The World

Safeguarding Cameroon’s Rainforest

Africa’s Congo Basin is home to fifty percent of the continent’s wildlife, thousands of exotic plant species and the second largest rainforest in the world. Through the years, timber companies have logged deeper into the forests, inadvertently cutting pat

During the last 40 years the rainforest of Africa’s Congo Basin has been devastated by illegal logging and poaching. But pressure from countries that import lumber has led some of the region’s biggest logging companies to look at the environmental impacts of their business and make changes. Cameroon has some of Africa’s toughest logging regulations and is training the region’s first forest guardians. Eric Whitney reports from Cameroon.