Inventory of karstic cavities of the Schisto-Calcaire Group, Republic of Congo: Applying a geoheritage promotion approach in the Madingou region

Abstract

Karst systems are increasingly recognized as valuable geoheritage sites. Although Africa hosts numerous karst landscapes, few countries maintain comprehensive inventories. Here, we investigated the karstic cavities within the Schisto-Calcaire Group in the Republic of Congo and assessed their geoheritage potential. We identified 169 karstic cavities by compiling data from publications, speleological reports, and field expeditions mainly in the Bangou Forest, the Madingou and Loudima valley regions. The inventory shows that 42 cavities have archaeological or anthropological significance. The Madingou region was selected as a focal point for fieldwork due to its high concentration of karstic cavities. This led to the discovery of 24 new cavities and revealed advanced karst development, including cone karst morphologies (fengcong, fenglin), dolines, uvalas, and karst springs. These cavities host diverse speleothems, cave-dwelling fauna, and ceramic remains. The geomorphological features result from interactions between lithological variability, tectonic structures, and surface processes. The geoheritage potential was assessed using a six-criteria classification framework encompassing geomorphology, hydrology, endokarst, lithology-palaeontology, tectonics-structural, and archaeology. The results underscore the high scientific, touristic, and educational value of the Madingou karst, highlighting the need for geoconservation strategies and sustainable tourism development. This study marks the first implementation of a systematic inventory approach toward geoheritage promotion in a Congolese karstic region and in Central Africa. This approach offers a replicable model for other areas. Linking geoheritage to sustainable land management contributes to SDG 11.4 on safeguarding cultural and natural heritage, as well as SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land).

Keywords

Karst / Cave / Inventory / Geoheritage / Schisto-Calcaire Group / Republic of Congo

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Bazebizonza Tchiguina Nicy Carmel: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Conceptualization. Samba Prefina Risiany Rachelle: Visualization, Investigation. Nkodia Hardy Medry Dieu-Veill: Visualization, Investigation, Conceptualization. Boudzoumou Florent: Supervision, Investigation, Conceptualization. Arfaoui Imen: Visualization, Supervision, Investigation. François Camille: Writing - review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Methodology. Lahogue Pascale: Writing - review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Methodology, Investigation.

Ethical statement

The authors confirm that no ethical issues are linked to this manuscript or the underlying study. All authors equally contributed to this study. They also confirm that this is an original research work with no plagiarism.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare the following financial interests (e.g., any funding for the research project)/personal relationships (e.g., the author is an employee of a profitable company) which may be considered as potential competing interests:

The authors received financial and scientific support from the Belgian Cooperation through the GeoResources for Development (GeoRes4Dev) project, coordinated by the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren, Belgium). This funding supported fieldwork, international mobility, laboratory analyses and manuscript preparation. This support had no inappropriate influence on the research outcomes.

Acknowledgements

This work is part of the doctoral work of Bazebizonza Nicy currently being conducted at Marien NGOUABI University in the Republic of Congo. It is funded by the Belgian Cooperation through the Georesources for Development (GeoRes4Dev) project led by the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren, Belgium). The authors are grateful to the local authorities of Madingou and the villagers for their warm hospitality and collaboration. Special thanks go to the local guides, especially Mahoungou Prince Aurelien, known as ‘Seedorf,’ who helped us to discover many cavities. The first author sincerely acknowledges the National Geographic Institute (IGN) of the Republic of Congo for granting the authorization necessary to carry out the field missions and research stays essential to this study. Finally, the authors thank all anonymous reviewers.

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