﻿ Congo Basin | Greenpeace International threatened Congo apes
The Congo Forest  The vast forest of the Congo Basin is the
second largest tropical rainforest on earth and the lungs of
Africa. Its incredibly rich and diverse ecosystem provides food,
fresh water, shelter and medicine for tens of millions of
people, and is home to many critically endangered species
including forest elephants, gorillas, bonobos and okapis. Of the
hundreds of mammal species discovered there so far, 39 are found
nowhere else on Earth, and of its estimated 10,000 plant
species, 3,300 are unique to the region.  The rainforest
supports an astonishing range of life, within its teeming
rivers, swamps and savannahs. But it also helps to sustain life
across the whole planet. An estimated 8% of the earth’s carbon
that is stored in living forests worldwide is stored in the
forests of the DRC, making the country the fourth largest carbon
reservoir in the world. The Congo Basin rainforest plays a
critical role in regulating the global climat