By investing in conservation and sustainable practices, we can strengthen carbon sinks and slow down global warming.
But what are carbon sinks, and where can they be found?
Carbon sinks can be natural or artificial systems that absorb more carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere than they release.
They play a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate by reducing greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming.
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The most significant natural carbon sinks include:
Some of the most important forest carbon sinks are found in Africa, such as the Congo Basin Rainforest, also known as the ‘lungs of Africa’.
This rainforest is the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest spanning six countries, absorbing about 1,2 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually.
Through this rainforest, Gabon annually absorbs carbon emissions equivalent to a third of France’s annual total. The Republic of Congo alone absorbs 1,5% of the world’s entire annual carbon emissions.
Another forest carbon sink is the Miombo Woodlands in Southern Africa covering Angola in the west to Tanzania in the east, including parts of the DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
This forest comprises tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands holding potentially 13,6 billion metric tons of equivalent carbon dioxide in their above-ground biomass.
The world’s blue carbon sinks, its oceans, absorb about 25–30% of human-made CO₂ emissions, with coastal ecosystems playing a key role in carbon storage.
African examples include the Seagrass Meadows of Zanzibar (Tanzania). These underwater plants trap and store carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.
The mangrove forests in the Niger Delta (Nigeria) and Madagascar store up to four times more carbon per hectare than tropical forests.
In terms of soil and peatlands, healthy soils capture and store carbon through organic matter and microbial activity.
Notable African examples are the Cuvette Centrale peatlands (DRC), which is one of the world’s largest tropical peatlands, storing an estimated 30 billion tonnes of carbon.
Another is the Ethiopian Highlands, where sustainable farming techniques help improve soil carbon storage in this region.
Human-made carbon sinks include:
Although CCUS is still developing in Africa, pilot projects are emerging such as South Africa’s Leandra Research Project, which aims to capture CO₂ from industrial processes and store it underground.
Officially launched in September 2024, the project, located in Mpumalanga, follows the completion of a geological characterisation study, including the drilling of a 1,800-metre stratigraphic borehole at the Goedehoop site, confirming its suitability for safe and permanent CO₂ storage.
The Nigerian CO₂ Storage Atlas released in March 2025 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) indicates that Nigeria has 10,7 gigatonnes of prospective CO₂ storage resources.
According to the IFC, CCUS can serve as an important decarbonisation strategy in emerging markets, where much of the additional storage capacity that needs to become operational by 2050 is located.
Regarding reforestation and afforestation, efforts to plant trees and restore degraded lands are helping increase carbon sinks, such as the Great Green Wall initiative.
Launched in 2007 by the African Union, the game-changing African-led ambition hopes to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land in the Sahel region, sequester 250 million tons of carbon, and create 10 million green jobs by 2030.
Another example is East Africa’s Mau forest restoration, where efforts to restore this key watershed have helped strengthen its carbon absorption capacity. The area comprises 22 forest blocks and is a water catchment area.
At the end of 2022, some 800 hectares of the forest had been rehabilitated with the planting of over 16 million trees over the span of seven years.
Threats to carbon sinks like deforestation, ocean degradation, and soil erosion reduce their effectiveness to absorb carbon emissions.
The Earth’s ecosystems are symbiotic whereby large mammals play a role in speeding up natural carbon capture.
Elephants particularly inhibit wildfires by eating flammable vegetation, and by trampling plants underfoot, they help force the carbon in them into the soil where it is much more likely to stay.
Scientists also believe the threat extends to fungi, which capture and store over a third of global carbon emissions every year; however, modern farming stops fungi from working.
Protecting Africa’s carbon sinks and natural processes is crucial for climate resilience, biodiversity, and sustainable development. Whether through conservation or restoration, African countries can strengthen their role in global carbon storage and climate mitigation.
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