by Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series dedicated to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, along with the solutions. The Rolex Eternal Planet Initiative is partnering with CNN to promote awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to encourage positive action.
The Congo Basin in central Africa is one of the largest remaining desert areas in the world, covering 3.4 million square kilometers (1.3 million square miles). There are over 10,000 species of tropical plants and more than 2,000 species of animals – many of which are unique to the region.
As the largest river basin in Africa, it crosses the borders of many countries and is one of the largest carbon sinks in the world, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away.
Despite its importance, much of it remains undocumented to science. As global temperatures continue to rise and weather patterns change, understanding the basin and ecosystems is critical for scientists and local communities to conserve these areas and build resilience to climate change .
Steve Boyes, founder and project leader of The Wilderness Project, is collecting scientific information throughout the Congo. It is part of the Great Spine of Africa research expedition, in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, which started in the Okavango Delta and will also include research on the Zambezi, Nile, Chad and Niger river basins.
“There’s magic, there’s mythology, there’s power in these rivers,” Boyes told CNN. “It’s the unknown. And that’s every corner, usually, of these rivers.”
Boyes has dedicated his life to exploring the science of African freshwater systems. His research on the Okavango Delta in Botswana in 2014 helped the river achieve status as the 1,000th UNESCO world heritage site and was instrumental in the discovery of more than 140 new species, as well as a new source for the delta in Angolan Highlands.
This is not Boyes first trip to explore the Congo Basin. In 2023, together with a team from the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, he undertook a 39-day canoe trip down the Cassai River in Angola, covering more than 754 kilometers (469 miles), and demonstrating that the Munhango River is the main source of the Cassai.
In April and May of this year, the Great Spine of Africa team worked extensively along the Congo-Zambezi water tower (a term that refers to a forested watercourse with high water storage potential) covering the Chambeshi river in the northern quarter of Zambia – the longest source on the Congo. The 33-day trip downstream was the first scientific expedition ever to attempt to travel along the Chambeshi and document its landscape and people.
Traveling in five canoes, the team of 10 collected data on everything from birds to settlements, boats and bridges to create a comprehensive view of the vast Chambeshi ecosystem. Along with 71 aerial drone surveys, water quality measurements and pathogen samples, they made nightly recordings of bats and measured water flow to see how the river develops as it makes its way across the country.
They also stopped at regular intervals to monitor fish biodiversity and to sample environmental DNA (eDNA) released into the water by various organisms.
“The eDNA will show us what the aquatic diversity is in the river,” explained Chambeshi expedition lead researcher Matt Dooley.
“The diversity in some of these rivers is incredible, and there are not many people in the world who know all the fish we are collecting. So we often find new species or subspecies of fish. And the Chambeshi River is particularly poorly sampled for fish diversity.”
The team caught about 50 species of fish, sampled and photographed them, and will send them
for analysis to confirm whether they are new species, or subspecies, not discovered in science.
When a trip is complete, the data collected is uploaded to the cloud, making it available to any researcher who wants to use it. The results are also collated and distributed to local authorities, non-governmental organizations and communities so that they can gain a better understanding of the nature of the river and where better protection measures could be taken from them.
“It’s not just going down and taking pictures and seeing and meeting people,” Boyes said. “These are the most detailed, hydrological, ecological river baselines undertaken anywhere in the world.
“We are doing this for the scientists of the future.”
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