Bikoro Territory is an administrative area in

Équateur District Équateur District was a former district of the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1914 it became part of former Équateur Province. The district went through various changes of extent and name over the yea ...

of Équateur province in the

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 headquarters is the town of Bikoro. The territory lies to the south of the provincial capital of

Mbandaka Mbandaka (, formerly known as Coquilhatville in French language, French, or Coquilhatstad in Dutch language, Dutch) is a city on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo located near the confluence of the Congo River, Congo and Ruki Riv ...

. It is bordered on the west by the Congo River, and contains

Lake Ntomba Lake Tumba (or Ntomba) is a shallow lake in northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the Bikoro Territory of the Province of Équateur. The lake covers about depending on the season, connected via the Irebu channel with the ...

. The lake covers about depending on the season, connected via the Irebu channel with the Congo river. Water may flow into or out of the lake through this channel depending on the floods. Lake Tumba has 114 species of fish and supports an important fisheries. The lake lies at the center of the

Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe is the largest Wetland of International Importance in the world as recognized by the Ramsar Convention. The site covers an area of in the region around Lake Tumba in the western Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of th ...

landscape, the largest

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on W ...

wetland in the world, a vast area of forest and permanent or seasonal lakes and marshlands that has great environmental and economic value. Bikoro Territory is one of the remaining places where

bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the co ...

s still survive, a close relative of humans. It is also home to the endangered red colobus monkey and the red-tailed monkey. Other large animals include the hippopotamus, crocodile and elephant. The marsh forests are suffering from uncontrolled timber extraction and slash-and-burn agriculture. The main cash crops are coffee, cacao and rubber.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.forestlandscaperestoration.org/regional-networks/eastcentralafrica/bikoro/ , title=Bikoro , publisher=Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration , author=Joel Kiyulu , access-date=2012-02-01 {{Dead link, date=June 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Populated places in the province of Équateur Territories of the Democratic Republic of the Congo