Africa: EU Launches Book on African Rainforests

Besides holding one of the most difficult jobs in the European Union, president of the European Commission Romano Prodi has also put his name to a book about African rainforests. The dense humid forests of central Africa represent the second largest block of rainforest left on earth - second only to the Amazon forest in Latin America. The forests, which stretch over about 670,000 square kilometres of the Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, are among the richest wilderness areas on earth in terms of biodiversity.