Our project, CongoPeat, aims to provide timely information to policymakers and civil society in a format that is useful to them. 

The initial research conducted by the CongoPeat team, which laid the groundwork for this project, drew substantial press and policy attention. In March 2018, the intergovernmental Brazzaville Declaration was signed, committing Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia to work together towards protection of the peatlands and their carbon, and calling for international assistance in doing so.

Dr Lera Miles, from the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, will lead a project translating our scientific outputs into language that can be readily understood by those responsible for the protection and management of the peatlands.

This, plus ongoing support from international organisations including the Global Peatlands Initiative, Greenpeace Africa and from both the Republic of Congo and the DRC governments, the local Wildlife Conservation Society and local communities who live alongside the peatlands, should give our work a lasting positive legacy.