Incredibly diverse terrain and ecosystems
The region is divided into three main geographical zones, with varying degrees of relief. Each relief induces a specific type of climate and therefore a specific type of vegetation and ecosystem: dense tropical forest, humid or dry open forest, savannah, mangrove swamps, swamps, rivers, volcanoes, lakes... From the sea in the west, to the mountains and volcanoes in the east reaching a peak of 5,119 meters, the DRC boasts a total of some twenty different ecosystems.
The central basin covers a third of the territory, and occupies the entire center of the country, in the region of lakes Tumba (Equateur) and Mai Ndombe. Altitudes range from 300 to 700 meters, with tiered plains and plateaus. The Congo River makes its widest curve here, watering this sparsely populated central region with its many tributaries. A combination of dense rainforests, floodplain forests and swamps make up the bulk of the great Congolese forest. These forests cover an area of 1,062,000 km2 in the central basin, with more than 1,000 different tree species.
The densely populatedhigh plateaux border the basin and are home to a variety of vegetation types, alternating between open rainforest, drier forest and savannah on the higher ground. In Bandundu, the Bateke Plateau; in the south, the Lunda Plateau, the Kasai Plateau and the Katanga Plateau; in the east, the Upper Lukenie Plateau; in the north, the Ubangi Plateau and the Uele Plateau.
The densely-populatedmountain ranges of the east consist mainly of the Kivu volcanic zone (Great Rift) along the great lakes (Tanganyika, Kivu, Edouard, Albert), with their typical, and in places unique, layered vegetation. The Ruwenzori massif, the country's highest point, reaches an altitude of 5,119 metres, making it the3rd highest peak in Africa. This eastern mountain range continues towards the south-east of the country, with a peripheral bulge rising above 1,000 metres, on the one hand between the Kwango and Kwilu rivers, and on the other south of Katanga, where the Kundelungu mountains west of Lake Moero reach 1,600 metres.
A rich and coveted agricultural potential
The soils are mainly equatorial, tropical and azonal, benefiting from very favorable climatic conditions. As a result, the DRC has a vast area of nearly 80 million hectares of arable land and 4 million hectares of irrigable land, of which only 1% is cultivated, mainly by peasant farmers. Its vegetation can support a livestock population of around 40 million head of cattle, and its fishing density is estimated at 700,000 tonnes of fish per year. This rich agricultural potential (the second largest in the world, behind Brazil) could, if optimized, feed around 2 billion people. And this at a time when the country is relying heavily on imports to try and make up for its population's food deficit.
This largely under-exploited reserve of arable land represents inestimable wealth and a major global issue: almost half of it has already been ceded to foreigners, to the detriment of the Congolese people. China, in particular, is pursuing its policy of expansion outside its territory to meet its growing food needs. Following in the footsteps of its forestry and mineral wealth, international greed is now also targeting the DRC's formidable agricultural and fishing resources.
Minerals of high strategic value
It's common knowledge that the Congolese subsoil, this "geological scandal", represents a treasure chest containing considerable grades of a number of minerals that are highly strategic for the global economy. But, once again, these "blood minerals" have not benefited - to say the least - the main stakeholders, as they have been draining the country of their share of tragedy for decades. The DRC has a wealth of mineral resources (copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, silver, uranium, columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite (tin), germanium, etc.) that are the focus of all interests, due to the strong global demand for base and high-tech metals. The country also suffers from a huge lack of knowledge and expertise about its own geological resources, which prevents it from making the most of them. Mineral resources are an important part of the concerns of African societies today, such as governance, mining codes, revenue distribution and poverty reduction.
The deposits exploited are distributed in Precambrian massifs that border a vast sedimentary central basin to the south, east and northeast. From south to north, they include
the Kasai diamond mines, as well as a number of copper deposits ;
the copper arc of southern Katanga, also rich in cobalt and uranium, not forgetting the Kipushi mine for zinc, copper and germanium;
the Kivu and Maniema provinces, particularly rich in tin deposits, often accompanied by columbo-tantalite (coltan);
the famous Kilo-Moto gold mines in the north, where iron and manganese are also found;
kongo Central, at the western end of the country, which contains a number of lead and zinc vanadate deposits;
significant oil and gas deposits have also been discovered in the Central Basin and Great Lakes regions to the east.
A hydrographic network unique in the world
The DRC has one of the largest freshwater reserves on the planet, providing 16% of Africa's drinking water, thanks to the Congo River, its many tributaries and the large lakes in the east of the country. Abundant rainfall, due in particular to evapotranspiration from the Congolese forest - responsible for 75-95% of precipitation in the Congo Basin - feeds the river, and has enabled the development of a hydrographic network that is unique in the world.
The country's waters drain almost entirely into the Atlantic Ocean via the Congo River, but also into the Mediterranean via the Semliki River, which belongs to the Nile watershed. Underground, the southern part of Congo supplies part of its seepage water to Zambian streams feeding the Zambezi River, which in turn is linked to the Indian Ocean. Rainfall in the DR Congo thus feeds the three bodies of water surrounding the African continent.
The Congo River
Many major rivers and tributaries converge on the Congo River, giving it an almost mystical status, and its share of superlatives: fifth in the world, and second on the African continent in length (4,700 km, the distance between Paris and Moscow) after the Nile, the Amazon, the Mississippi and the Yangtze. This makes it the second largest river basin after the Amazon. It also ranks second in terms of flow. The Congo River is criss-crossed by a total of 32 waterfalls and rapids, offering remarkable hydroelectric potential. Notably the famous Inga rapids in Central Kongo, which gave rise to the dam of the same name and which, once completed, will be one of the most powerful in the world. Its source, known as the Lualaba, is Musofi, a village in Haut-Katanga near Likasi, in the south-eastern tip of the country. It is a small pond situated at an altitude of 1,420 metres, on a gently undulating peneplain where the Zambezi and Kafue rivers also originate. In reality, the sources of the Congo River are made up of several small rivers, one of which, the Lualaba, is considered the official source discovered on September 14, 1892 by the Bia, Francqui and Cornet expedition.
Congo River Biodiversity Expedition
In 2010, 67 Congolese and Belgian scientists led a large-scale, multidisciplinary expedition on the Congo River for the first time, to study the biodiversity of this exceptional and largely unknown environment. Zoologists, botanists, geologists, hydrologists, freshwater biologists, ecologists, cartographers, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists spent five weeks studying the products collected and their interrelationships, over a distance of more than 1,000 km. The unprecedented expedition identified numerous animal and plant species, while also visiting the surrounding forests and villages.
The "great lakes
The great lakes of the East African Rift are also remarkable on several levels. They are among the largest freshwater lakes on the planet. They are also the only large natural surface water reservoirs in Africa. The thickness of their sediments, up to several kilometers, contains many paleo-climatic archives. They are thought to date back several million to tens of millions of years.
They are also characterized by high biodiversity and marked endemicity. The economic resources they represent (fishing, transport, tourism, etc.) are crucial for the countries bordering this eponymous "Great Lakes" region. Particularly for the DRC, which shares four of these lakes (Albert, Edouard, Kivu and Tanganyika) with its neighbors Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Of the major lakes in the DRC, only lakes Albert and Edouard belong to the Nile basin, while all the other lakes belong to the Congo basin. There are more than 70 lakes throughout the country.
