Yangambi is a town in

Isangi Isangi is a town in the Tshopo Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, headquarters of Isangi Territory. Location Isangi is downstream from Kisangani at the confluence of the Lomami and Congo rivers. There is a road running south from ...

territory of

Tshopo Tshopo is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. It is situated in the north central part of the country on the Tshopo River, for which it is named. Tshopo, Bas-Uele, Haut-Ue ...

province,

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 ...

Location

Yangambi is on the north side of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

and lies on the R408 road which connects it to

Kisangani Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville or Stanleystad) is the capital of Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the fifth most populous urban area in the country, with an estimated population of 1,312,000 in 2021, and the larg ...

100 kilometers to the east. This road is unpaved, rarely used in the rainy season and difficult to use at all times of the year. The roads linking Yangambi to Weko and

are also very poor. The river provides an alternative transport route. The town was once served by the small

Yangambi Airport Yangambi Airport is a small airport serving the town of Yangambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, D ...

Weather

Mean annual rainfall is . August is the wettest month and February the driest. The skies tend to be partly cloudy even during the drier seasons.

Yangambi Biosphere Reserve

235,000 hectares of forest around Yangambi were declared a Biosphere Reserve in 1976, part of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

’s

Man and the Biosphere Programme Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments. MAB's work engag ...

(MAB). The Yangambi Biosphere Reserve comprises secondary forests with ''

Pycnanthus angolensis ''Pycnanthus angolensis'' is a species of tree in the nutmeg family, Myristicaceae. It is native to Tropical Africa. Its English language common names include African nutmeg, false nutmeg, boxboard, and cardboard.Fagara macrophylla'', semi deciduous secondary rain forests, rain forests with ''

Gilbertiodendron dewevrei ''Gilbertiodendron dewevrei'' is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae, native to tropical rain forests in Central Africa. It is often the dominant tree species of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest. The timber is traded as ''limbali'', and is us ...

'', climax forests with '' Brachystegia laurentii'' and marshland forests. The site is very important from a biodiversity point of view since it hosts endangered tree species, such as Afrormosia (''

Pericopsis elata ''Pericopsis elata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family ''Fabaceae'' and is known by the common names African teak, afromosia, afrormosia, kokrodua and assamela. Description The species grows to 30-45m tall with a trunk of 1–1.8m i ...

''). It was also once home to elephants ( ''Loxodonta africana cyclotis''), but they have now disappeared locally. In 2018, a study confirmed the presence of Common Chimpanzees (''

Pan troglodytes The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

'') in the area.

Research center

During the colonial era, Yangambi was home to the Institut national pour les études agronomiques du Congo belge (INEAC), one of the world's most important tropical agriculture and forestry research centers. The INEAC experimental fields and laboratories were built along a road parallel to the north bank of the Congo river, and along a road stretching northward from the river for about . In the 1930s researchers at INEAC found the relationship between the ''tenera'', ''dura'' and ''pisifera'' oil palms. Oil palms have relatively low yield around Yangambi compared to coastal regions. This appears to be due to the lower night temperatures in the continental interior, which have a mean minimum at Yangambi of around . The center developed a number of varieties of soy beans for use in different parts of the country. Early-maturing varieties yielded over 1,200 kg/ha of soybeans. Field trials showed that inoculation could increase yields by 80% to 300%. In the 1950s INEAC researchers discovered the 'Yangambi km 5' (AAA) dessert banana. This variety yields large numbers of small fruit with an excellent taste, is productive even on poor soils and is resistant to black leaf streak disease. There is some evidence that this cultivar may have originated in southern Thailand, introduced to the

Kilo-Moto Kilo-Moto is a region in the far northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where gold was discovered in the Ituri River by government prospectors in 1903. Moto is in the Haut-Uélé Province and Kilo in the Ituri Province. ...

region in northeastern Congo and then brought to Yangambi before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After independence, the INEAC became the Institute National pour l'Etude et la Recherche Agronomiques (INERA), a Congolese institution. However, decades of conflict and political instability led to a progressive decline of Yangambi's research station.

Recent developments

Since 2017, with funding from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, the

Center for International Forestry Research The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a non-profit scientific research organization that conducts research on the use and management of forests with a focus on tropical forests in developing countries. CIFOR, which merged wit ...

(CIFOR) and several international and Congolese partners are conducting efforts to make of Yangambi's landscape a world-class hub for development, science, and conservation. Recent initiatives include restoration of degraded land, new infrastructure, research on endangered flora and fauna, support to local entrepreneurs, and training of local forest experts. In 2018, the

Meise Botanic Garden The Meise Botanic Garden ( nl, Plantentuin Meise, french: Jardin botanique de Meise), until 2014 called the National Botanic Garden of Belgium ( nl, Nationale Plantentuin van België, french: Jardin Botanique National de Belgique), is a botani ...

and INERA renovated Yangambi's herbarium, which has a collection of 150,000 dried plant specimens. In 2019, the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA ( nl, Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika or KMMA; french: Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale or MRAC; german: Königliches Museum für Zentralafrika or KMZA), also officially known as the AfricaMuse ...

(RMCA) launched a new wood biology laboratory in Yangambi, the first of its kind in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

. Since 2020, Yangambi hosts the

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 ...

's first Eddy covariance flux tower, installed by

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

Location

Weather

Yangambi Biosphere Reserve

Research center

Recent developments

References

Sources

External links