The rainforests of Africa’s Congo Basin are the world’s second largest, and are increasingly one of the most threatened. Agriculture, mining, logging, and climate change are already chipping away and thinning out the forests’ edge and interior. The Congo Basin forests’ biggest threat, however, is unseen: a lack of good information. With poor infrastructure, government capacity challenges, and hard-to-detect patterns of change, the forests of the Congo Basin are among the most difficult in the world to monitor and manage.
Please see our Congo Basin Forest Atlases page for the latest versions of our Congo Basin Atlases, along with links to online interactive maps, desktop mapping applications, GIS data, po
Stretching across six countries, the Congo Basin contains the second largest
contiguous tropical rain forest in the world and is home to a wealth of
biodiversity and wildlife populations. As global demand for the region’s forest
resources continues to grow, Central African nations recognize the importance
of managing these resources for the future.
WRI has been working with the Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Forest
Economy and a Congolese environmental group since 2004 to help that
country gather and digitize data on all its forest concessions, logging roads,
and protected areas for the first time. Forests cover 22 million hectares,
almost 65% of Congo’s territory. Forestry related revenue is second
only to that of petroleum to Congo’s economy.
Combined with training programs, the interactive forest atlas
produced through this collaboration helps the Congolese
government better monitor and manage its forest concession
titles, adjust taxable areas accordingly, and prioritize its limited
resources to combat illegal logging by dispatching field control
units to investigate pre-identified problem areas rather than
stumbling upon them.
The Forest Atlas is a dynamic tool that helps decision-makers in the region achieve sustainable management of forest resources through strengthened land use planning and monitoring.
Please see our Congo Basin Forest Atlases page for the latest versions of our Congo Basin Atlases, along with links to interactive maps, desktop mapping applications, GIS data, posters...
The Interactive Forest Atlas of Congo is a both an information management tool and an aid to decision-making to guide sustainable management of forest resources in the Republic of Congo.
Incorporating the Perspectives of Local Stakeholders for Improved REDD Design
This working paper summarizes the feedback and conclusions from a series of workshops for local and indigenous communities in Cameroon and the DRC held in 2008 and 2009, discussing REDD design and implementation.
This map shows logging concessions and protected areas in the Republic of Congo in 2008. It distinguishes between active and non active logging concessions, and includes roads and other land cover types.
Please see our Congo Basin Forest Atlases page for the latest versions of our Congo Basin Atlases, along with links to online interactive maps, desktop mapping applications, GIS data,...
