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 banner design 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 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.