Collaboration for Earth’s largest tropical forest reserve

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is exceptionally rich in natural resources. It is one of the world’s 10 mega-biodiverse countries.

Yet it is the archetypal example of the resource curse: exploited for centuries by foreign powers and corporations for its wealth of minerals, many of which are today in great demand as the critical components of the global energy transition.

While the DRC’s mineral wealth is well known, it is another of its natural gifts that is becoming one of the world’s most valuable assets as the climate crisis gains pace: the Congo Basin.

The Basin is the world’s largest tropical forest carbon sink. It is the only sizeable tropical rainforest with enough trees remaining to absorb substantially more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it emits.

Spanning six countries, with 60% of its forest in the DRC, it sequesters 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually with a peat swamp that stores 29 billion tons of carbon – equivalent to about three years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

While supporting livelihoods for around 60 million people and home to 10,000 unique species, a third of which are found nowhere else on the planet, the Basin retains vast areas of undisturbed forest which have been actively preserved.

Yet this has come at a cost: one that has been disproportionately borne by the Congolese people, many of whom live in extreme poverty and who have not benefited from the exploitation of the forest’s abundant natural resources.

While governments around the world drill for oil and gas, often funded by developed nations seeking energy security, as many as 77 million people in the DRC have no access to electricity and nearly three-quarters of the population live on less than $2.15 a day.

Instability and unrest, fuelled by the activities of armed groups seeking to profit from the illegal trafficking of natural resources, have consequently plagued DRC for the past three decades. This has ramifications for all Congolese people, inhibiting growth and preventing improvements in living standards.

In this context of fragility, poverty and social injustice, amidst recurring cycles of violence, preserving the last remaining tropical forest sink is challenging. A different approach is urgently needed, one which balances conservation and restoration with sustainable development that benefits local people.

In the east of the country, despite continued violence that has caused mass displacement of citizens, a transformative, green economic model is addressing this challenge.

This approach, pioneered by the Virunga Alliance, is built on the principles of sustainably harnessing the DRC’s natural resources to stimulate economic activity for the benefit and with the consent of local communities.

Through renewable energy generated from the natural resources within Virunga National Park – one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet, with innovative mechanisms to enable local businesses to access it, such as loans in the form of electricity – the alliance has become the largest source of clean energy in eastern Congo and created over 21,000 jobs in the past five years.

Crucially, 11% of these jobs have been filled by ex-members of armed militias – providing alternative livelihoods and creating the conditions for peace and prosperity.

This model will now be expanded across the country, from Kivu in the east to Kinshasa in the west, facilitated by an amendment to the law voted in parliament in the DRC in December 2024.

The law establishes a new category of protected area that recognizes the role of local communities and combines conservation of nature with sustainable economic development.

The Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, announced at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, covers 540,000 square kilometres and is home to 31 million people. The corridor protects over 100,000 square kilometres of intact tropical forest – an area roughly the size of Iceland.

This forms the world’s largest protected forest area and consists of a network of economic hubs built on sustainable agricultural production and powered by renewable energy derived from the hydropower potential of the Congo River.

The initiative aims to create 500,000 new jobs and transfer a million tons of food annually from the Kivus to Kinshasa, Africa's largest city.

In Davos today, Jozef Sikela, Commissioner for International Partnerships announced an additional €90 million in grant funding provided by the European Union to boost sustainable agriculture value chains, the use of renewable energy and protect the iconic biodiversity along this green corridor.

Other supporters include the Grameen Bank, the Schmidt Foundation and the Forum's 1t.org initiative.

The corridor holds the potential to unite the east and west of the country while addressing chronic food insecurity and stifling the networks that profit from the illegal trafficking of natural resources from the forest.

With an objective of building long-term peace, the initiative aims to reintegrate over 10,000 young men and women from armed militias into gainful employment.

The corridor is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s vision of an end to three decades of violence and instability and the foundation for a new future in which the Congolese people secure the benefits of the country’s natural resource wealth while also preserving the Congo Basin.

It will require investment, infrastructure and technical expertise from partners around the world, and a commitment to peace from all sides. But it is also a gift from the Congolese people to the rest of the world: if we fail to preserve the last remaining tropical forest carbon sink on Earth, then it will not just be the Congolese who pay the price.

To read this article in French, click here.