Congo Basin Wildfires

About wildfires in Congo Basin

Central Africa, particularly the Congo Basin, consistently has some of the highest fire activity on the planet. While many of these fires are agricultural — part of traditional shifting cultivation and savanna management — the scale is enormous, with satellite data regularly detecting more active fires in Central Africa than anywhere else on Earth.

The Congo Basin's tropical forests, the second-largest rainforest after the Amazon, face growing deforestation pressure. Fire is used extensively for land clearing, charcoal production, and hunting. The dry seasons (December-February and June-August) bring peak fire activity across the region.

This tracker monitors all fire activity across the Congo Basin region in real-time.