The vast forest of the Congo Basin is the second largest tropical rainforest on earth and the lungs of Africa. Its incredibly rich and diverse ecosystem provides food, fresh water, shelter and medicine for tens of millions of people, and is home to many critically endangered species including forest elephants, gorillas, bonobos and okapis. Of the hundreds of mammal species discovered there so far, 39 are found nowhere else on Earth, and of its estimated 10,000 plant species, 3,300 are unique to the region.

The rainforest supports an astonishing range of life, within its teeming rivers, swamps and savannahs. But it also helps to sustain life across the whole planet. An estimated 8% of the earth’s carbon that is stored in living forests worldwide is stored in the forests of the DRC, making the country the fourth largest carbon reservoir in the world. The Congo Basin rainforest plays a critical role in regulating the global climate and halting runaway climate change, for the benefit of the entire biosphere.

But the forest, and the people and animals that depend upon it, are under threat as the unquenchable global thirst for natural resources, crops and foodstuffs means African lands are, more than ever, a target for investors. The solutions to these threats lie firmly with those who live there.

 

 

The latest updates

 

How rogue palm oil producers are getting away with forest destruction

Blog entry by Wirendro Sumargo | April 25, 2013

It always amazes me how the actions – or rather inaction – of high-level meetings in far-off cities can so seriously impact forests in my own country. Today, an organisation with the declared aim of ensuring environmentally...

Investigation raises doubts of legality of DRC timber held in Belgian port

Blog entry by Raoul Monsembula | April 11, 2013

Last month Greenpeace Africa released a report on how the illegal logging sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in a state of organized chaos, with numerous companies flouting regulations and threatening the country’s...

Indonesia’s largest palm oil producer shows the way

Blog entry by Bustar Maitar | March 13, 2013

As Greenpeace Africa continues to work with local communities and NGOs to stop Herakles Farms’ proposed palm oil plantation in Cameroon, we welcome an ambitious Forest Conservation Policy launched by the largest palm oil producer in...

Cut it out: How illegal logging in DRC threatens livelihoods, forests and trade

Feature story | March 4, 2013 at 13:43

Our latest report from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reveals how the country’s logging sector is in a state of “organised chaos”, with the DRC government’s so-called “battle against illegal logging” currently failing the Congolese people and...

French and Cameroonian presidents meet, but will they talk about palm oil?

Blog entry by Jean-François Julliard | January 31, 2013

The French President Francois Hollande today received his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya, at the Elysée Palace in Paris – and there was not a lack of potential topics for discussion. Yet surely the one thing that had to be...

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