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.