Guerchom Ndebo / AFP via Getty ImagesA 55-meter-high tower measures carbon emitted or absorbed in the Yangambi Biosphere ReserveGuerchom Ndebo / AFP via Getty Images
There is a shortage of environmental researchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Experts say this represents a threat to the long-term survival of the rainforest in the Congo River Basin, the second largest in the world, which is home to hundreds of species of mammals and more than 10,000 tropical plants, a third of which are exclusive to the region. Its capacity to retain carbon may be even higher than that of the Amazon rainforest. Very few Congolese researchers are publishing articles in international scientific journals—one of them is Bila-Isia Inogwabini, affiliated with Uppsala University in Sweden, who founded the Department of the Environment and Natural Resource Management at the Catholic University of Congo. In 2023, the Brazilian National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) began a project—still in its early stages—inspired by the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment (LBA). Greater than the challenge of obtaining funding is inspiring and retaining researchers, offering them the resources to support themselves during their training and the prospect of being hired to work in the country (Science, October 3).
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