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Location: Central Africa, northeast of Angola
Geographic coordinates: 0 00 N, 25 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area:
total: 2,345,410 sq km
land: 2,267,600 sq km
water: 77,810 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly less than one-fourth the size
of the US
Land boundaries:
total: 10,744 km
border countries: Angola 2,511 km, Burundi 233 km, Central
African Republic 1,577 km, Republic of the Congo 2,410 km, Rwanda
217 km, Sudan 628 km, Tanzania 473 km, Uganda 765 km, Zambia 1,930
km
Coastline: 37 km
Maritime claims:
exclusive economic zone: boundaries with neighbors
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: tropical; hot and humid in equatorial river basin;
cooler and drier in southern highlands; cooler and wetter in eastern
highlands; north of Equator - wet season April to October, dry season
December to February; south of Equator - wet season November to
March, dry season April to October
Terrain: vast central basin is a low-lying plateau; mountains
in east
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
highest point: Pic Marguerite on Mont Ngaliema (Mount Stanley)
5,110 m
Natural resources: cobalt, copper, cadmium, petroleum, industrial
and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, germanium,
uranium, radium, bauxite, iron ore, coal, hydropower, timber
Land use:
arable land: 3%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 7%
forests and woodland: 77%
other: 13% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 100 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: periodic droughts in south; volcanic activity
Environment - current issues: poaching threatens wildlife
populations; water pollution; deforestation; refugees who arrived
in mid-1994 were responsible for significant deforestation, soil
erosion, and wildlife poaching in the eastern part of the country
(most of those refugees were repatriated in November and December
1996)
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification
Geography - note: straddles Equator; very narrow strip of
land that controls the lower Congo river and is only outlet to South
Atlantic Ocean; dense tropical rain forest in central river basin
and eastern highlands
Zaire
GEOGRAPHY
Size: Second largest country in sub-Saharan Africa;
about 2,344,885 square kilometers, roughly size of United States
east of Mississippi River.
Topography: Major geographic regions include central
Congo Basin, uplands north and south of basin, and eastern highlands.
Core region is central Congo Basin, large depression with average
elevation of about forty-four meters, constituting about one-third
of Zaire. North and south of basin lie higher plains and hills covered
with mixtures of savanna grasses and woodlands. Southern uplands
region also constitutes about one-third of Zaire, with elevations
between 500 meters and 1,000 meters. Eastern highlands region highest
and most rugged portion, bounded by Great Rift Valley, with some
mountains more than 5,000 meters. Eastern border extends through
valley and its system of lakes.
Drainage: Most of Zaire served by Congo River
system. Congo and its tributaries provide Zaire with Africa's most
extensive network of navigable waterways as well as vast hydroelectric
potential. Flow of Congo unusually regular because tributaries feed
in from both sides of equator.
Climate: Ranges from tropical rain forest in Congo
River basin to tropical wet-and-dry in southern uplands to tropical
highland in eastern areas above 2,000 meters. In general, temperatures
and humidity quite high, but with much variation; many places on
both sides of equator have two wet and two dry seasons. Average
annual temperature 25°C. Average annual rainfall between 1,000
millimeters and 2,200 millimeters, highest in heart of Congo River
basin and highlands west of Bukavu.
Data as of December 1993
Zaire
GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT
The Republic of Zaire is the second largest country of subSaharan
Africa, occupying some 2,344,885 square kilometers. It is roughly
the size of the United States east of the Mississippi River.
Most of the country lies within the vast hollow of the Congo River
basin. The basin has the shape of an amphitheater, open to the north
and northwest and closed in the south and east by high plateaus
and mountains. The edges of the basin are breached in the west by
the passage of the Congo River to the Atlantic Ocean; they are broken
and raised in the east by an upheaval of the Great Rift Valley (where
lakes Mweru, Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward, and Albert are found) and
by overflow from volcanos in the Virunga Mountains.
Data as of December 1993
Zaire
Rivers and Lakes
The Congo River and its tributaries drain this basin and provide
the country with the most extensive network of navigable waterways
in Africa. Ten kilometers wide at mid-point of its length, the river
carries a volume of water that is second only to the Amazon's. Its
flow is unusually regular because it is fed by rivers and streams
from both sides of the equator; the complementary alternation of
rainy and dry seasons on each side of the equator guarantees a regular
supply of water for the main channel. At points where navigation
is blocked by rapids and waterfalls, the sudden descent of the river
creates a hydroelectric potential greater than that found in any
other river system on earth.
Most of Zaire is served by the Congo River system, a fact that
has facilitated both trade and outside penetration. Its network
of waterways is dense and evenly distributed through the country,
with three exceptions: northeastern Mayombé in Bas-Zaïre Region
in the west, which is drained by a small coastal river called the
Shilango; a strip of land on the eastern border adjoining lakes
Edward and Albert, which is part of the Nile River basin; and a
small part of extreme southeastern Zaire, which lies in the Zambezi
River basin and drains into the Indian Ocean.
Most of Zaire's lakes are also part of the Congo River basin. In
the west are Lac Mai-Ndombe and Lac Tumba, which are remnants of
a huge interior lake that once occupied the entire basin prior to
the breach of the basin's edge by the Congo River and the subsequent
drainage of the interior. In the southeast, Lake Mweru straddles
the border with Zambia. On the eastern frontier, Lac Kivu, Central
Africa's highest lake and a key tourist center, and Lake Tanganyika,
just south of Lac Kivu, both feed into the Lualaba River, the name
often given to the upper extension of the Congo River. Only the
waters of the eastern frontier's northernmost great lakes, Edward
and Albert, drain north, into the Nile Basin.
Data as of December 1993
Zaire
Geographic Regions
Several major geographic regions may be defined in terms of terrain
and patterns of natural vegetation, namely the central Congo Basin,
the uplands north and south of the basin, and the eastern highlands
.
The country's core region is the central Congo Basin. Having an
average elevation of about forty-four meters, it measures roughly
800,000 square kilometers, constituting about a third of Zaire's
territory. Much of the forest within the basin is swamp, and still
more of it consists of a mixture of marshes and firm land.
North and south of the basin lie higher plains and, occasionally,
hills covered with varying mixtures of savanna grasses and woodlands.
The southern uplands region, like the basin, constitutes about a
third of Zaire's territory. The area slopes from south to north,
starting at about 1,000 meters near the Angolan border and falling
to about 500 meters near the basin. Vegetation cover in the southern
uplands territory is more varied than that of the northern uplands.
In some areas, woodland is dominant; in others, savanna grasses
predominate. South of the basin, along the streams flowing into
the Kasai River are extensive gallery forests. In the far southeast,
most of Shaba Region (formerly Katanga Province) is characterized
by somewhat higher plateaus and low mountains. The westernmost section
of Zaire, a partly forested panhandle reaching the Atlantic Ocean,
is an extension of the southern uplands that drops sharply to a
very narrow shore about forty kilometers long.
In the much narrower northern uplands, the cover is largely savanna,
and woodlands are rarer. The average elevation of this region is
about 600 meters, but it rises as high as 900 meters where it meets
the western edge of the eastern highlands.
The eastern highlands region is the highest and most rugged portion
of the country. It extends for more than 1,500 kilometers from above
Lake Albert to the southern tip of Shaba below Lubumbashi (formerly
Élisabethville) and varies in width from eighty to 560 kilometers.
Its hills and mountains range in altitude from about 1,000 meters
to more than 5,000 meters. The western arm of the Great Rift Valley
forms a natural eastern boundary to this region. The eastern border
of Zaire extends through the valley and its system of lakes, which
are separated from each other by plains situated between high mountain
ranges.
In this region, changes in elevation bring marked changes in vegetation,
which ranges from montane savanna to heavy montane forest. The Massif
du Ruwenzori (Ruwenzori Mountains or Mountains of the Moon) between
lakes Albert and Edward constitutes the highest range in Africa.
The height and location of these mountains on the equator make for
a varied and spectacular flora. Together with the Virunga Mountains
north of Lac Kivu, site of several active volcanos, and together
with the game park situated between them, they constitute Zaire's
most important potential touristic resource.
Data as of December 1993
Zaire
Climate
Climate ranges from tropical rain forest in the Congo River basin
to tropical wet-and-dry in the southern uplands to tropical highland
in eastern areas above 2,000 meters in elevation. In general, temperatures
and humidity are quite high. The highest and least variable temperatures
are to be found in the equatorial forest, where daytime highs range
between 30°C and 35°C, and nighttime lows rarely go below
20°C. The average annual temperature is about 25°C. In the
southern uplands, particularly in southeastern Shaba, winters are
cool and dry, whereas summers are warm and damp. The area embracing
the chain of lakes from Lake Albert to Lake Tanganyika in the eastern
highlands has a moist climate and a narrow but not excessively warm
temperature range. The mountain sections are cooler, but humidity
increases with altitude until the saturation point is reached; a
nearly constant falling mist prevails on some slopes, particularly
in the Ruwenzori Mountains.
The seasonal pattern of rainfall is affected by Zaire's straddling
of the equator. In the third of the country that lies north of the
equator, the dry season (roughly early November to late March) corresponds
to the rainy season in the southern twothirds . There is a great
deal of variation, however, and a number of places on either side
of the equator have two wet and two dry seasons. Rainfall averages
range from about 1,000 millimeters to 2,200 millimeters. Annual
rainfall is highest in the heart of the Congo River basin and in
the highlands west of Bukavu and with some variation tends to diminish
in direct relation to distance from these areas. The only areas
marked by long four-month to five-month dry seasons and occasional
droughts are parts of Shaba.
Data as of December 1993
Zaire
Environmental Trends
In the last decade, Africa's rain forests have been destroyed at
a faster rate than anywhere else in the world, including the well-publicized
Amazon region in South America; Nigeria, for example, is now 90
percent deforested. Environmental degradation has been less of a
problem in Zaire than elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless,
although still 86 percent intact in the early 1990s, Zaire's vast
forests will be increasingly at risk. A major threat has been the
signing of contracts with foreign logging corporations. Some 37
percent of the total exploitable area of Zaire's rain forest has
already been designated as timber concessions.
The most intense logging to date has been in Bas-Zaïre Region in
the hinterlands of the capital of Kinshasa. Logging itself disrupts
the forest ecology; worse, logging roads carved out of forest to
export felled timer have become avenues for immigration into the
forest by poor farmers who clear and burn more forest for fields.
In 1993 one analyst reported that there was virtually no primary
rain forest left in Bas-Zaïre.
In the east, the appropriation of land for ranching and plantations
in the Kivu highlands has simultaneously reduced forest hectarage
and increased the intensity of use of the remaining land by the
existing population. The Ituri Forest of northeastern Zaire has
also experienced substantial recent immigration by growing populations
in need of fertile soil for their crops. Extensive forest destruction
has been reported as a consequence.
Data as of December 1993
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