The Congo Basin - Forest

Congo Basin rainforest is the world's second largest after the Amazon which accounted for 40% of oxygen contribute to the world. Forests exist in the western part of Africa is also a source of food, medicines and minerals.

A very wide area hosts a wealth of biodiversity, including more than 10,000 plant species, 1,000 bird species and 400 mammal species, and three of the four species of great ape world. It is also home to more than 24 million people, many who depend on forests for their livelihoods. Congo basin forests are not only plays an important role for the conservation of global biodiversity, they also provide vital ecological services of regional and global carbon sequestration and the catch basin.

Although much remains intact forest areas, forest ecosystems continue to be at risk areas of a complex set of threats that calls for joint global action: unsustainable timber and mineral extraction, bush meat trade in the market for commercial and residential urban forestry, land clearing for agriculture, and weak governance.

And the UN also reported that about 2 / 3 of forest area and its vegetation and wildlife in it, will disappear by 2040, except for protection of human action. Covering an area of ​​10 million hectares of forest each year diminished because of illegal logging, the expansion of mining land and built farms. Not only are forests that are threatened with extinction, but also endangered animals like mountain gorillas, forest elephants, chimpanzees and the Okapi (mammal-like giraffe and zebra).

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