez a\u00f1os\u201d. Los bosques pantanosos tropicales estaban siendo desmontados, sin previo an\u00e1lisis, con vistas a obtener aceite de palma<\/strong><\/span>. Inmediatamente redactamos un post vaticinando lo que ocurrir\u00eda<\/span><\/strong>. Y efectivamente ocurri\u00f3, ya que, por l\u00f3gica, no pod\u00eda preverse otro final: \u00a1catastr\u00f3fico!. Ahora se nos informa que han descubierto una enorme extensi\u00f3n del mismo tipo, es decir de formaciones vegetales y suelos en el Congo<\/strong><\/span>. Vista la tragedia precedente, tanto cient\u00edficos como ecologistas y los propios pueblos abor\u00edgenes que all\u00ed habitan sustentablemente, intentan evitar que volvamos a deteriorar el medio ambiente, perder una biodiversidad inexplorada y sobre todo, emitir enormes cantidades de CO2<\/sub> a la atm\u00f3sfera<\/strong>. Y el gobierno del pa\u00eds afectado se defiende alegando que<\/strong><\/span> debe compaginarse desarrollo y respeto a la naturaleza. Desde luego, lo que puede suceder, resulta ser la ant\u00edtesis de cualquier medida que intente conciliar el desarrollo econ\u00f3mico actual y la salud de la biosfera. Abajo os ofrezco abundante informaci\u00f3n y numerosas cifras que avalan la magnitud del sumidero\/emisor de este maravilloso universo inexplorado<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a1No dej\u00e9is de mirarlas, ya que son tremendas!.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bfPod\u00eda haberse evitado?<\/strong><\/span> \u00a1Por supuesto que s\u00ed!, ya que hasta en los manuales de la FAO, publicados hace d\u00e9cadas, se detalla lo que sucede al drenar turberas, es decir esos suelos a los que llamamos <\/span>Histosoles<\/span><\/a>, cuyo <\/span>uso y manejo<\/span><\/a> pertinentes, son bien conocidos. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bfPod\u00eda haberse conocido su extensi\u00f3n?<\/strong><\/span><\/span> \u00a1Por supuesto que s\u00ed!, ya que <\/span>bastaba con hacer reactualizado debidamente un mapa mundial de suelos muy grosero en su escala y caduco en el tiempo<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bfPor qu\u00e9 no se estim\u00f3 su extensi\u00f3n y medidas adecuadas de uso\/preservaci\u00f3n?<\/strong>.<\/span> Simplemente debido a que para los pol\u00edticos desembolsar dinero en estos menesteres no les resulta rentable desde el punto de vista medi\u00e1tico\/manipulador de las masas que les votan. \u00bfY en que se utiliza tal financiaci\u00f3n?<\/strong>.<\/span> Simplemente en proyectos de investigaci\u00f3n en la que los expertos nos informan regocijados, simulaci\u00f3n tras simulaci\u00f3n num\u00e9rica, lo que puede suceder si sus premisas son acertadas. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bfAcertaron a vislumbrar los \u201cexpertos\u201d tal laguna de informaci\u00f3n?<\/strong><\/span> \u00a1Por supuesto que no!. Los inventarios son realidades aproximadas, mientras que los modelitos num\u00e9rico, tan solo conjeturas, si no se corroboran con precisi\u00f3n en el campo. <\/strong>\u00bfY c\u00f3mo se corroboran?<\/strong><\/span>. Simplemente inventariando (cartograf\u00edas y bases de datos georreferenciadas) los recursos afectados. Y mientras tanto: \u00bfqu\u00e9 hacen actualmente los edaf\u00f3logos expertos que realizaban \u00a0tales relevamientos cartogr\u00e1ficos?:<\/strong><\/span> volverse viejos y\/o obligados a abandonar su especialidad, cuando no han pasado ya al limbo de los justos. \u00bfPero no hay j\u00f3venes que les remplacen?<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0Pocos ya que las ciencias del suelo tampoco son sexys para los gestores de pol\u00edtica cient\u00edfica. Eso s\u00ed, el escaso n\u00famero que se incorporan a las plantillas de investigadores y tecn\u00f3logos, se adiestra m\u00e1s en como extraer informaci\u00f3n de im\u00e1genes satelitales y obtener otra adicional a partir de datos antiguos, haciendo uso de t\u00e9cnicas matem\u00e1ticas en su aprendizaje, con vistas mejorar la comprensi\u00f3n de una \u201crealidad campo\u201d que generalmente desconocen. \u00bfY qu\u00e9 son estas \u00faltimas?.<\/strong> <\/span>Pues m\u00e1s modelitos num\u00e9ricos, que arrastran gran cantidad de incertidumbres, por ser escasamente corroborados en el \u00a1\u00a1\u00a1\u00a1campoooo!!!!. Por ello, su adestramiento en labores sobre el terreno deja mucho que desear, salvo contad\u00edsimas ocasiones. \u00bfY por qu\u00e9?<\/strong><\/span>. Si no lo hicieran as\u00ed, no publicar\u00edan en revistas de prestigio, por lo que sus carreras devendr\u00edan truncadas desde el inicio. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bfY c\u00f3mo puede arreglare esta lamentable y pat\u00e9tica situaci\u00f3n<\/strong><\/span>?.<\/span> Sencillamente <\/span>utilizando el sentido com\u00fan, el menos com\u00fan de los sentidos<\/span><\/a>. Y as\u00ed la pescadilla se muerde la cola, todo sigue igual. Seguimos pues con paso firme y seguro hacia el precipicio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reitero que abajo os muestro las cifras, as\u00ed como un panorama relativamente detallado de lo que est\u00e1 sucediendo, aunque solo he traducido lo m\u00e1s relevante del suajili al espa\u00f1ol castellano. \u00a1Impresionante!. \u00a1Impresentable!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Juan Jos\u00e9 Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Contin\u00faa\u2026\u2026..<\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Post Previos redactados sobre el tema<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cambio clim\u00e1tico, Multinacionales y Fraude Cient\u00edfico<\/span><\/a> (enero 2014)<\/span><\/p>\n

Tierras Marginales y Biocombustibles de Segunda Generaci\u00f3n: Otra Gran Mentira<\/a> (junio de 2008)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bfBiodiversidad o Cambio Clim\u00e1tico?: \u00bfDos Convenciones Incompatibles?: Las Especies Invasivas<\/a> (2008)<\/span><\/p>\n

Agroenerg\u00e9tica: Deterioro de los Suelos y Degradaci\u00f3n del Medio Ambiente (Biocombustibles)<\/a> (2010)<\/span><\/p>\n

Histosoles (Turberas): Geograf\u00eda, Ambiente y Paisaje<\/a><\/p>\n

Histosoles en Latinoam\u00e9rica Tropical<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00bfDesastres Naturales, Cat\u00e1strofes Ecol\u00f3gicas y Degradaci\u00f3n Antr\u00f3pica?<\/span><\/a> (mayo de 2016).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Congo basin\u2019s peaty swamps are new front in climate change battle<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Los pantanos de turba de la cuenca del Congo son un nuevo frente en la batalla del cambio clim\u00e1tico<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ancient peatlands that store huge amounts of carbon are under threat from logging <\/span><\/p>\n

John Vidal<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday 12 November 2017 00.05\u00a0GMT <\/span><\/p>\n

Stumbling on submerged roots, attacked by bees and wading waist-deep through leech-infested water, the three researchers and their Pygmy guides progress at just 100 metres an hour through the largest and least-explored tropical bog in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group halt and unpack what looks like a spear, which is plunged over and over again into the waterlogged forest floor. Each time it brings up a metre-long core of rich, black peat made up of partly decomposed leaves and ancient plantlife. The deepest the steel blade reaches before meeting the underlying clay is 3.7 metres.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tropezando en las ra\u00edces sumergidas, atacados por las abejas y chapoteando hasta la cintura a trav\u00e9s de agua infestada de sanguijuelas, los tres investigadores y sus gu\u00edas pigmeos avanzan a solo 100 metros por hora a trav\u00e9s del pantano tropical m\u00e1s grande y menos explorado del mundo.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

El grupo se detiene y desempaqueta lo que parece una lanza, que se sumerge una y otra vez en el suelo anegado del bosque.<\/span> Cada vez trae a colaci\u00f3n un n\u00facleo de un metro de rica y negra turba compuesta de hojas parcialmente descompuestas y plantas antiguas. Lo m\u00e1s profundo que alcanza la hoja de acero antes de encontrarse con la arcilla subyacente es de 3.7 metros<\/strong><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Leeds University forest ecologists Simon Lewis and Greta Dargie cheer. The peat bed below the tangle of trees and water in the geographical heart of Africa is much deeper than they expected; and because peat stores carbon and slows global warming, their new research conducted last week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)will be welcome news for the 194 countries meeting in Bonn for the <\/span>annual UN climate conference<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lewis and Dargie surprised the world <\/span>earlier this year<\/a> when they showed that the peatlands on either side of the Congo river contained one third of all the world\u2019s tropical peat and were five times more extensive than anyone had thought<\/strong>, stretching over 145,500 sq km (56,000 sq miles), an area larger than England<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2012, the two researchers have spent months at a time wading through bogs and sleeping on makeshift platforms built above the crocodile-infested swamp forests in the Cuvette central region of the neighbouring Republic of the Congo<\/strong>. \u201cWe would see elephant feet and gorilla hands imprinted in the peat. We were increasingly in awe that a remote, almost unknown, wilderness such as this could still be found on Earth today,\u201d said Lewis.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ec\u00f3logos forestales de la Universidad de Leeds Simon Lewis y Greta Dargie animan. El lecho de turba debajo de la mara\u00f1a de \u00e1rboles y agua en el coraz\u00f3n geogr\u00e1fico de \u00c1frica es mucho m\u00e1s profundo de lo que esperaban; y porque la turba almacena carbono y ralentiza el calentamiento global<\/strong>, su nueva investigaci\u00f3n realizada la semana pasada en la Rep\u00fablica Democr\u00e1tica del Congo (RDC) ser\u00e1 una buena noticia para los 194 pa\u00edses reunidos en Bonn para la conferencia anual sobre el clima de la ONU<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lewis y Dargie sorprendieron al mundo a principios de este a\u00f1o cuando demostraron que las turberas a ambos lados del r\u00edo Congo conten\u00edan un tercio de toda la turba tropical del mundo y eran cinco veces m\u00e1s extensas de lo que nadie hab\u00eda pensado, con m\u00e1s de 145.500 km cuadrados (56.000 m\u00b2 millas), un \u00e1rea m\u00e1s grande que Inglaterra<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Desde 2012, los dos investigadores han pasado meses a la vez vadeando turberas y durmiendo en plataformas improvisadas construidas sobre los bosques pantanosos infestados de cocodrilos en la regi\u00f3n central de Cuvette, en la vecina Rep\u00fablica del Congo<\/strong>. \u00abVe\u00edamos pies de elefante y manos de gorila impresas en la turba. Est\u00e1bamos cada vez m\u00e1s asombrados de que un desierto remoto, casi desconocido, como este todav\u00eda se pudiera encontrar hoy en la Tierra <\/strong>\u00ab, dijo Lewis<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Working mainly in the dry season, they took more than 500 peat samples, and calculated that the central African peatlands hold 30.6 billion tonnes of carbon accumulated over 10,000 years \u2013 the equivalent to three years of the world\u2019s fossil fuel emissions. This would make them one of the world\u2019s most important carbon \u201csinks\u201d, they said<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But their <\/span>new exploratory research, conducted with the Congolese botanist Corneille Ewango, 50km from Mbandaka in DRC, suggests that central Africa\u2019s inaccessible forest swamps <\/strong>could be even more important as a global carbon storehouse than they thought, and could need a global initiative to research and protect them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trabajando principalmente en la estaci\u00f3n seca, tomaron m\u00e1s de 500 muestras de turba y calcularon que las turberas del centro de \u00c1frica contienen 30.600 millones de toneladas de carbono acumuladas durante 10.000 a\u00f1os, el equivalente a tres a\u00f1os de las emisiones mundiales de combustibles f\u00f3siles. Esto los convertir\u00eda en uno de los \u00absumideros\u00bb de carbono m\u00e1s importantes del mundo, dijeron<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pero su nueva investigaci\u00f3n exploratoria, realizada con el bot\u00e1nico congole\u00f1o Corneille Ewango, a 50 km de Mbandaka en la Rep\u00fablica Democr\u00e1tica del Congo, sugiere que los pantanos forestales inaccesibles del centro de \u00c1frica podr\u00edan ser incluso m\u00e1s importantes como dep\u00f3sito mundial de carbono de lo que pensaban, y podr\u00eda necesitar una iniciativa mundial para investigar y Protegelos<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Campaigners from Greenpeace and the local community of Lokolama are fighting to preserve the precious carbon stores. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney\/Greenpeace <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the extent of the peat is known, its depth is not. There is just no data. We are a long way from really knowing how much is there and need to do more research<\/strong>,\u201d said Dargie.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cMaintaining these large stores of carbon must be a global priority. Only with strong scientific data on the peatland, and how it behaves or might react to future changes, can governments establish baselines and protections in international agreements to ensure it is preserved,\u201d said <\/span>Greenpeace<\/a> forest campaigner Matt Daggett.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is growing understanding that the fate of carbon sinks like the Congo basin peatlands will determine future climate change<\/strong>. If left alone, they are vital collectors of CO2<\/sub>; but if the forests above them are felled and the land is converted to farming, as has been widely practised for the past 30 years in south-east Asia, then the dried-out peat emits vast quantities of CO2<\/sub> and intensifies climate change<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tropical peatland stores around 2,000 tonnes of carbon per hectare but this has been barely recognised by governments which have continued to promote intensive farming on peatlands<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The draining of south-east Asia\u2019s peat swamps and the felling of its trees has been a climate disaster, say scientists<\/strong>. Two months of intense peat fires started in August 2015 to clear land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations in <\/span>Indonesia released an estimated 884m tonnes of carbon dioxide<\/a>, more than the European Union in its entirety emitted that year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Existe una creciente comprensi\u00f3n de que el destino de los sumideros de carbono como las turberas de la cuenca del Congo determinar\u00e1 el cambio clim\u00e1tico futuro. Si se los deja solos, son sumideros vitales de CO2; pero si los bosques que est\u00e1n sobre ellos se talan y la tierra se convierte en cultivo, como se ha practicado ampliamente en los \u00faltimos 30 a\u00f1os en el sudeste de Asia, la turba seca emite grandes cantidades de CO2 e intensifica el cambio clim\u00e1tico<\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Las turberas tropicales almacenan alrededor de 2.000 toneladas de carbono por hect\u00e1rea, pero esto apenas ha sido reconocido por los gobiernos que han seguido promoviendo la agricultura intensiva en turberas<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

El drenaje de los pantanos de turba del sudeste asi\u00e1tico y la tala de sus \u00e1rboles ha sido un desastre clim\u00e1tico<\/em><\/strong><\/span>, dicen los cient\u00edficos.<\/span> <\/span>Dos meses de intensos incendios de turba comenzaron en agosto de 2015 para limpiar las tierras de aceite de palma y plantaciones de pulpa y papel en Indonesia liberaron 884 millones de toneladas de di\u00f3xido de carbono, m\u00e1s de lo que la Uni\u00f3n Europea en su totalidad emiti\u00f3 ese a\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Congo basin forest, the second largest in the world after the Amazon, has been relatively protected by its inaccessibility, but environmentalists say it is highly vulnerable and its peat could easily be destroyed. Pressure is building, they say, from logging companies and European governments to lift a 15-year-old moratorium on the allocation of new industrial logging concessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Logging on swamplands is prohibited in the DRC but, says the <\/span>Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK)<\/a>, Congolese legislation does not precisely define what constitutes a swamp. Its analysis suggests 3.4bn tonnes of carbon could be emitted if the concessions become active.<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to Greenpeace, nearly half of the DRC\u2019s current logging concessions are in breach of the law because their permissions have run out and they do not have approved management plans. These concessions overlap around 10,000 sq km of peat swampland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf this forest is cut, there will be decomposition of the peat and vast quantities of CO2<\/sub> will be released into the atmosphere, said Dagett.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Congolese government, which has welcomed the scientists, is cautious about further protection. \u201cThere must be a balance between the forests and development. It comes down to money,\u201d said Joseph Katenga, forest adviser to Amy Ambatobe, the minister for the environment and sustainable development.<\/span><\/p>\n

But communities living close to the carbon-rich swamps near Lokolama have welcomed the discovery of peat, hoping it would attract money to better protect their forests which they traditionally use for fishing and hunting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seg\u00fan Greenpeace, casi la mitad de las concesiones actuales de explotaci\u00f3n forestal de la Rep\u00fablica Democr\u00e1tica del Congo infringen la ley porque<\/em><\/strong> sus permisos se han agotado y no cuentan con planes de gesti\u00f3n aprobados. Estas concesiones se superponen alrededor de 10.000 km2 de pantanos pantanosos<\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00abSi se corta este bosque, habr\u00e1 descomposici\u00f3n de la turba y se liberar\u00e1n grandes cantidades de CO2 a la atm\u00f3sfera\u00bb, dijo Dagett.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

El gobierno congole\u00f1o, que ha dado la bienvenida a los cient\u00edficos, es cauteloso sobre la protecci\u00f3n adicional. \u00abDebe haber un equilibrio entre los bosques y el desarrollo. Todo se reduce al dinero<\/em><\/strong><\/span> \u00ab, dijo Joseph Katenga, asesor forestal de Amy Ambatobe, ministra para el medioambiente y el desarrollo sostenible<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pero las comunidades que viven cerca de los pantanos ricos en carbono<\/em><\/strong><\/span> <\/em><\/strong>cerca de Lokolama han acogido con satisfacci\u00f3n el descubrimiento de la turba, con la esperanza de que atraiga dinero<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/span> para proteger mejor sus bosques, que tradicionalmente utilizan para la pesca y la caza<\/strong><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs indigenous people, peatlands are part of our heritage and their discovery for the world to see represents a great hope for future generations,\u201d said Valentin Egobo, who speaks for the Lokolama community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Como pueblos ind\u00edgenas, las turberas son parte de nuestro patrimonio y su descubrimiento para que el mundo lo vea representa una gran esperanza para las generaciones futuras<\/strong> <\/span>\u00ab, dijo Valentin Egobo, que habla en nombre de la comunidad de Lokolama<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Researchers have been gathering data in the area since 2012. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney\/Greenpeace <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope our government will support us in our role as guardians of this ancient forest and provide us with the needed support to safeguard peatlands for our children and for the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not know the peat was there. This is very important for us but we also need development. Our schools are dilapidated. We are marginalised and impoverished,\u201d Egobo added.<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of the DRC rainforest may be determined next month when the <\/span>Norwegian government is expected to decide whether to fund a French Development Agency plan to expand \u201csustainable\u201d industrial logging<\/a> in the region. This would allow local communities to benefit from their resources, according to the agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Greenpeace, RFUK and a petition signed by <\/span>135,000 people in Norway and the UK <\/a>have condemned the plan. \u201cNorway risks putting globally significant stores of carbon at risk through misguided support for so-called sustainable forest management in DRC. Instead of expanding large-scale timber-felling, Norway should work with the Congolese government to shut down the half of the country\u2019s logging areas which the law requires to be closed and returned to the state,\u201d, said Simon Counsell, the director of the RFUK.<\/span><\/p>\n

The need to protect the forests above the peatlands was emphasised last week by a major report showing that there is 40% more carbon stored in forested lands than in known fossil-fuel deposits worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReleasing this carbon into the atmosphere through continuing deforestation not only commits us to the worst impacts of climate change, but also results in the loss of a globally important carbon sink.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting the carbon stored in forests is no different than taking action to ensure fossil deposits like coal stay underground,\u201d said the report\u2019s lead author, Martin Herold of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Could the peatlands of Congo be a carbon bomb?<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Junior D KANNAH, Samir TOUNSI
\nMbandaka, Dr Congo (AFP) Nov 8, 2017<\/p>\n

Gruelling talks are unfolding in Bonn for implementing the UN’s Paris Agreement on climate change, but many kilometres (miles) away, there are fears that any progress may be wiped out by a lurking carbon threat.<\/p>\n

Scientists and green campaigners say central Africa’s peatlands hold gigatonnes of carbon — a stockpile that poses a grave threat to hopes of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).<\/p>\n

The product of vegetation decay that occurred aeons ago, the carbon has been safely locked in the soil for thousands of years, but risks being unstoppered by farming, they say.<\/p>\n

Released into the air, the gas could add dramatically to greenhouse-gas emissions caused by fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u00abWe have a map of the central Congo peatland we published for the first time this year, which shows that they cover around 145,000 square kilometres (56,000 square miles), an area a bit bigger than the size of England,\u00bb said Simon Lewis, a scientist from Britain’s University of Leeds, on a soil-sampling mission to remote northwest DR Congo.<\/p>\n

\u00abWe think it stores about 30 billion tonnes of carbon. That’s as much carbon as the emissions from fossil fuels, all the emissions from humanity globally for three years<\/strong>.\u00bb<\/p>\n

– Vicious circle –<\/p>\n

For nearly two decades, climate scientists have warned of the threat of so-called positive feedbacks — a vicious circle of global warming.<\/p>\n

Fears have focused primarily on the potent greenhouse gas methane seeping from thawing Arctic permafrost.<\/p>\n

These emissions would add significantly to warming, which would thaw more permafrost — and which in turn would release more greenhouse gas to stoke global temperatures, and so on.<\/p>\n

But the dark, swampy peatlands of the tropics are now also a major area of concern.<\/p>\n

This has made draining the soil for farming and slash-and-burn agriculture big climate threats.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the World Resources Institute (WRI) calculated that fires in Southeast Asia, where much land has been converted for palm oil and other products, spewed more greenhouse gases into the air than all US economic activity in 26 out of 44 monitored days<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The fires are also to blame for choking smoke, shrouding parts of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

The Congo basin is exceptionally rich in peat — about two metres (6.5 feet) thick, according to a study published in the science journal Nature in January by Lewis and colleagues.<\/p>\n

So far, the peat remains largely undisturbed. Campaign groups are desperate for it to remain so, and for the forests which suck carbon dioxide from the air to be preserved.<\/p>\n

\u00abThe Congo basin rainforest is the second largest in the world,\u00bb said Matt Daggett, Greenpeace’s global campaign leader.<\/p>\n

\u00abWe have known for many years that it is critical for the biodiversity of animals and plants. With this discovery we have also learnt that it is critical for the climate.\u00bb<\/p>\n

– The people question –<\/p>\n

But then the question arises: what should be done for people who live there?<\/p>\n

Campaign groups say there is absolutely no question of expelling forest people — in fact, people who live in the forest and depend on it are likely to be keener to conserve it, they argue.<\/p>\n

That thinking makes sense to villagers in remote Lokolama, who live from hunting, fishing and subsistence farming.<\/p>\n

But, says Valentin Ingubo, a man in his fifties who represents the native peoples of Lokolama, they are also trapped in extreme poverty, and this \u00abputs pressure on the forest\u00bb.<\/p>\n

\u00abInstead of creating activities which generate income and give the forest a bit of a rest, we destroy the forest to get the things we need to survive,\u00bb he said in Lingala, one of DR Congo’s four national languages.<\/p>\n

Last month, researchers reporting in the peer-reviewed US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said smarter land use could help to meet the target of two degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n

Planting more trees, farming more sustainably and conserving wetlands and peatlands could slash carbon dioxide emissions by more than a third — 37 percent — the researchers estimated.<\/p>\n

Money, though, is the key.<\/p>\n

Congolese officials seized on the Greenpeace trip and the Bonn talks to appeal for funds for sustainable conservation which would limit forest loss.<\/p>\n

\u00abDRC’s efforts to protect the forests are not being sufficiently rewarded by international solidarity,\u00bb said Joseph Katenga, an advisor at the environment ministry.<\/p>\n

\u00abThe state does not have the means.\u00bb<\/p>\n

Congo Basin experts from the UK and DRC take samples from the peatland. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney\/Greenpeace <\/span><\/p>\n

Deforestation <\/a><\/p>\n

The Observer<\/a><\/p>\n

Congo basin\u2019s peaty swamps are new front in climate change battle<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ancient peatlands that store huge amounts of carbon are under threat from logging <\/span><\/p>\n

John Vidal<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday 12 November 2017 00.05\u00a0GMT <\/span><\/p>\n

Stumbling on submerged roots, attacked by bees and wading waist-deep through leech-infested water, the three researchers and their Pygmy guides progress at just 100 metres an hour through the largest and least-explored tropical bog in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tropezando en las ra\u00edces sumergidas, atacados por las abejas y chapoteando hasta la cintura a trav\u00e9s de agua infestada de sanguijuelas, los tres investigadores y sus gu\u00edas pigmeos avanzan a solo 100 metros por hora<\/strong> a trav\u00e9s del pantano tropical m\u00e1s grande y menos explorado del mundo.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The group halt and unpack what looks like a spear, which is plunged over and over again into the waterlogged forest floor. Each time it brings up a metre-long core of rich, black peat made up of partly decomposed leaves and ancient plantlife. The deepest the steel blade reaches before meeting the underlying clay is 3.7 metres.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leeds University forest ecologists Simon Lewis and Greta Dargie cheer. The peat bed below the tangle of trees and water in the geographical heart of Africa is much deeper than they expected; and because peat stores carbon and slows global warming, their new research conducted last week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)will be welcome news for the 194 countries meeting in Bonn for the <\/span>annual UN climate conference<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lewis and Dargie surprised the world <\/span>earlier this year<\/a> when they showed that the peatlands on either side of the Congo river contained one third of all the world\u2019s tropical peat and were five times more extensive than anyone had thought<\/strong>, stretching over 145,500 sq km (56,000 sq miles), an area larger than England<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2012, the two researchers have spent months at a time wading through bogs and sleeping on makeshift platforms built above the crocodile-infested swamp forests in the Cuvette central region of the neighbouring Republic of the Congo<\/strong>. \u201cWe would see elephant feet and gorilla hands imprinted in the peat. We were increasingly in awe that a remote, almost unknown, wilderness such as this could still be found on Earth today,\u201d said Lewis.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Working mainly in the dry season, they took more than 500 peat samples, and calculated that the central African peatlands hold 30.6 billion tonnes of carbon accumulated over 10,000 years \u2013 the equivalent to three years of the world\u2019s fossil fuel emissions. This would make them one of the world\u2019s most important carbon \u201csinks\u201d, they said<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But their <\/span>new exploratory research, conducted with the Congolese botanist Corneille Ewango, 50km from Mbandaka in DRC, suggests that central Africa\u2019s inaccessible forest swamps <\/strong>could be even more important as a global carbon storehouse than they thought, and could need a global initiative to research and protect them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook <\/a>Twitter <\/a>Pinterest <\/a><\/p>\n

Campaigners from Greenpeace and the local community of Lokolama are fighting to preserve the precious carbon stores. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney\/Greenpeace <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the extent of the peat is known, its depth is not. There is just no data. We are a long way from really knowing how much is there and need to do more research,\u201d said Dargie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining these large stores of carbon must be a global priority. Only with strong scientific data on the peatland, and how it behaves or might react to future changes, can governments establish baselines and protections in international agreements to ensure it is preserved,\u201d said <\/span>Greenpeace<\/a> forest campaigner Matt Daggett.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is growing understanding that the fate of carbon sinks like the Congo basin peatlands will determine future climate change<\/strong>. If left alone, they are vital collectors of CO2<\/sub>; but if the forests above them are felled and the land is converted to farming, as has been widely practised for the past 30 years in south-east Asia, then the dried-out peat emits vast quantities of CO2<\/sub> and intensifies climate change<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tropical peatland stores around 2,000 tonnes of carbon per hectare but this has been barely recognised by governments which have continued to promote intensive farming on peatlands<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The draining of south-east Asia\u2019s peat swamps and the felling of its trees has been a climate disaster, say scientists<\/strong>. Two months of intense peat fires started in August 2015 to clear land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations in <\/span>Indonesia released an estimated 884m tonnes of carbon dioxide<\/a>, more than the European Union in its entirety emitted that year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Congo basin forest, the second largest in the world after the Amazon, has been relatively protected by its inaccessibility, but environmentalists say it is highly vulnerable and its peat could easily be destroyed. Pressure is building, they say, from logging companies and European governments to lift a 15-year-old moratorium on the allocation of new industrial logging concessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Logging on swamplands is prohibited in the DRC but, says the <\/span>Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK)<\/a>, Congolese legislation does not precisely define what constitutes a swamp. Its analysis suggests 3.4bn tonnes of carbon could be emitted if the concessions become active.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Greenpeace, nearly half of the DRC\u2019s current logging concessions are in breach of the law because their permissions have run out and they do not have approved management plans. These concessions overlap around 10,000 sq km of peat swampland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf this forest is cut, there will be decomposition of the peat and vast quantities of CO2<\/sub> will be released into the atmosphere, said Dagett.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Congolese government, which has welcomed the scientists, is cautious about further protection. \u201cThere must be a balance between the forests and development. It comes down to money,\u201d said Joseph Katenga, forest adviser to Amy Ambatobe, the minister for the environment and sustainable development.<\/span><\/p>\n

But communities living close to the carbon-rich swamps near Lokolama have welcomed the discovery of peat, hoping it would attract money to better protect their forests which they traditionally use for fishing and hunting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs indigenous people, peatlands are part of our heritage and their discovery for the world to see represents a great hope for future generations,\u201d said Valentin Egobo, who speaks for the Lokolama community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook <\/a>Twitter <\/a>Pinterest <\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers have been gathering data in the area since 2012. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney\/Greenpeace <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope our government will support us in our role as guardians of this ancient forest and provide us with the needed support to safeguard peatlands for our children and for the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not know the peat was there. This is very important for us but we also need development. Our schools are dilapidated. We are marginalised and impoverished,\u201d Egobo added.<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of the DRC rainforest may be determined next month when the <\/span>Norwegian government is expected to decide whether to fund a French Development Agency plan to expand \u201csustainable\u201d industrial logging<\/a> in the region. This would allow local communities to benefit from their resources, according to the agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Greenpeace, RFUK and a petition signed by <\/span>135,000 people in Norway and the UK <\/a>have condemned the plan. \u201cNorway risks putting globally significant stores of carbon at risk through misguided support for so-called sustainable forest management in DRC. Instead of expanding large-scale timber-felling, Norway should work with the Congolese government to shut down the half of the country\u2019s logging areas which the law requires to be closed and returned to the state,\u201d, said Simon Counsell, the director of the RFUK.<\/span><\/p>\n

The need to protect the forests above the peatlands was emphasised last week by a major report showing that there is 40% more carbon stored in forested lands than in known fossil-fuel deposits worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReleasing this carbon into the atmosphere through continuing deforestation not only commits us to the worst impacts of climate change, but also results in the loss of a globally important carbon sink.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting the carbon stored in forests is no different than taking action to ensure fossil deposits like coal stay underground,\u201d said the report\u2019s lead author, Martin Herold of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since you\u2019re here \u2026 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven\u2019t put up a paywall \u2013 we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian\u2019s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters \u2013 because it might well be your perspective, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 Turberas del Congo, sus pueblos abor\u00edgenes y testigo de su abundancia en materia org\u00e1nica. Fuente Google Im\u00e1genes La primera noticia de la que vamos a hablar hoy lleva por t\u00edtulo (traducido del suajili): \u201cLos pantanos de turba de la cuenca del Congo son un nuevo frente en la batalla del cambio clim\u00e1tico\u201d. Ya nos quedamos horrorizados cuando salt\u00f3 la noticia a la prensa mundial hace casi \u201cdiez a\u00f1os\u201d. Los bosques pantanosos tropicales estaban siendo desmontados, sin previo an\u00e1lisis, con vistas a obtener aceite de palma. Inmediatamente redactamos un post vaticinando lo que ocurrir\u00eda. Y efectivamente ocurri\u00f3, ya que, por\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[596,603,590,610,586,618,591,597,604,589,587,600,606,617,595],"tags":[46647,47496,46841,46696,47439,48080],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":4}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149317"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150130,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149317\/revisions\/150130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}