A large expanse of carbon-rich peatland found in central Africa is under threat from uncontrolled development - posing a significant risk to future climate change. BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding reports on the ground. After driving for 10 hours, kayaking down the river for 10 hours, walking with a machete for three hours through thick bushes, and then trekking through sweltering forest swamps for two hours, the scientists Finally got to work.
They brushed away mud and mosquitoes, erected a long, metal corkscrew-like device, and inserted it into a dark, water-filled field. “Push it again,” said Greta Dargie, the British scientist who led the team, as she and two Congolese colleagues twisted the pole, digging it deeper into the ground, and then pulling it out again A cylindrical piece of gleaming black peat banner design about half a meter long. "It's not bad," said Jodrhy Matoko, a doctoral student at Marien N'Gouabi University in Congo-Brazzaville. man in the jungle Photo Credit: BBC News The peat will be sent to a UK university for research.
For the past decade, the co-operative team has camped for months in remote swamps along the Congo River at regular intervals, keeping an eye out for crocodiles, snakes and lowland gorillas while mapping a carbon-rich landscape. Outline of peatland. They believed that the land might be much larger than the whole of England. "We really want to be able to fill this hole on the map. It's hard work, but it's definitely an adventure. I've been doing this for 10 years now, so I have to love it," Ducky Dr. said. She is a quiet and determined peatland expert from the University of Leeds in the UK.