A recent study shows that agriculture has led to the loss of 13.2 million hectares of forests and wooded areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over ten years. The DRC is a key country in the Congo Basin, a vast region in Central Africa known for its rich biodiversity and dense forests. The data, collected using satellite imagery and released by the World Resources Institute (WRI), suggest that much of this deforestation is driven by local farmers trying to grow food to support their families. Félix Bongelemba, a community representative in the village of Bolenge in the Equateur province, highlights that many of these efforts are aimed at basic subsistence. The study reveals that 85 percent of the lost forest area—about 11.2 million hectares—occurred in regions not officially designated for agricultural use, including primary forests. In 2024, primary forests saw a peak loss of 0.75 percent, equivalent to 1,377,807 hectares, out of the total 182,829,150 hectares of wooded landscapes in the country. Some provinces experienced particularly severe losses, with Sud-Ubangi in the north losing 14 percent of its area, as did Kwilu in the west. Sud-Kivu in the east saw a loss of 8.8 percent. Tshopo province, located in the north of the DRC, recorded the highest loss of forest cover, with 1,152,099 hectares (5.9 percent) lost between 2015 and 2025. This loss highlights the scale of deforestation in the region. The study further notes that nomadic agriculture—where farmers move from place to place to cultivate land—is the main cause of forest loss between 2016 and 2025. It is responsible for 84 percent of the total loss, which amounts to about 11,100,000 hectares of wooded cover.