Which continent is home to the Congo rainforest?

The Congo rainforest is in Africa. It forms a broad belt of tropical rainforest across the Congo River Basin in Central Africa, spanning parts of several countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Angola’s Cabinda enclave.

Often called the Congolian rainforests, this ecosystem is the world’s second-largest tropical forest after the Amazon. It covers roughly 2 million square kilometres and includes lowland forests, swamp forests, and other closely related rainforest regions. The basin supports remarkable wildlife, including okapis, bonobos, chimpanzees, forest elephants, gorillas, leopards, and the Congo peafowl.

The answer is sometimes confused because “Congo” refers both to a river basin and to two neighboring countries. Neither country name changes the continent: both the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are in Central Africa. The rainforest’s peatlands are also globally important, storing vast quantities of carbon beneath waterlogged forest soils.