- WWF Central Africa Regional Program Office has drafted a vulnerability assessment proposal for the Republic of the Congo.
WWF work
What WWF is doing on the ground in the Republic of the Congo to protect against climate change:
WWF contacts
Climate change impacts in the Republic of the Congo - what the IPCC 4th Assessment Report has found:
- Along with warming surface waters, deep water temperatures (which reflect long-term trends) of the large East African lakes (Edward, Albert, Kivu, Tanganyika) have warmed by 0.2 to 0.7°C since the early 1900s [1.3.2.3]
- Deep tropical lakes, are experiencing reduced algal abundance and declines in productivity because stronger stratification reduces upwelling of nutrient-rich deep water. Primary productivity in Lake Tanganyika may have decreased by up to 20% over the past 200 years, and for the East African Rift Valley lakes, recent declines in fish abundance have been linked with climatic impacts on lake ecosystems [1.3.4.4].
- After the 1997 flood, Lake Tanganyika rose by about 2.1m, and very high river-flows were recorded in the Congo River at Kinshasha. The heavy rains and floods have been attributed to large-scale atmosphere ocean interactions in the Indian Ocean. [9.2.1.1]