UPSC Prelims 2024 Question:

One of the following regions has the world’s largest tropical peatland, which holds about three years' worth of global carbon emissions from fossil fuels; and the possible destruction of which can exert detrimental effect on the global climate. Which one of the following denotes that region?

Explanation:

• The Congo Basin is home to the world’s largest tropical peatlands, along with Brazil and Indonesia. The peat swamp forest of the Congo Basin stores around 29 billion tons of carbon – approximately equivalent to three years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions – while the Basin as a whole absorbs nearly 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. The Basin stretches across six countries- Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
  
  
• Peatlands cover only 3 per cent of the global land surface but store an estimated 600 billion tons of carbon – twice as much as in all the world’s forests. This makes them one of the most efficient carbon sink ecosystems and underlines the need to protect them.
  
  

Therefore, option (2) is the correct answer.

Subject: Environment | Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystem