Most of Africa's remaining rainforests are found in the Congo river basin on the Atlantic Ocean side of the continent.

The Congo rainforest is famous for its gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants as well as its native population of forest dwellers known as pygmies.

Rainforests in the Congo are mostly under threat from logging, subsistence activities like small-scale agriculture and firewood collection, and commercial agriculture, including large plantations. Wildlife is endangered from hunting.

Map showing the Congo rainforest. Click to enlarge.

Beyond the rainforest of the Congo Basin, Africa's other major rainforests are the Guinean Forests of West Africa, which run from Sierra Leone to Cameroon; the Eastern Afromontane, which span Ethiopia to Southern Africa; the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa from Kenya to Mozambique; and the forests of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands.

Statistics on tropical forest cover and loss in Africa

CountryPrimary forest extent
2020
(million hectares)
Primary forest loss
2010-2019
Tree cover extent
2020
(million hectares)
Tree cover change
2010-2019
DR Congo99.8 -3.5% 188.0 -5.3%
Angola2.3 -3.8% 46.8 -3.1%
Central African Republic7.2 -1.5% 46.6 -1.0%
Cameroon18.5 -2.6% 28.7 -3.4%
Republic of Congo20.8 -1.2% 26.0 -2.2%
Gabon22.4 -0.7% 24.4 -1.2%
Mozambique0.1 -7.5% 23.1 -7.8%
Tanzania0.7 -2.8% 19.3 -6.3%
Zambia0.3 -6.5% 16.6 -4.4%
Madagascar4.0 -14.0% 13.5 -17.8%
Ethiopia1.8 -2.5% 12.1 -2.0%
Nigeria1.8 -5.3% 9.6 -6.4%
Côte d'Ivoire1.0 -17.3% 8.7 -16.5%
Liberia4.2 -4.1% 7.9 -14.9%
South Sudan0.1 -1.6% 7.3 -0.4%
Ghana1.0 -5.9% 5.7 -12.3%
Uganda0.4 -9.0% 4.4 -9.5%
Sierra Leone0.2 -8.4% 4.0 -25.8%
Guinea0.2 -4.2% 3.5 -20.9%
Kenya0.6 -4.2% 2.7 -5.8%
Equatorial Guinea2.2 -2.1% 2.5 -3.5%
Indonesia84.4 -6.5% 141.7 -10.1%

 

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