Congo cooking. Local inhabitants cooking using firewood which has been cut by woodcutters in a tropical rain forest in the Congo Basin. Demand for timber has risen as the population in the Congo Basin has increased. Other uses of the wood include charcoal and planks. Trees are a vital source of firewood in rural Africa, but in many areas local cutting on a large scale contributes to deforestation and has been made illegal. Photographed in Mbandaka, Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.