Mining for critical minerals in the Congo could help protect Africa’s great rainforest by creating new economic opportunities and giving countries in the region greater power over the value of their natural resources, the former environment minister of Gabon – a country 90 per cent covered by the rainforest - has told The Independent.
The Congo Rainforest stretches across two million square kilometres in central Africa, and is the world’s largest forest carbon sink, absorbing around 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of Russia.
