Mount Nyiragongo and exotic crops in the Upper Afro-montane forest belt, the Virunga Mountains, Congo (Democratic Republic)

Agricultural land use patterns in the Upper Afro-Montane forest belt. In the upper zones of the Afro-Montane forest most natural vegetation has been replaced by intensive agriculture. Above aproximately 1900 meters the dominant agricultural crop, bananas, disappears and one finds either traditional cool-zone native crops such as peas, sorghum and beans or introduced (exotic) crops and trees such as the white potato (in the foreground) and cypress trees (background) along with the ubiquitous eucalyptus. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for National Geographic and traveled to Africa from January 19, 1972 to mid April 1972.