This article was written by staff at the World Economic Forum.
Forests support the conversion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen for us to breath, while storing carbon in the ground. The Amazon has steadily lost its carbon storage potential, flipping from a sink to a net emitter in 2021. But, the Congo Basin is still functioning effectively as a carbon sink, a crucial planetary buffer limiting greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government’s bold and collaborative leadership, an inspiring plan is underway to protect, restore and revitalise the forest and its inhabitants.
The green jewel of Central Africa
The Congo Basin is home to the largest expanse of intact tropical forest on Earth, covering approximately 3.7 million square kilometres. It retains vast areas of undisturbed forest – like the 108,000 square kilometres in the DRC, an area about the size of Iceland. Yet today, Earth’s largest remaining expanses of forests are increasingly fragmented, a break-up driven by road infrastructure, extractive human interventions and the climate crisis. These forces combine to shift and reduce the biomes and species of forests through events such as forest clearing, heat, drought, fires and floods, among others. To date, the Congo Basin has shown remarkable resilience.
The Congo Basin is currently the largest and healthiest tropical forest carbon sink in the world, sequestering 1.5 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually with a peat swamp that stores 29 billion tonnes of carbon – equivalent to about three years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The Basin stretches across six countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Around 60 per cent of the forest is located in the DRC.
The Congo Basin is home to 10,000 unique species – a third of which are found nowhere else on the planet. It also provides livelihoods to 60 million people, who depend on the forest’s resources for food, heating, energy and jobs.
Africa’s tropical forest at risk
The Congo Basin faces myriad and growing threats, including monocrop plantations, industrial meat farming, deforestation and the impacts of the climate crisis like the spread of drought and disease. In eastern DRC, the forest is also threatened by war. Decades of armed conflict have plagued communities and inhibited economic growth. With nearly 90 per cent of inhabitants living below the extreme poverty threshold (defined by the World Bank at $1.90 per day per person), deforestation for firewood and subsistence farming is common, while armed groups illegally traffic natural resources; in particular charcoal, which is in great demand due to a lack of electricity.
Over 6 million Congolese people have died since the beginning of the wars in 1996 making it one of the most lethal, yet least recognised, tragedies of the last 30 years.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in eastern DRC, home to Africa’s oldest national park, Virunga, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. A UNESCO World Heritage site, Virunga National Park’s story is one of great resilience and tragedy: Over half of the park is currently under rebel control, and 211 of its park rangers – public servants – have been killed in their efforts to protect this unique natural heritage.
Pioneering a new way: The Virunga Alliance
Virunga National Park is an extraordinary illustration of resilience, despite ongoing armed conflict. The Congolese government has remained committed to protecting the park, preserving its forests and restoring its extraordinary wildlife.
Crucially, it has pioneered a transformative economic model, based on the principle of sustainably harnessing the park’s abundant natural resources to stimulate green economic activity. This creates the conditions for peace and prosperity, gradually building an alternative clean economy that provides opportunities to local people and stifles the ability of armed groups to prosper from the illegal trafficking of natural resources.
This model is called the Virunga Alliance, which through clean renewable energy and sustainable agriculture is transforming an ecosystem into an economic engine for the 11 million people that live around the park. Through a unique partnership between government agencies, civil society and the private sector, Virunga has become the greatest source of clean energy for the public in eastern Congo. It has created over 21,000 jobs in the past five years and, according to studies, has the potential to generate 100,000 jobs and $1 billion in annual revenue. Critically, 11 per cent of those jobs are now occupied by young men and women who have left the armed militias and have chosen to give up arms to take on gainful employment.
Scaling up: The Virunga-Kinshasa Green Corridor
Building on dialogues at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 and following community and civil society consultations, an audacious idea has been shaped to expand the Virunga Alliance model across the DRC’s Congo Basin.
Facilitated by new legislation passed by the DRC parliament in January 2025, an area covering 540,000 km² (the size of France), within which 108,000 km² (the size of Iceland) is primary forest, is in the process of being protected through partnerships with communities that integrates conservation and restoration with green economic development.
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 tonnes of food annually from the Kivus to Kinshasa, Africa’s largest city. Supporters include the European Union – with €42 million of additional grant funding announced today – Grameen Bank, the Schmidt Family Foundation and World Economic Forum.
Through this green corridor, the DRC government is offering an opportunity for public-private partnerships to drive green prosperity. Details of this opportunity, which involves creating the largest protected tropical forest reserve on Earth, can be found in the 1t.org Virunga-Kinshasa Green Corridor pledge, announced in Davos today.
The government is calling for assistance from partners with the development of renewable energy generation, transmission infrastructure, sustainable agricultural investments, sustainable logistics, high-quality and high-integrity carbon credits and broader philanthropic support for conservation, restoration and community engagement.
Gim Huay Neo, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, said, “The World Economic Forum is delighted to support this bold and ambitious endeavour to protect and restore one of the Earth’s last lungs. We call on all partners to support this joint collaboration between the DRC government, local and international business, as well as civil society, to create a sustainable economy that will regenerate and protect nature, while empowering local communities and creating jobs for long-term peace and prosperity.”
The conservation area is built on principles of local consent, with economic and social incentives. It aims to create interdependencies between the east and the west of the DRC, restoring the rule of law and laying the foundations for long-term peace. It offers the potential for communities across the country to finally overcome the effects of three decades of war, while protecting and preserving the unparalleled biodiversity and contribution of the Congo Basin to tackling climate change.
The Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor is born out of the indomitable Congolese spirit. It represents an offering from the Congolese people to the rest of humanity with human ingenuity, collaboration and a commitment to peace. This groundbreaking initiative – which enjoys international support – combines conservation, restoration and economic development powered by renewable energy on a scale never seen before, with social, economic and environmental benefits both within and outside the region.
Image: The Congo Basin, the largest tropical forest carbon sink in the world, is threatened by war, poverty and the climate crisis. Credit: Therese Redaelli