The second largest contiguous tropical rainforest on Earth after the Amazon, spanning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea, drained by the Congo River and its tributaries. Often called the lung of Africa, the forest absorbs vast quantities of atmospheric carbon and shelters extraordinary biodiversity, including forest elephants, bonobos found nowhere else on Earth, lowland and mountain gorillas, and the elusive okapi. Its remoteness has left large stretches less studied and less disturbed than the Amazon, though logging, mining and agricultural expansion are advancing steadily into previously intact forest.
Facts
Disputed
Area (sq km)Estimates for Congo Basin rainforest extent range from roughly 1.78 to 2 million square kilometers depending on methodology and ongoing deforestation; this figure reflects a commonly cited approximate extent. Classification
Biogeographic Realm Connections
Demonstrates
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hosts
Source World Wildlife Fund
Source World Wildlife Fund
In Biome
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.britannica.com/place/Congo-Basin, opening definition sentence
Congo basin, basin of the Congo River, lying astride the Equator in west-central Africa. It is the world's second largest river basin (next to that of the Amazon), comprising an area of more than 1.3 million square miles (3.4 million square km).
- Biogeographic realm: afrotropic (derived from location stated in entity description)
- Demonstrates: Carbon Cycle
- In Biome: Tropical Rainforest
View the Source World Wildlife Fund
World Wildlife Fund- Hosts: Western Lowland Gorilla
- Hosts: Okapi
- Hosts: Bonobo
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