Congo Rain Forest

4. Congo Rain Forest

The Congo forest got its name from the river flowing in it called the Congo River which is one of the longest rivers in the world and both of these were the subject of Joseph Conrad’s famous book The Heart of Darkness. Almost 70 percent of the plant cover in the African subcontinent is represented by the Congo. It is covering a vast area of Central Africa through Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. It is becoming an increasingly fragile ecosystem day by day because of the deforestation, commercial logging, and clearing off forests for agricultural purposes. Hunting and poaching of the animals for their meat called bush meat has rendered many species endangered. A widespread population and increasing poverty has only helped in the expansion of the bush meat trade. The Congo rain forest is the only known habitat of the pygmy chimpanzee. Other animals living in the Congo Basin are the hippopotamus, okapi, gorillas, African elephants, etc. Most population of the Democratic Republic of Congo depend on this forest for its needs of food, medicine and shelter.