Ituri Rainforest

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title: "Ituri Rainforest" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["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"] description: "Rainforest in northeastern DR Congo" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ituri_Rainforest" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Rainforest in northeastern DR Congo ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox protected area"]

Field	Value
name	Ituri Rainforest
Forêt tropicale de l’Ituri
map_image	Région Ituri République démocratique du Congo.png
map_caption	Map of Ituri within the DRC
photo	Epulu River Ituri.jpg
photo_caption	View of the Epulu River in the Ituri area.
location	Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
nearest_city	Mambasa, Bunia
coordinates
area
::

| name = Ituri Rainforest Forêt tropicale de l’Ituri | alt_name = | iucn_category = | map_image = Région Ituri République démocratique du Congo.png | map_caption = Map of Ituri within the DRC | photo = Epulu River Ituri.jpg | photo_caption = View of the Epulu River in the Ituri area. | location = Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo | nearest_city = Mambasa, Bunia | coordinates = | area = | established = | visitation_num = | visitation_year = | governing_body = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/In_Darkest_Africa_forest_clearing.jpg" caption="Engraving of Stanley's expedition crossing a clearing in the forest, from his book ''In Darkest Africa'', 1890"] ::

The Ituri Rainforest (French: Forêt tropicale de l’Ituri) is a rainforest located in the Ituri Province of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi River and finally into the Congo.

Geography

The Ituri Rainforest is about 63000 km2 in area, and is located between 0° and 3°N and 27° and 30° E. Elevation in the Ituri ranges from about 700 to. The climate is warm and humid, as exemplified by the nearby city of Bunia, 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.

It is also the home of the Mbuti pygmies, one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below 1+1/2 m, 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

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::