Africa's Second Lung under Siege: Factors That Are Changing the Congo Basin

Everyone knows that the Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, often called the “lung of the earth.” But how many of us have heard that the war-torn African continent is also the home of the “second lung of the earth,” known as the Congo Basin?

The Congo Basin

The Congo Basin is the second-largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon. It spans across six African countries: Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo. It plays a crucial role in absorbing carbon dioxide. The Congo Basin forests cover almost 286 million hectares. Not only are the forests considered a biodiversity hotspot, but they are also a vital source of livelihood for more than 60 million people. (Agence Française de Développement, 2021) Though the deforestation rate of the Congo Basin forest is the lowest compared to any other forest in the world. However, climate conversations mainly revolve around the Amazonian rainforest; therefore, the Congo Basin rainforest is often less highlighted on the global platform. Currently, it has been reported as one of the world’s most threatened landscapes, as it is changing rapidly.  

The Congo Basin includes a rich diversity of ecosystems from tropical forests to mangroves, which play an important role in protecting the climate by sinking carbon. These forests are the major source of rainfall in the drought-prone areas in the African continent, such as in the Sahel region. The survival of the people near the Congo Basin depends on the goods and services offered by the forest ecosystems. A study led by WWF and Concordia University in Canada, using satellite data, machine learning, etc., found that the major factors that have driven the change in the Congo Basin landscape use and deforestation are industrial agriculture, farming, and urbanization.  

Changing Landscapes of the Congo Basin 

On 16th April, 2025, a news article published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stated that over three decades, from 1990 to 2020, the Congo Basin forest lost 352,000 square kilometers, which is approximately 8.5% of its total area. If this trend continues, almost 3.7 to 4% might be gone by 2050 due to high population growth and the impact of climate change. (WWF, 2025) 

According to a report published by the World Bank, the total asset value of the Congo Basin forests has increased from $12.3 trillion to $23.2 trillion between 2000 and 2020. (World Bank, 2025) Here, the total asset value of the forests is equal to the “land value” that takes all ecosystem services into account. But this forest's assets have been decreasing day by day due to climate change and human activities. Over the last two decades, all the forests have declined across the six Congo Basin countries. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has 60% of the Congo Basin rainforests, as per the Global Forest Watch (GFW). The data from GFW showed that the DRC lost 7.1% of its forest between 2002 and 2024.  

Why Is This Happening? 

A synthesis report prepared by the World Bank (2025), “Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem Accounts and Policy Recommendations,” is the first regional overview of the forest area, condition, and ecosystem asset values across the six countries, covering the period from 2000 to 2020. The Congo Basin's changing landscapes are mostly caused by increasing human pressures from population growth and economic development, which show up as forest loss and widespread damage. According to this synthesis report, the key factors behind the changing landscape (forest loss) of the Congo Basin Rainforests are: 

1. Agricultural Expansion and Shifting Cultivation: Smallholder agriculture and shifting cultivation are the major causes of deforestation by converting natural forests. This has led to the growth of anthropogenic land covers, especially forest-farm mosaics, which have grown by almost 95 percent between 2010 and 2020 alone. 

2. Population Growth and Urbanization: One of the main factors of the change is population growth. Forest degradation is caused by the expansion of settlements, the development of infrastructure, and an increase in land pressure. There was an increased area of built-up areas and croplands, indicating a shift of asset value from natural to human-modified landscapes. 

3. Unsustainable Extraction of Resources: Forest resources are used continuously, with most of the time not being sustainable, which contributes to the degradation of the Congo Basin forests. The major threats are illegal logging, mining, and charcoal production. In several countries, the harvesting of wood as fuelwood surpassed the harvesting of wood as timber, and during the period 2000-2020, the extraction had increased between 2- and 4-fold. Also, the pressure of bushmeat hunting is estimated to exceed the sustainable yield in all countries and in all years considered. 

4. Poor Governance and Conflict: The poor governance and ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, right at the heart of the Congo Basin, have been tearing up the landscape through deforestation and forest degradation. Political chaos isn't new here. It goes back to the fallout from the Rwandan genocide in the mid-90s, then exploded with the First and Second Congo Wars. Those conflicts killed millions, making them the deadliest since World War II. And the violence hasn't really stopped. Armed groups like M23, which made a comeback in 2022 and even took Goma, one of the provinces of the DRC, in early 2025, keep committing brutal attacks, while the government fails to control the atrocities.  

More than 7 million people have been forced from their homes; this was the biggest displacement crisis in Africa. All this chaos forces people to survive however they can. Subsistence farming, cutting trees for firewood, mining, and hunting for bushmeat, especially along logging roads, these activities keep ramping up. Sure, there are laws on the books to protect forests. But they don't mean much when corruption, violence, and poor enforcement keep getting in the way. Aid and conservation efforts stumble or stall completely. In the scramble for resources, the pressure on the land just keeps growing. Therefore, the Congo Basin is under a lot of strain right now. The economic demand, high population growth, resource extraction, and weak leadership are the key reasons behind the changing landscape of the Congo Basin. Sure, the forest isn’t disappearing as fast as the Amazon, at least not yet, but it’s speeding up, and you can’t just ignore that. If nothing changes, the fallout won’t stop at Central Africa; the climate everywhere will feel it. Fixing this isn’t simple. It calls for better leadership, real options for people to earn a living, and backing from the rest of the world. Only by resolving the conflict situations in the Congo Basin regions and bringing lasting peace can the ecosystems of the basin be protected. First, we must protect the people and ensure their rights so that they can preserve nature. I know, none of that’s easy, but without it, the crisis only gets bigger.