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The Biggest Forests in Africa(Photo: Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images )
About 22 percent of Africa is forest and woodland, and only a small percentage of this acreage is protected. Incredibly important from a human standpoint because of their timber and water resources, these tree-dominated ecological landscapes are also reservoirs of outstanding biological diversity. From the sprawling, steaming rainforests of the Congo Basin to the sizzling, sepia-toned woodlands of the Tanzania-Zimbabwe frontier, these are some of the most game-rich forests in the world.
Congolese Forest
The Congo Basin is Africa’s largest contiguous forest and the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world. Covering about 695,000 square miles, this swamp-struck tropical forest covers portions of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Exceeded in size only by the Amazon, the Congo Basin rainforest supports some 10,000 kinds of plants and a huge variety of animals, including big mammals like African forest elephants, forest buffalo, chimpanzees, bonobos and a number of subspecies of gorilla. It also shelters more than 100 different human cultures. Gravely maligned by wide-scale logging and the bushmeat trade, these great, waterlogged forests remain a bastion for African wilderness. Important reserves include the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected
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