The African Rainforest is a large expanse of equatorial rainforestness at the center of the African continent. The dense forest begins south of the plains region of the Sahel and a region of more sparse forest. It covers the southernmost part of West Africa, including most of the Guinea coast. It extends south covering most of the Congo. To the east the higher elevation of the Great Lakes limits the forest. It is the home of the chimpanzee and the gorilla. A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Western Africa (UN subregion) Maghreb[1] West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ... The Great Lakes and the East African coastline as seen from space. ...
Threat
The forest is severely threatened by humans, particularly in Guinea, The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire), Africa's largest forest, because of ruthless development scheduled. The Oxford school Atlas says that due to desertification, the southward expansion of the Sahara has affected over 600,000 square kilometres since 1990. Both the chimpanzee and the gorilla are endangered.
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The Congo Rainforest
People of the African rainforest Culture of the rainforest Pygmies, with photos of nature and animals
Seventy percent of the plants in the rainforest are trees.
Nutrients generally stay in an ecosystem by being recycled and in a rainforest are mainly found in the living plants and the layers of decomposing leaf litter.
A study in the Amazon rainforest found that 99% of nutrients are held in root mats.
One of the worst cases of rainforest exploitation took place in the Belgian colony of Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) where thousands of forced laborers died in the scramble to harvest wild rubber.
Today, the governments of rainforest countries are now torn between the need to protect their endangered rainforests and the need for the money, roads and jobs that foreign logging companies bring in.
Growing populations, swollen by war refugees, are razing rainforest to make way for farm land; poachers are picking off chimpanzees and gorillas to sell to the profitable bushmeat trade.
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