Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Slash and burn deforestation in southern Mexico to clear land for agriculture
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| Country | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
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| Location | Congo Basin |
| Forest type | Rainforest |
| Forest area | 154,000,000 ha or 595,000 sq mi |
| Deforestation rate | 311,000 ha or 1,200 sq mi annually; 0.2% |
| Main causes | Fuelwood and charcoal collection, artisanal and small-scale logging, industrial logging, clearing for agriculture, and road construction. |
Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a significant transnational issue. In the DRC, forests are cleared for agricultural purposes by utilizing slash and burn techniques.
Aside from the visible depletion of resources, deforestation of the DRC also leads to a lost habit for the mountain gorilla among other rare species like the okapi, resulting in decreased biodiversity, soil erosion, and contribute to climate change.
Since 1990, the rate of deforestation in the DRC has remained constant at 0.20%, which equates to the loss of 311,000 hectares, or roughly 1,200 square miles, annually. This amounts to destroying forests the size of Delaware every two years. The fact that the rate of deforestation has remained constant over the last twenty years is misleading as one might believe that government or non-government organizations (NGO) interventions have been responsible for the decline, but reports indicate otherwise. Three reasons have been postulated as to why deforestation rates have remained relatively low: 1) the road network within the country has been gradually in decline making access to more remote areas more difficult, 2) political and regulatory changes have disincentivized investment in the country, and 3) agriculture has expanded outside of forest areas.
Additionally, while the rates remain constant, wood removal (measured in cubic meters) continues to dramatically increase annually. Industrialized roundwood has increased from 3.05 million cubic meters in 1990 to 4.45 million cubic meters in 2010; fuelwood has increased from 44.2 million cubic meters to 75.44 million cubic meters annually in that same time.
The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the largest rainforest in Africa and second only to the Amazon Basin in size, with 300 million hectare compared to the 800 million hectares in the Amazon. Roughly fifty percent (154 million hectare) of the remaining rainforest in the Congo Basin lies within the boundaries of the DRC.
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