11 March 2015: The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have announced the establishment of the Congo Basin’s first center for excellence in climate change research. A greenhouse gas (GHG) laboratory was established in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 2014 and represents the beginning of the partners’ effort to develop a network of expertise and facilities to strengthen climate change research across Africa.

According to CIFOR, over the next 15 years, the Congo Basin is expected to experience a doubling in population, the continued onset of climate change, an acceleration of deforestation, and increased investment and integration with the global market. In order to prepare the region, CIFOR underlines the need for research focused on predicting the consequences of these changes for the region’s people, their livelihoods and their resilience, forests and ecosystems, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In particular, CIFOR notes, the Congo Basin was lacking an environmental research center that could process the data and conduct analysis for biophysical and bio-geochemical research on climate change.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), which, like CIFOR, is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, is hosting the laboratory in close cooperation with Cameroon’s University of Dschang. KIT provides expertise and training for local staff, as well as GHG flux measurement equipment. The research partners are currently studying GHG emissions related to the conversion of tropical forest to agricultural land.

Scientists involved in the project explain that the research allows them to identify management techniques to minimize environmental costs while increasing crop yields. The results are important globally, not just for the Congo Basin, according to CIFOR senior scientist Mariana Rufino, who stated that: “Until now, there has been no way to collect the data needed to make good decisions on the management of the forests, no way to assess the impact that losing the forest has on our climate.”

The laboratory is complemented by the work on GHG fluxes and land-use at the Mazingira Center in Nairobi, Kenya, which is also supported by a CIFOR partner, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). CIFOR and KIT see neither center as a stand-alone facility, but as parts of their larger effort to build research capacity and increase cooperation across African countries. [CIFOR Press Release] [ILRI Press Release – Mazingira Center] [Mazingira Center Research Overview]