The Congo Basin forest spans across much of Central Africa and is the second largest area of contiguous moist tropical forest left in the world.  It covers an area of approximately 1.8 million hectares from the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf of Guinea to the mountains of the Albertine Rift.  80% of the forests range in altitude from 300 to 1,000 m and forms the catchment basin of the Congo River.

Representing approximately one fifth of the world’s remaining closed canopy tropical forest; the Congo Basin forest is of local, regional, and global environmental significance.  The forest serves as critical habitat for biodiversity conservation (home to three of the world’s four species of great apes) and provides vital regional and global ecological services.  The forest also represents a rich resource in terms of food, shelter, and livelihoods for the over 60 million inhabitants of the region.  The sustainable management of these resources is seen as critical to the economic development of the region.

The Congo Basin forests, which play a major economic role and ecological role as a carbon sink and a catchment basin, are at risk from a complex set of threats.  While much of the forest currently remains intact, many factors contribute to its continual loss.  These factors include proximate threats from the persistent unsustainable extraction of timber and mineral resources, agricultural expansion, an active bushmeat trade, poor management, and increasing pressure due to population growth.  In addition, the forests of the Congo Basin are vulnerable to more ultimate threats related to regional poverty, weak governance, and civil unrest.