Today on Business Daily with me, Vivian Nunes, we're taking you to the Congo Basin.

This dense rainforest is humid and wet for much of the year

and underfoot lies one of the world's biggest carbon sinks,

muddy soil built up from layers of partly decomposed plant matter.

Remote and uncultivated, the peatlands here have survived for thousands of years,

stretching over an area the size of England.

But this rare carbon store is now under threat,

as local authorities turn their attention to oil.

As we know, the peatlands store 30 gigatons worth of carbon,

so opening up these areas would really spell a climate catastrophe. Will this carbon store be left

undisturbed or will it be released into the atmosphere and the hope that oil will bring riches

to one of the poorest countries on earth.

It's very imperative that the DRC government and donors put their effort to stop the oil blocks.

That's Business Daily from the BBC. The Congo

lies in the heart of Central Africa, a swampy wilderness divided by the snaking Congo

River.

People here have survived in the forest for thousands of years,

living sustainably alongside a teeming ecosystem.

It's full of elephants and lowland gorillas and bonobos and small dwarf crocodiles.

And underfoot, it's wet.

The water is above the surface for almost all of the year.

But for a few months when the dry season, then you can walk on it.

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