Slashing and Burning in the Congo

By Bruce G. Marcot, Ecology Picture of the Week:

Last week we found ourselves flying over some of the last unbroken forests of the Congo River Basin.  Beyond the forest's edge, here in western Democratic Republic of the Congo, we suddenly enter a landscape of slash-and-burn ("shifting") cultivation.  

Here, the primary swamp forests have been cut, the main timber trees extracted, and the rest burned, leaving a thin, nutrient-poor tropical soil to hold no more than 4-5 years of crops ... mostly manioc, maize, and banana, starches all.  Much of the primary forests and large-bodied wildlife -- the carnivores and ungulates -- have been eradicated for bushmeat trade or to eliminate dangerous encounters, such as with crocodiles and leopards.  

People of the region have little choice but to continue the patterns of deforestation.  It is not the cutting, nor the burning, nor the agriculture that is of conservation concern.  Rather, it is the extent of these practices across the land, to feed and house a burgeoning human population.

The answer must address as much the need for reforming dietary habits and social  structures, and attending to problems of governmental stability and conservation of cultural traditions, and providing medical and basic resource needs for the people of the region, as it does the need to conserve primary forests for wildlife, water, fish, and other renewable natural resources.  Only from such a holistic approach can a long-lasting solution be found.

  --Bruce G. Marcot

Image and text © Bruce G. Marcot, Ph.D. Research Wildlife Ecologist,
who produces the Ecology Picture of the Week website.