Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe is the largest Wetland of International Importance in the world as recognized by the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

. The site covers an area of in the region around

Lake Tumba Lake Tumba (or Ntomba) is a shallow lake in northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the Bikoro Territory of the Province of Équateur. The lake covers about depending on the season, connected via the Irebu channel with the ...

in the western

Congo Basin The Congo Basin (french: Bassin du Congo) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It con ...

in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

(DRC). This is more than twice the size of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The vast area of forest and permanent or seasonal lakes and marshlands has great environmental and economic value. However, a rapidly growing population combined with weak and corrupt governance may be contributing to irreversible destruction.

Location

The Ramsar wetland area of Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe is bordered to the west by the Ubangi and Congo rivers, which form the boundary with the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

. The

Kasai River The Kasai River ( ; called Cassai in Angola) is a tributary (left side) of the Congo River, located in Central Africa. The river begins in central Angola and flows to the east until it reaches the border between Angola and the Democratic Republi ...

and its tributary the

Fimi River The Fimi River is a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It flows from Lake Mai-Ndombe to the Kasai River, which in turn empties into the Congo. One of the Fimi's tributaries is the Lukenie River The Lukenie River is a river in the c ...

, which drains

Lake Mai-Ndombe Lake Mai-Ndombe (french: Lac Mai-Ndombe) is a large freshwater lake in Mai-Ndombe province in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The lake is within the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe area, the largest Wetland of International Importance recognize ...

, define the southern boundary. Within the site, Lake Mai Ngombe is farthest south, with Lake Tumba to the north. Further north again is the city of

Mbandaka Mbandaka (, formerly known as Coquilhatville in French, or Coquilhatstad in Dutch) is a city on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo located near the confluence of the Congo and Ruki rivers. It is the capital of Équateur Provinc ...

, on the east bank of the Congo River. The region included in the Ramsar wetlands extends further north in the region between the Ubangi and the Congo, as far as the town of Makanza on the Congo.

Environment

The Ubangi and Congo rivers join in the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe region to form a huge area of flooded forest covering more than that varies in size seasonally. When the wetlands around Lake Télé in the

are included, the area contains the largest body of fresh

water in Africa Water in Africa is an important issue encompassing the sources, distribution and economic uses of the water resources on the continent. Overall, Africa has about 9% of the world's fresh water resources and 16% of the world's population. Text was ...

. The two largest areas of open water are the shallow lakes Tumba and Mai Ndombe. Lake Tumba covers about depending on the season, connected via the Irebu channel with the Congo river. Water may flow into or out of the lake through this channel depending on the floods. Lake Tumba has 114 species of fish. Lake Mai Ndombe covers about and is surrounded by flooded forests and swamps. Both lakes support important fisheries. Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe is part of the moist tropical forest of the Congo Basin, which includes over 10,000 plant species. The diverse fauna includes many bird species. It is home to hippopotamus and to three types of crocodile. Forest elephants, forest buffalo and leopards are of particular interest to conservationists. The wetlands are estimated to have 150 species of fish. The brown waters of the flooded forests, with plant fragments suspended in

anaerobic Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to: * Anaerobic adhesive, a bonding a ...

conditions, are home to endemic species of fish uniquely adapted to this environment. These include Protopteridae, Polypteridae, Notopteridae, Clariidae, Anabantidae, and Channidae.

Objectives

As a party to the Ramsar Convention, the DRC is obliged to identify wetlands of global importance and to ensure that they are used in a sustainable manner. Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe is considered important because the vegetation of the flood basin absorbs water during the rainy season and releases it later, regulating flooding downstream. It helps filter impurities from water that is used by millions of people, and it provides breeding sites for fish that provide food for the inhabitants of cities such as

Brazzaville Brazzaville (, kg, Kintamo, Nkuna, Kintambo, Ntamo, Mavula, Tandala, Mfwa, Mfua; Teke: ''M'fa'', ''Mfaa'', ''Mfa'', ''Mfoa''Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, ''Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture'', ABC-CLI ...

and

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

. The wetlands and forests also serve as a major

carbon sink A carbon sink is anything, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby removes carbon dioxide () from the atmosphere. Globally, the two most important carbon si ...

, absorbing and retaining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Efforts to gain recognition of the wetland began in 2004, with support from the

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

Central African Regional Program for the Environment, the Ramsar Convention and the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

(WWF). The WWF took a leading role in developing technical plans. Official recognition was formally announced in

in July 2008. The WWF has said it plans to continue working with international partners and with local communities to preserve biodiversity through sustainable development in the landscape. The Lac Tumba-Ledira and Ngiri reserves are contained within the site, supporting research and helping raise awareness.

People and economy

The city of

, capital of Équateur province with a population of around 750,000, is near the center of the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe site. The site also contains several smaller towns, mainly populated by

Mongo people __NOTOC__ The Mongo people are an ethnic group who live in the equatorial forest of Central Africa. They are the second largest ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, highly influential in its north region. A diverse collection of sub- ...

. Communities in the area grow cassava, sweet potatoes, sugarcane and bananas for local consumption. They produce palm oil, groundnuts and rice as cash crops, and catch fish for shipment to large cities in the region. The people of the region are extremely poor and suffer from endemic local conflicts as well as food insecurity. 26 police and at least 100 civilians died, and tens of thousands were displaced, in the 2009

Dongo conflict The Dongo conflict was a minor conflict centered in the town of Dongo, on the left bank of the Ubangi River in Sud-Ubangi District, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Violence initially broke out in late October 2009 after a local dispute over fi ...

over fishing and farming rights in the northwest of Équateur. The local population is growing at about 3% per year, one of the highest rates in the world, placing growing stress on natural resources. However, the region is still sparsely populated with 6–24 inhabitants per square kilometer. About 90% of the people outside the urban centers live on under $1 per day, and few have access to clean water. Maternal and infant mortality rates are high and diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS are prevalent. Governance in the region is weak and corruption is widespread. The central government does not provide funding to the provinces. Land tenure laws are poorly defined and applied. Laws regulating mining, agriculture and forest use are inconsistent and poorly enforced, causing conflict over rights to exploit resources. Logging concessions do not recognise traditional land rights and are causing unsustainable degradation of the forests. Other threats come from the expansion of oil palm plantations, commercial farms and from urbanization. Most of the people have little or no education. They use unsustainable quantities of firewood and charcoal as their main source of energy, and contribute to

forest degradation Forest degradation is a process in which the biological wealth of a forest area is permanently diminished by some factor or by a combination of factors. "This does not involve a reduction of the forest area, but rather a quality decrease in its c ...

through slash-and-burn cultivation. Fish stocks are declining due to overfishing using fine-mesh nets, including mosquito nets. Illegal bushmeat hunting and trapping to meet demand from the towns and cities is causing wildlife populations to decline.

José Endundo Bononge José Endundo Bononge (born 8 August 1943) is a politician born in Équateur province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He is the chairman of the Christian Democratic Party (''Parti Démocrate Chrétien'' – PDC) and was elected MP ...

, DRC Minister of Environment, says:

"The enemy of the forest is its misery and poverty… We cannot maintain and protect this forest with a miserable people, a poor population, who has no schools, no health care centres, no drinking water and no electricity".

Between 75% and 95% of rainfall in the

is thought to be recycled as water vapor rises from the forests and marshes and falls again as rain. Rainfall has declined in recent years. It is possible that a vicious cycle is setting in where degradation of the swamps and forest is causing reduced precipitation, which in turn is causing further degradation.

Notes

References

{{reflist, colwidth=33em, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-24-02.asp , title=DR Congo Announces World's Largest Protected Wetland , work=Environment News Service , date=July 24, 2008 , accessdate=2012-01-28 {{cite web , url=http://www.fao.org/fi/fcp/en/COD/BODY.HTM , publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , title=INFORMATION ON FISHERIES MANAGEMENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO , date=January 2001 , accessdate=2012-01-28 {{cite web , url=http://www.envirosecurity.org/espa/congobasin/publications/IES_lake_en.pdf , title=Environmental Security for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA): Democratic Republic of Congo – Case Study , publisher=INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY , accessdate=2012-01-28 {{cite web , url=http://www.envirosecurity.org/espa/PDF/ESA_DRC_light.pdf , title=congo basin – drc – case study on the ngiri – tumba – maindombe wetland landscape , author=Patrice Yamba T. Kantu , date=December 2009 , pages=12–14 , publisher=Institute for Environmental Security , accessdate=2012-01-29 {{cite web , url = http://www.wetlands.org/reports/dbdirectory.cfm?site_id=1857 , work = Ramsar Sites Database , title = CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF 1ZR003 Site: Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe , accessdate = 2012-01-29 , url-status = dead , archiveurl = https://archive.today/20130416084416/http://www.wetlands.org/reports/dbdirectory.cfm?site_id=1857 , archivedate = 2013-04-16 {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JyJr7Ks_d5AC&pg=PA207 , page=207 , title=More Good News: Real Solutions to the Global Eco-Crisis , author=David Suzuki, Holly Dressel , publisher=Greystone/David Suzuki Fdtn , year=2010 , ISBN=1-55365-475-7 {{cite web , url=http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2008/WWFPresitem9857.html , title=CONGO BASIN UNVEILS WORLD'S LARGEST PROTECTED WETLAND , date=August 18, 2008 , publisher=WWF , accessdate=2012-01-28 Ramsar sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Protected areas established in 2008