Republic of Congo: Habitat Guide

The Republic of Congo is located on the western coast of Central Africa. It shares its borders Angola in the south, Zaire towards the south and east, Central Africa Republic and Cameroon to the north, and Gabon to the northwest. The Southern Atlantic Ocean forms a natural border in the west of Congo. The terrain is made up of vast tracts of swamps, savannahs and lush forests. The shoreline is indented with many lagoons and inlets. Hugging the shore is a narrow coastal plain, composed primarily of grasslands. As the land moves inwards, the topography changes into highlands and equatorial rainforests. The main rivers are the Congo and the Ubangi and their tributaries. The River Congo forms one of the most fertile basins in the region. It also acts as the country's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, receiving most of its waters from the swampy northern region of the country.
The Mayombe Mountains form an escarpment, formed by a series of plateaus rising from 1,600 to 2,600 feet lying behind the coastal plain. The river valleys of the Congo cut into the forested ridges that make up the Bateke Plateau, a grass-covered elevated plain in central Congo.  Behind the Mayombe escarpment lies the fertile Niari Valley, home to the farming community and farming tribes. The Stanley Pool is a lake formed by the widening of the Congo River.

Flora & Fauna

More than half the area of the Congo is covered by dense forests, coastal swamps and the rest is mostly grassy plains watered by the rivers in the region. The narrow coastal plain is low lying and dry with grassland vegetation. The north has some Equatorial rainforests with an average rainfall. Thick forests of trees and tangled bushes and vines cover the northern half of Congo. The Mayombe and Chailou highlands and plateaus have forests, gorges and valleys.  The colonial masters introduced certain cash crops like coffee, sugar cane, cocoa, tobacco and palm but the most important non-oil export from the Congo has been timber, especially the prized hardwood okoumé. Both of these have led to substantial deforestation -  as large tracts of forestland was cleared for plantations and as entire forests were depleted of the okoume trees.The wildlife in the Congo Brazzaville is diverse and abundant, including antelope, giraffes, cheetahs, crocodiles, and numerous birds and snakes.

The RC is more than half forested, with extensive coastal swamps and large areas of fertile, well-watered savanna. In the colonial era, it achieved moderate development of diversified tropical agriculture, growing coffee, sugar cane, cocoa, tobacco, and palm products, among other items. The Congo is mostly made up of forested palisades and savanna lands, with some rainforest. Although the country has managed to maintain its variety of plant and animal species, there are serious threats to the bio-diversity of the area, as a consequence of the substantial degree of deforestation that is currently taking place.