The Ituri Rainforest is a
rainforest located in the
Ituri Province
Ituri is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Ituri, Bas-Uele, Haut-Uele, and Tshopo provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Orientale province. Ituri was ...
of northeastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. The forest's name derives from the nearby
Ituri River
The Ituri River is a river of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the main tributary of the Aruwimi River, which forms where the Ituri meets the Nepoko River.
It gives its name to Ituri Province.
Course
The Ituri has its headwaters in pr ...
which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the
Aruwimi River and finally into the
Congo.
Geography
The Ituri Rainforest is about in area, and is located between 0° and 3°N and 27° and 30° E. Elevation in the Ituri ranges from about . The climate is warm and humid, as exemplified by the nearby city of
Bunia
Bunia is the capital city of Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was part of the Orientale Province until that province's dissolution.
It lies at an elevation of on a plateau about west of Lake Albert in the Alb ...
, which however is at a slightly higher elevation. About one-fifth of the rainforest is made up of the
Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
It is also the home of the
Mbuti
The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages.
Subgroups
Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the old ...
pygmies, one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below , on average). They have been the subject of research by a variety of outsiders, including Patrick and
Anne Eisner Putnam, who lived on the banks of the at the edge of the Ituri. They were also the subject of a well-known study by
Colin Turnbull, ''
The Forest People'', which was published in 1962.
The Ituri rainforest was first traversed by Europeans in 1887 by
Henry Morton Stanley on his
Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.
References
External links
Blog by Biologists working on conservation in the Ituri forestOsfac*
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Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Northeastern Congolian lowland forests