Geography & Countries
The Most Forested Countries in Africa
African countries ranked by total forest area in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, with each country’s 1990 figure alongside to show three decades of change. DR Congo holds 126.2 million hectares, almost twice as much as second-placed Angola.
Pictured: the DR Congo rainforest, #1 with 126.2 million hectares of forest.
Source and scope: the ranking uses FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 (FRA 2020), the last edition whose full country table could be retrieved and checked row by row; it is the same series the World Bank publishes as “Forest area (sq. km)”, converted here to million hectares (1 km² = 100 ha).[1] FAO counts land with trees at least 5 m tall, and leaves out farm tree crops such as fruit plantations and agroforestry, and trees in urban parks; national inventories that use other definitions give different totals.[1] 1990 values come from the same FAO series.[1][2][3] “n/a” marks a 1990 or land-share figure that could not be confirmed from a published source, so it is left blank rather than estimated; the Republic of the Congo’s 1990 figure (≈) is calculated from FAO’s published forest shares of its land area.[2] Land shares for DR Congo, Tanzania and the Republic of the Congo are calculated the same way. FAO’s newer FRA 2025 revises several countries, for example putting DR Congo at 139.2 million hectares in 2025, so figures from the two editions should not be mixed.[5] Regions follow the UN’s African sub-regions, matching RList’s other Africa rankings. For the countries losing the most forest each year, see the companion ranking of Africa’s biggest annual forest losses.
The Top 10
#1
DR Congo — 126.16 million ha
DR Congo holds the largest share of the Congo Basin rainforest, the world’s second-largest tropical forest after the Amazon, and more forest than the next two African countries combined.[1][7] It has also lost the most: about 24.5 million hectares since 1990, down from 150.6 million.[2] FAO’s FRA 2020 placed it second in the world, after Brazil, for average annual net forest loss between 2010 and 2020.[6] In the newer FRA 2025, which uses revised national data, DR Congo has 139.2 million hectares and ranks sixth in the world for forest area.[5]
#2
Angola — 66.61 million ha
Most of Angola’s forest is dry miombo woodland across its central and eastern plateau, with denser tropical forest in the northern Cabinda exclave. FRA 2020 data give it 66.6 million hectares in 2020, about 53% of its land, down from 79.3 million hectares in 1990.[3] That 12.7 million-hectare decline is the second-largest absolute loss among the countries here with a confirmed 1990 figure, after DR Congo’s.[3]
#3
Tanzania — 45.75 million ha
Tanzania’s forests are mostly miombo woodland in the south and west, plus montane forest on mountains such as Kilimanjaro and the Eastern Arc ranges. Forest covered almost 65% of its land in 1990 and just under 52% in 2020.[1] Its 20.3% drop, from 57.4 to 45.7 million hectares, is the steepest relative fall among the countries here with a confirmed 1990 figure.[1]
#4
Zambia — 44.81 million ha
Zambia is about 60% forest, the highest share of any country in the top five, mostly miombo and other dry woodland on its central plateau.[1] Its government has estimated deforestation at roughly 276,000 hectares a year (about 0.6%) from a 2000–2014 land-cover analysis.[10] A 1990 figure from the same FAO series could not be confirmed, so the table leaves Zambia’s long-run change blank.
#5
Mozambique — 36.74 million ha
Mozambique’s forest runs from coastal and mangrove forest to inland miombo woodland, and it covered about 47% of the country in 2020.[1] The FAO series shows a fall from 43.4 million hectares in 1990, a loss of 6.6 million hectares, or about 15%.[1] Figures for Mozambique vary widely between sources because older national studies used different definitions of forest.[1]
#6
Gabon — 23.53 million ha
Gabon has by far the highest forest share in this table: about 91% of its land was forest in 2020, down only slightly from 92% in 1990.[1] Its Congo Basin rainforest shrank by just 0.23 million hectares in 30 years, a 1% fall and the smallest relative loss in this table.[1]
#7
Central African Republic — 22.30 million ha
The Central African Republic’s forest ranges from Congo Basin rainforest in the south-west to wooded savanna further north, and covered about 36% of its land in 2020.[1] FRA 2020 data show 22.3 million hectares, down from 23.2 million in 1990.[4] That is a fall of under 4%, one of the smallest in the table.[4]
#8
Republic of the Congo — 21.95 million ha
Not to be confused with its larger neighbour, the Republic of the Congo is about 64% forest, much of it Congo Basin rainforest in the north.[2] Its own environment ministry put forest cover at 22.4 million hectares, about 65% of the land, in 2020.[8] It is often described as a “high forest cover, low deforestation” country, and FAO’s land-share figures imply it lost only around 1.6% of its forest between 1990 and 2020.[2][8]
#9
Nigeria — 21.63 million ha
Nigeria is the only West African country in the top fifteen. Its forest belt runs from the rainforest and mangroves of the south to savanna woodland in the north, and covered just under 24% of its land in 2020, down from about 29% in 1990.[1] The FAO series shows a fall from 26.5 to 21.6 million hectares, a loss of 4.9 million hectares, or 18.5%.[1][9]
#10
Cameroon — 20.34 million ha
Cameroon’s southern half lies in the Congo Basin rainforest, and forest covers about 43% of the country.[4] FRA 2020 data show 20.34 million hectares in 2020, down from 22.5 million in 1990.[4] Almost all of it, about 20.28 million hectares, is naturally regenerating forest; planted forest accounts for only about 61,000 hectares.[4]
Sources
- FAO, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, as published in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators “Forest area (sq. km)” (AG.LND.FRST.K2) and “Forest area (% of land area)” (AG.LND.FRST.ZS); 2020 values via IndexMundi, “Countries ranked by Forest area (sq. km) – Africa” (indexmundi.com), and 1990 values and land shares via IndexMundi’s country pages for Tanzania, Mozambique, Gabon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Botswana, Zambia, Central African Republic and Angola.
- TheGlobalEconomy.com, FAO-based series: “Democratic Republic of the Congo: Forest area, sq.km” (1990 maximum of 1,506,290 km²) and “Republic of the Congo: Forest area, percent” (65.3% in 1990; 64.1% and 219,010 km² in 2023), used to calculate the Republic of the Congo’s 1990 area and its land share, and the land shares of DR Congo (with Statistics of the World, World Bank WDI, 54.2% in 2023) and Tanzania; Zimbabwe’s 2020 land share via Statistics of the World.
- Wikipedia, “Deforestation in Angola” (FRA 2020: 66,607,380 ha in 2020, 79,262,780 ha in 1990, about 53% of land).
- Wikipedia, “Geography of the Central African Republic” (22,303,000 ha in 2020, 23,203,000 ha in 1990) and “Geography of Cameroon” (20,340,480 ha in 2020, 22,500,000 ha in 1990, around 43% of land; naturally regenerating and planted forest split), both citing FAO FRA 2020.
- FAO, “Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025” (Table 3, top ten countries for forest area: DR Congo 139,189 thousand ha; Africa 662,630 thousand ha in 2025); Ecofin Agency, “Africa loses nearly 30 million hectares of forest in a decade, FAO says” (692.2 million ha in 2015 to 662.6 million ha in 2025).
- FAO newsroom, “World’s most comprehensive analysis of forest resources launched today in an innovative format” (FRA 2020 release; top ten countries by annual net forest loss, 2010–2020).
- Forest Trends, “Timber Legality Risk Dashboard: Democratic Republic of the Congo” (April 2021; forested area 126.15 million ha, FAO FRA 2020).
- Timber Trade Portal, “Republic of the Congo – country context” (Ministry of Forest Economy 2020: 22.4 million ha, 65% of land); Coalition for Rainforest Nations, “Republic of Congo” (high forest cover, low deforestation).
- Forest Trends, “FRC Legality Risk Dashboard: Nigeria” (21.6 million ha forested area in 2020, FAO FRA 2020).
- UNEP/GRID-Geneva, Data and Information for Country Forests, Zambia profile (official deforestation estimate of about 276,021 ha a year, 0.6%, from a 2000–2014 land-cover change analysis).
