Environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This Environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Af ter obtaining independece in 1960, the Belgian Congo experienced a period of political and social instability that set the stage for the frequently brutal 32-year tenure of Colonel Joseph Mobutu, who changed the name of the country to Zaire. An influx of refugees from Rwanda and Burundi helped to topple Mobutu in 1997 and led to the establishment of the country as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC) under Laurent Kabila. The ensuing battle for power led to interference from Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, and the Sudan before peace was declared in July 1991. By that time, 2.33 million Congolese has been displaced internally and another 412,000 had fled the country. Estimates place the total death count at 3.3 million people, with most dying from starvation and disease. Despite ongoing conflict in some areas, Joseph Kabila managed to effectuate a semblance of national unity after his father was assassinated in 2001.

With a per capita income of only $800, the DROC is the eleventh poorest country in the world. Over seventy percent of the population is severely undernourished. The ongoing political strife and government corruption have produced a weak infrastructure that has made in impossible for the government to realize full economic potential from the wealth of natural resources that include cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower, and timber.

Less than three percent of the land area of DROC is arable, but agriculture accounts for more than half the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Industry, on the other hand, produces only 11 percent of GDP. DROC has a distinct geography. In addition to straddling the equator, the country possesses a narrow strip of land that controls access to the lower Congo River and provides a 37-mile coast along the South Atlantic Ocean. Dense tropical rain forest spans the central river basin and the eastern highlands, covering almost one million square miles and comprising 47 percent of total African tropical forests. DROC shares land borders with Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, the Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The low-lying plateau with its thick rainforest gives way to mountains in the east. Elevations range from sea level in the extreme west to 5,100 meters at Pic Marguerite on Mount Stanley in the northeast.

The tropical climate is generally hot and humid in the equatorial river basin. The southern highlands experience cool, dry weather, unlike the eastern highlands, where it is cooler and wetter. South of the Equator, the wet season (November to March) is followed by a six-month dry season. Elsewhere, a short dry season (December to February) is preceded by the wet season (April to October). Periodic droughts occur in the south. During the wet season, the Congo River is prone to flooding. The Great Rift Valley of the east is home to a number of active volcanoes.

The population of 62,600,000 is constantly threatened by poverty and disease. DROC has an HIV/AIDS rate of 4.2 percent. It is estimated that since 2003, the disease has killed 100,000 people, and 1.1 million others are living with it. Less than half the total population has sustained access to safe drinking water (29 percent in rural areas). Only 23 percent of rural residents have access to improved sanitation as compared to 29 percent of urban residents. Consequently, the Congolese have a very high risk of contracting food and waterborne diseases that include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever as well as schistosomiasis, a disease caused by contact with infected water. Ricks of vectorborne diseases that include malaria, the plague, and African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) are high in some areas.

Disease and Land Degrdation

Because of high incidence of disease, the Congolese experience low life expectancy (51.46 years) and growth rates (3.07 percent) and high infant mortality (88.62 deaths per 1,000 live births) and death rates (13.27 per 1,000 population). Congolese women give birth to an average of 6.7 children. Low literacy rates (76.2 percent for males and 55.1 percent for females), a school attendance rate of only 30 percent for all levels, and a highly rural population (68.2) combine with ethnic and religious differences to make the dissemination of health and environmental information difficult. DROC has a major problem with poaching that threatens to destroy the wildlife population. Extensive deforestation has occurred as refugees have cut down trees to use for cooking and fuel. Tree loss and flooding have accelerated the processes of soil erosion and degradation. Irresponsible mining activities employed in the process of extracting diamonds and gold have resulted in extensive environmental damage in DROC, including the practice of allowing miners to take over national parks. Apes have become extinct because they are hunted for bush meat.

In 2006, scientists at Yale University ranked DROC 119 of 132 countries on environmental performance, in line with the relevant income group but below the relevant geographic group. The lowest scores were received in the categories of environmental health and biodiversity and habitat. Five percent of the land area of DROC is protected. Some 11,000 species of plants, 450 mammals,1,150 birds, 300 reptiles, and 200 amphibians have been identified in the rain forest. Of 200 endemic mammal species, 15 are endangered, as are three of 130 endemic bird species.

The Minister of Environment, who is charged with enforcing and monitoring environmental laws, has begun working with local communities to better protect the fragile environment. In April 2006, the government ceded control of the Tayna Nature Reserve and the Kisimba-Ikobo Nature Reserve so that endangered Grauer gorillas, eastern chimpanzees, forest elephants, and okapi would be protected. The government plans to increase the number of protected areas to 15 percent. DROC is one of the countries included in the Congo Basin Forest Partnership established by the United States and South Africa in partnership with 27 public and private groups to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development and conservation of natural resources and wildlife in the area.

DROC participates in the following international agreements on the environment: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, and Wetlands. The agreement on Environmental Modification has been signed but not ratified.

Bibliography:

Timothy Doyle, Environmental Movements in Minority and Majority Worlds: A Global Perspective (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005);
Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom, Africa and the Middle East: A Continental Overview of Environmental Issues (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003);
Valentine Udoh James, Africa’s Ecology: Sustaining the Biological and Environmental Diversity of a Continent (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1993).