Environment: Large rainforests ans savannah. The river basin contains many peculiar and endangered species and has a very high biodiversity. Still largely unspoilt.
Problems
- The area is under great pressure on the increasing population.
- Intensive hunting on wildlife.
- War and civil unrest cause disturbance and harm to National Parks.
Measures
- National Parks within the basin are placed on the World Heritage in Danger List.
- Promotion of more intensive protection with help of NGO’s.
Recommendations
- Protection of the river, with as main goal durability of the system, should be carried out in the future because of the great importance of the river to its surroundings.
- The nature policy for the National Parks should also go for the river Congo itself, so the whole river basin area can be preserved together with its valuable nature.
Abstract
The Congo River (also called Zaire River) is a great river in west-central Africa largely situated in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo (Kinshasa), formerly known as Zaire). The river rises in Zambia as the Chambeshi River and ends as an estuary on the border between Congo (Kinshasa) and Congo (Brazzaville) at Banana (Congo Kinshasa).
The Congo is after the Nile the longest river of Africa; the total length is about 4700 km. The river has a very large river basin (drainage basin), an area of 3.690.000 km2, taking care of the drainage of almost all of central Africa. The river is situated at the equator with a tropical climate with much precipitation and high temperatures.
The river has a flow rate of approximately 440.000 m3/s, after the Amazon the highest flow rate of the world. Just like the Amazon the river flows out equatorial zones, but the Congo crosses the equator twice. Because the river crosses the equator it receives precipitation from the Northern Hemisphere as well as from the Southern Hemisphere. Because of the contradiction in seasons the river has a regular flow while other equatorial rivers show peaks because of seasonal rainfall.
Riverbasin of the Congo river
The river has a great influence on his surroundings. The river provides water to the native population and takes care of water and waste discharge. Many inhabitants along the river depend on fisheries, fishing occurs on a primitive way, mostly as self-supporting need or for small-scale trade. The river also regulates the water supply and discharge and creates fertile soil for agricultural use.
The Congo River is also a main transportation system for the native population, many parts of the river basin are too remote and isolated and can only be reached by water. Also most of the large trading routes are along the Congo River, the river and its tributaries form the largest network of navigable waterways.
Because of the combination of a high flow rate and a big drop in altitude the river has a high hydroelectric potential. However this potential is not widely used, only near Matadi (at Inga) a large power plant has been built which has an estimated power of 300.000 megawatt.
Although all the named functions of the river are of high importance for its surroundings, the main function of the Congo River basin however is nature. The Congo River basin encloses large tropical rainforests and savannah.
The area contains many large national parks that are protected by national and international organisations. The parks are inhabited by many peculiar and endangered species and have very high biodiversities. Because of the great (global) environmental values many parks are listed on the World Heritage List, a list of environmental areas which contain high value nature and should therefore be protected in their natural state for future generations.
Not only the national parks in the river basin contain many different and valuable species. The fishes in the Congo have very specialized adaptations (similar to these in lake Victoria) that are only seen in the Congo River basin. Also manatees are seen in the mangrove forests near the coast.
The nature in the Congo River basin is still largely unspoilt; humans haven’t accessed remote parts of the river basin so no nature disturbance is noticeable. The area is however under great pressure of the increasing population. Intensive hunting on wildlife like Rhinoceroses and Elephants is increasing more and more. War and civil unrest are causing great disturbance and harm to national parks. Refugees take shelter in the parks and bring great harm to the environment because of deforesting and other disturbance.
Because of the increasing threat on the environment the nature policy has been tightened in most areas. Almost all the national parks of the Congo River basin are placed on the World Heritage in Danger List, a list of World Heritage, which is under a threat of losing his integrity. The government of Congo (Kinshasa) promotes more intensive protection of the natural environment with help of international non-governmental organisations (NGO’s).
Water management isn’t largely carried out in the Congo river basin. The management mainly focuses on the protection of the National Parks. Durability of the natural environment is one of the main goals in the protection programs, the National parks are protected so our future generations can benefit from this valuable areas. Water management however will be necessary in the future, the increasing pressure of the population and the economical growth in the area will harm the system more and more. If the economical importance of the river rises because of growth in transportation, fisheries etcetera, than the river itself also should be protected. Protection of the river with as main goal durability of the system should be carried out in the future because of the great importance of the river to its surroundings. The nature policy for the National Parks should also go for the river Congo itself so the whole area of the Congo river basin can be preserved together with its valuable nature.
Links:
www.britannica.com
www.usaid.gov/cg/environ.html
forrests.org
home.wxs.nl/~strin000/itp/inga.html
www.unesco.org/whc
carpe.umd.edu
www.wcs.org
www.congo-pages.org
