The Congolese forests are a broad belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of the Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Biome, which extends across the basin of the Congo River and its tributaries in Central Africa.
Geography
The Congolese forests cover southeastern Cameroon, eastern Gabon, the northern and central Republic of the Congo, the northern and central Democratic Republic of the Congo and portions of southern and southwestern Central African Republic.
Ecology
To the north and south, the forests transition to drier forest-savanna mosaic, a mosaic of drier forests, savannas, and grasslands. To the west, the Congolese forests transition to the coastal Lower Guinean forests, which extend from western Gabon and Cameroon into southern Nigeria and Benin; these forests zones share many similarities, and are sometimes known as the Lower Guinean-Congolese forests. To the east, the lowland Congolese forests transition to the highland Albertine Rift montane forests, which cover the Mountains lining the Albertine Rift, a branch of the East African Rift system. The Congolese Forests are a global 200 ecoregion.
The Congo Rainforest is the world’s second largest tropical forest, spans six countries, and contains a quarter of the world’s remaining tropical forest. With annual forest loss of 0.3% during the 2000s, the region has the lowest deforestation rate of any major tropical forest zone.
Ecoregions
The World Wide Fund for Nature divides the Congolese forests into a number of distinct ecoregions:
- Northwestern Congolese lowland forests (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Republic of Congo)
- Western Congolese swamp forests (Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Eastern Congolese swamp forests (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Central Congolese lowland forests (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Northeastern Congolese lowland forests (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic)
See also
- Lower Guinean forests
- Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa
References
External links
- http://www.whrc.org/mapping/pantropical/carbonmap2000.html
- The Congo Rainforest