Under Mobutu Sese Seko's negligent and plunderous rule, much of the Belgian-built road system was buried under rainforest or destroyed by heavy lorries and lack of maintenance.
Trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae dominate the canopy and emergent layers of the hyper-diverse, aseasonal, humid lowland tropical forests of Southeast Asia.
In tourist holiday magazines, Pacific islands like Fiji, Tonga and Tahiti look like paradise, with tropical rainforests, white, sandy beaches and turquoise blue sea.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
They cover about 6 percent of the land surface on earth but some estimates suggest they used to cover twice that but had been dramatically reduced by deforestation, cutting them down for human use like wood, farmland or mining.