Congo Rainforest
The Congo Rainforest is a tropical rainforest situated in central Africa, stretching over 6 different countries. It is the second largest rainforest in the world, to the Amazon. Around two-thirds of the region's intact forest is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but it also covers large areas of Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. The Congo has been referred to as the heart darkness by Joseph Conrad, because it has caused thoughts of pygmies, mythical beasts, dreadful plagues, and cannibals. It is a place that is known as it well as it is today because of Stanley and Livingstone. It has many bad things that can remind us of it, like the brutality and violence of its past - the days of the Arab slave and ivory trade, its long history of tribal warfare - and its present - the ethnic violence and massacres of today. The Congo makes up 70% of Africa’s plant cover and is a main part of the variety of plants and animals with 600 tree species and 10 000 animal species. The Congo is one of the most threatened ecosystems. Commercial logging and clearing for subsistence agriculture, and civil strife has been destroying rainforests such as the Congo, and has been harming the tree dwellers, causing more “Bushmeat” trade. Ever since the 1980s, Africa has had the highest deforestation rates out of every where in the world!