The Republic of Congo (RoC) is home to 22.5 million hectares of the Congo Basin forest. With low historical rates of deforestation and forests covering 69% of the land area, RoC is a typical example of a High Forest Cover and Low Deforestation (HLFD) country. However, accelerated development has led to major infrastructure projects that have opened up previously remote forest areas to economic activity. Some of the direct drivers of deforestation in RoC include logging, agro-industrial production (palm oil), slash-and-burn agriculture and mining.

Forests cover almost 40% of Dominican Republic’s total surface area. In recent years, the country’s tropical forests have been decreasing due to deforestation and forest degradation, driven primarily by small-scale agricultural expansion and the extraction of timber for exportation. Consequently, over the past 20 years, the Dominican Republic has ranked eighth on the list of countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the second largest swath of rainforests in the world—152 million hectares, accounting for most of the remaining rainforest in the Congo Basin. Although rates of deforestation in the DRC are low compared to tropical forests in the Amazon and Southeast Asia, almost half a million hectares are lost each year. DRC’s direct drivers of deforestation include slash-and-burn agriculture, fuelwood production, bush fires, and small-scale and industrial logging.

In Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) forests covered much of the country’s surface area in the 1970s, but have depleted to about 51% of its total land area since the late 1990s. Forest loss has been closely linked with interests in land-based investments, and has been driven primarily by shifting cultivation, agricultural expansion, logging and plantation agriculture.

Fiji consists of over 300 islands, of which 100 are inhabited. Native forests cover 858,000 ha, representing 47% of Fiji’s total land area, and have historically been the main source of wood for the country. Given Fiji’s low deforestation rate over the past two decades, the country’s REDD+ efforts are focused on conservation and enhancement of forests.

Although Uruguay has negative rates of deforestation, the country has seen a substantial change in land use in rural areas in recent years, driven by an increase in grain production and forest goods. Coupled with the country’s long-standing agricultural and livestock activities, Uruguay’s forests face more pressures than ever before.