Both sides fought by proxy, arming and leading the populations of the upper Congo forests in a conflict.

The Congo forest is an important biodiversity hotspot.

A moratorium on logging in the Congo forest was agreed with the World Bank and the République Démocratique du Congo in May 2002.

It is not as familiar as the tropical rain forests, particularly the Amazon and the Congo forest of Central Africa, which includes seven different countries.

The sky was clear dark blue, and they had spectacular views of the south Virunga range-the great cone of Nyiragongo, rising steeply from the deep green of the Congo forests, and, beyond that, Mukenko, shrouded in fog.

The Batwa are largely accepted as a San group or some ethnicities related to the Pigmies of the Congo forest.

There are exceptions to this rule, for example large fish can be fed on chopped horse's heart and the okapi (similar to the giraffe) could be fed on evergreen oak leaves when in the wild it would eat vegetation from the hot Congo forests.

Now she is trying to protect the Congo forest, the world's second largest stand of trees.

But refusal to take up the challenge [of the Congo forest] would be wrong.

Though the stars of Congo forest will be the two families of Western lowland gorillas, they will be joined by okapis, red river hogs, mandrills, birds, fish, reptiles, bugs and several species of monkeys, including guenon, colobus and pygmy.