Which African countries are in the African rainforest?

In West Africa, nearly 90 percent of the original rainforest is gone and the remainder is heavily fragmented and in poor use. Especially problematic in Africa is desertification and conversion of rainforests to erodible agriculture and grazing lands. Current StatusMost of the tropical rainforests of Africa exist in the Congo (Zaire) River Basin.

Remnants also exist throughout Western Africa which is in a sorry state due to the plight of poverty which encourages subsistence agriculture and firewood harvesting. This realm is dry and seasonal when compared to the other realms. The outlying portions of this rainforest is steadily becoming desert.

BackgroundBy far, the largest number of countries with rainforests are located in one geographical section of the World - the Afrotropical region. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates these 38 countries exist mainly in West and Central Africa. The countries, for the most part, are very poor and live at the subsistence level. Suggested ReadingThe Amazon RainforestTropical Rainforest RegionsRainforest LinksElsewhere on the WebMongabay.