The Congo forest is home to the okapi, African forest elephant, pygmy hippopotamus, bongo (antelope), chimpanzee, bonobo and the Congo peafowl. Its apex predator is the Leopard, which are larger than their savannah counterparts due to lack of competition from other large predators. The basin is home to the endangered western lowland gorilla. In 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme warned that gorillas could be extinct from the greater Congo Basin in a matter of 15 years.

The Congo Basin is the largest forest in Africa. More than 10,000 plant species can be found in and around the forest.[10] The humid forests cover 1.6 million km².[4] The Congo Basin is an important source of African teak, used for building furniture and flooring. An estimated 40 million people depend on these woodlands, surviving on traditional livelihoods.

At a global level, Congo’s forests act as the planet’s second lung, counterpart to the rapidly dwindling Amazon. They are a huge “carbon sink”, trapping carbon that could otherwise remain carbon dioxide. The Congo Basin holds roughly 8% of the world’s forest-based carbon. If these woodlands are deforested, the carbon they trap will be released into the atmosphere. Predictions for future unabated deforestation estimate that by 2050 activities in the DRC will release roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide as the United Kingdom has emitted over the last 60 years. A 2013 study by British scientists showed that deforestation in the Congo Basin rainforest was slowing down.[18] In 2017, British scientists discovered that peatlands in the Cuvette Centrale, which cover a total of 145,500 sq km, contain 30 billion tonnes of carbon, or 20 years of U.S. fossil fuel emissions.[19][20] In 2021, the deforestation rate of the Congolese rainforest increased by 5%.[21]