What is the largest rainforest in Africa?

The largest rainforest in Africa is the Congo Basin rainforest. It lies in Central Africa around the Congo River system and covers roughly 1.6 million square kilometres of humid forest.

The wider Congo Basin is much larger than the forest itself, extending across about 3.7 million square kilometres of drainage basin. Countries connected to the region include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and parts of Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.

The forest is the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon. It contains thousands of plant species and provides habitat for western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, forest elephants and okapis. The basin’s wetlands and rivers also help regulate water supplies and support millions of people who depend on the forest for food, materials and livelihoods.

Mau Forest, Ituri Forest and Virunga are all important African forest regions or protected areas, but none is larger than the Congo Basin rainforest. “Congo Basin” refers to the vast ecological and drainage region, not only to one national park or one country.