Protecting Congo’s Peatlands: Aligning Conservation with Community Livelihoods

This summer, Senior Research Fellow Cassandra Dummett has been researching conservation and sustainable management options in the peatlands in the Republic of the Congo, funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society and led by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). 

Cassandra’s research project explores the benefits the peatlands provide to local people, to the government, the private sector, civil society and the international community, and the costs and benefits of protecting them. 

The central Congo Basin peatlands cover 16.8 million hectares, and store 29 billion tonnes of carbon. Research led by Professor Simon Lewis and the CongoPeat Group established that they are an internationally important carbon store.  Cassandra’s research is generating evidence that they are also a vital source of food and wellbeing for people living adjacent to the peatlands.

In June 2025, with colleagues from Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville, Cassandra brought together stakeholders in the northern Republic of Congo to share preliminary research findings and to discuss how the peatlands, and the livelihoods they support, can be protected. 

Two workshops were held in locations close to the peatlands in northern Congo. The peatlands are forested and flooded – it is this combination of waterlogging and organic matter that makes them so rich in carbon. 

It also makes them inaccessible.  It is hard for decision makers to visit the peatlands, and people living near the peatlands rarely meet with government officials or with local organisations. 

The workshops provided a rare opportunity for representatives from peatland communities, government officials, private sector employees and non-governmental organisations to listen and learn from each other, and to discuss ideas for the future.

The people who live adjacent to the peatlands rely on fishing for their livelihood. They also collect wild food, timber, thatch and vines for building, and medicinal plants in the peat swamp forest.  They hunt animals there, particularly snakes, turtles and dwarf crocodiles. The peatlands have important cultural and spiritual value. 

The flooded condition of the peat swamp forest is essential for fishing, and it is essential to protecting the carbon store.  This is a case where the interests of the local populations, the government of the Republic of the Congo and the international community align. 

Workshop participants defined principles for the conservation and sustainable management of the peatlands, such as guaranteed access for local people to conduct livelihood activities, support for income-generating activities to reduce the pressure on wildlife from fishing and hunting, and inclusive and participatory management. The people who live there want recognition for their role as custodians of the peatlands.

There is a window of opportunity to protect the peatlands, and the livelihoods of the people who depend on them, for the long term. The government of the Republic of the Congo has already passed a law banning industrial activities in the peatlands. 

More information

• Cassandra’s research is part of a consortium led by UNEP-WCMC with UCL, St Andrews and the University of Marien Ngouabi, in partnership with Wildlife Conservation Society.