The Congo Basin holds the world's second-largest tropical rainforest1, and it is losing ground. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to most of it, primary forest loss hit a record 590,000 hectares in 20244. In 2025 total loss dipped 5%, but loss not caused by fire reached its highest level on record2.
Key points
- Six countries share the rainforest. The DRC holds about 60% of it14.
- Small-scale shifting cultivation caused 86% of the DRC's primary forest loss from 2002 to 20252.
- Firewood and charcoal, the DRC's main source of energy, are another major driver2.
- Peat under the Cuvette Centrale swamp forests stores an estimated 29 billion tonnes of carbon7.
- Roughly 100 million people depend on these forests2.
590,000 ha
primary forest lost in the DRC in 2024, a record
Global Forest Watch data via Mongabay, 20254
Where is the Congo Basin rainforest?
The rainforest spans six countries in Central Africa: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the DRC, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon1. WRI describes the Congo Basin as the world's largest remaining tropical forest carbon sink2.
The DRC dominates. About 60% of the basin's rainforest lies inside its borders4, and it holds the world's second-largest area of tropical primary forest2. FAO puts the DRC's total forest area at 139 million hectares in 2025, including 100 million hectares of primary forest3.
How fast is the Congo Basin losing its forest?
The losses have grown. The World Bank reports that forest loss in the basin nearly doubled in 2010–2020 compared with the decade before1. The DRC carries most of it: between 2000 and 2014, smallholder clearing in the DRC alone accounted for nearly two-thirds of all forest loss in the basin5.
Global Forest Watch data show the DRC's primary forest loss climbing from 510,000 hectares in 2022 to 530,000 in 2023 and a record 590,000 in 20244. In 2025 the DRC had the third-largest tropical primary forest loss in the world. Its total fell 5%, but non-fire loss was the highest on record, a sign that the underlying pressures are growing2.
Elsewhere the picture is mixed. Cameroon had its highest primary forest loss on record in 2025, linked to cocoa farming and to people displaced by conflict. The Republic of the Congo and Gabon, both high-forest, low-deforestation countries, kept losses low2.
Not every dataset agrees. In its own report to FAO, the DRC said its net loss of primary forest more than halved, from 565,000 hectares a year in 2000–2015 to 204,000 hectares a year in 2015–20253. Satellite monitoring and national reporting use different methods and definitions, so their numbers should not be mixed.
What is driving deforestation in the Congo Basin?
Small farms
The main driver is the need for land to grow food. Across the basin, 84% of the forest area disturbed between 2000 and 2014 was cleared by small-scale farming without machines, and that kind of clearing in primary forests and woodlands doubled over the period5. In the DRC, small-scale shifting cultivation caused 86% of primary forest loss from 2002 to 20252. Families cut and burn a patch, farm it for a few seasons and move on. As the fields multiply, they reach deeper into old forest.
Charcoal and fuelwood
Wood harvested for firewood and charcoal is the dominant form of energy in the DRC, and a major driver of forest loss2. Every sack of charcoal starts as a tree.
Logging, mining, roads and conflict
Selective logging was the second-largest cause of disturbance in 2000–2014: about 10% of the disturbed area across the basin, and more than 60% in Gabon5. Roads and other infrastructure add to the pressure1. In eastern DRC, armed conflict has pushed communities into new forest areas. Mining clears forest directly, sometimes under the control of armed groups, and draws people into remote places2. Export crops are a smaller but growing threat2. With the basin's population expected to grow fivefold by 2100, the pressure will not ease by itself5. See the causes of deforestation for how this compares with other regions.
The Cuvette Centrale: carbon under the swamp
Beneath the swamp forests of the central Congo Basin lies the most extensive peatland complex in the tropics. A 2017 study in Nature by Dargie and colleagues estimated its area at about 145,500 km². It found the peat held 30.6 billion tonnes of carbon, with a wide uncertainty range of 6.3 to 46.8 billion tonnes, and dated the start of peat formation to about 10,600 years ago6.
A 2022 study in Nature Geoscience led by Crezee added the first extensive field surveys of peat in the DRC. It put the peatland at 167,600 km², 36% of the world's tropical peatland area, holding 29.0 billion tonnes of carbon below ground (95% confidence range 26.3 to 32.2). That is about 28% of the world's tropical peat carbon. Two-thirds of the peatland area lies in the DRC, and only 8% of the peat carbon sits inside nationally protected areas7.
The carbon is vulnerable to land-use change and to any future fall in rainfall6. Drained peat dries out and decays, and the carbon it has held for thousands of years escapes into the air. Read more about the effects of deforestation.
Who depends on the forest, and what is being done?
Roughly 100 million people depend on these forests2. Communities rely on them for food, medicine, fuelwood and cultural identity1. Their needs drive much of the clearing2, so protection has to work for the people who live there.
Some steps target the peat. On 23 March 2018, the DRC, the Republic of the Congo and Indonesia signed the Brazzaville Declaration to improve the management and conservation of the Cuvette Centrale peatlands. The two Congos also agreed to plan land use and infrastructure around the peat8.
Others create new protected land. In January 2025 the DRC adopted a decree creating the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, a reserve of more than 54,000 km². Greenpeace Africa welcomed it cautiously, but warned that affected communities had not been consulted and that the zone overlaps community, mining and agricultural concessions9.
Gabon and the Republic of the Congo show that high forest cover and low loss can go together2. Lasting progress in the DRC means alternatives for farming families: more food from land already cleared, and cooking energy that does not come from the forest. For the wider toolkit, see solutions to deforestation, and compare the Amazon and Indonesia.
Questions people ask
Why is the Congo rainforest being cut down?
Which country has the most deforestation in the Congo Basin?
How much carbon do the Congo Basin peatlands store?
An estimated 29.0 billion tonnes of carbon below ground, about 28% of the world's tropical peat carbon, according to a 2022 study. The peatland covers 167,600 km², and only 8% of its carbon lies inside nationally protected areas7.
Is the Congo Basin a carbon sink?
Yes. WRI describes it as the world's largest remaining tropical forest carbon sink. It also warns that continued loss of primary forest, including in the basin's ancient peatlands, could weaken that role2.
Sources
- World Bank (2025). Why the Congo Basin Forests can't be ignored: a global lifeline at crossroads. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- World Resources Institute (2026). Tropical Rainforest Loss Slowed in 2025, but Fire is a Growing Threat to Forests Worldwide (Global Forest Review). Accessed 11 October 2026.
- FAO (2025). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- Mongabay (2025). DRC hit by record deforestation in 2024, satellite data show. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- Tyukavina, A. et al. (2018). Congo Basin forest loss dominated by increasing smallholder clearing. Science Advances 4. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- Dargie, G.C. et al. (2017). Age, extent and carbon storage of the central Congo Basin peatland complex. Nature 542. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- Crezee, B. et al. (2022). Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data. Nature Geoscience 15. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- UNEP (2018). Historic agreement signed to protect the world's largest tropical peatland. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- Greenpeace Africa (2025). DRC Green Corridor Project: Greenpeace Africa cautiously welcomes "World's Largest Forest Reserve", urges inclusive approach. Accessed 11 October 2026.