Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal,
Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, the Seychelles, and the islands of Sao
Tome and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea (see Figure 3.9). The rainforest of Mada-
gascar is also part of this biogeographical region.
In West Africa, nearly 90 percent of the original rainforest is gone, and the re-
mainder is heavily fragmented and in poor condition. More than 70 percent of Afri-
ca's remaining rainforests are located in Central Africa within the remote areas of
the Congo Basin in the DRC, Uganda, Republic of Congo, Central African Repub-
lic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and eastern Cameroon. The Congo River (also
called the Zaire) is the Earth's second largest river by volume, and its basin houses
the world's second largest rainforest. The rainforest of the Congo Basin is one of
the world's most endangered ecosystems. It holds a large part of Africa's biodiver-
sity. Logging, subsistence and export agriculture, cattle ranching, and widespread
civil fighting have destroyed forests and displaced native peoples. The expansion of
the bushmeat trade threatens the survival of many species. Since the 1980s, Africa
has had the highest deforestation rates of any region on the globe. The Congo
Figure 3.9 Location of tropical rainforests within the African region.
(Map by Bernd
Kuennecke.)
