The Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests is a

tropical moist broadleaf forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

in central

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It occupies the upper slopes of coastal

Mount Cameroon Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in the South West region of Cameroon next to the city of Buea near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its indigenous n ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...

, and the mountains of nearby

Bioko Bioko (; historically Fernando Po; bvb, Ëtulá Ëria) is an island off the west coast of Africa and the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea. Its population was 335,048 at the 2015 census and it covers an area of . The island is located of ...

island in

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

Geography

The ecoregion includes the distinct montane forests on the higher elevations of two

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...

peaks,

, which lies in Cameroon near the coast, and

, a volcanic island to the southwest in

. The montane forests occur as low as 500 meters elevation on Mount Cameroon. They also occur above 1500 meters elevation on three peaks on Bioko,

Pico Basilé (formerly or Clarence Peak), located on the island of Bioko, is the tallest mountain of Equatorial Guinea. With an altitude of 9,878 ft (3,011 m), it is the summit of the largest and highest of three overlapping basaltic shield volcanoes ...

(3,011 meters elevation), Gran Caldera de Luba (2,261 m), and Pico Biao (2,009 m). The montane forests are surrounded at lower elevations by the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests ecoregion. Both Bioko and Mount Cameroon are part of the Cameroon Volcanic Line, a line of volcanoes that runs northeast-southwest across the Cameroon Highlands and extending into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

as the islands of Bioko,

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álvar ...

Príncipe Príncipe is the smaller, northern major island of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Census;

, and

Annobón Annobón ( es, Provincia de Annobón; pt, Ano-Bom), and formerly as ''Anno Bom'' and ''Annabona'', is a province (smallest province in both area and population) of Equatorial Guinea consisting of the island of Annobón, formerly also Pigalu an ...

. At over 4,000 m Mount Cameroon is the highest peak in western Africa, and is still an active volcano.

Climate

The southwestern slopes of these mountains have a wet climate all year round.

Flora

The montane forests of Mount Cameroon and Bioko are home to the distinct

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions of ...

flora of Africa's high mountains. The chief plant communities are montane forests, montane grasslands, and heathlands. At least 42 plant species are strictly endemic and another 50 near-endemic to Mount Cameroon.

Fauna

370 species of birds have been recorded on Mount Cameroon, including some endemics. There is less variety of mammals, and most larger mammals have disappeared, but there are some endemics such as the

Cameroon soft-furred mouse The Cameroon soft-furred mouse or Cameroon praomys (''Praomys morio'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threa ...

(''Praomys morio''), and a greater variety of reptiles and amphibians including the endemic toad ''

Werneria preussi ''Werneria preussi'' is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is found in southwestern Cameroon and—highly disjunctly and based on a more than 100 years old record—in Togo. Some sources also mention Equatorial Guinea. Its natural ...

''.

Conservation and threats

The forest of Mount Cameroon is threatened, especially at lower elevations, by conversion to agriculture and logging.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 736 km², or 64%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Only 5% of the unprotected area is still forested.Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b

/ref> Protected areas include

Mount Cameroon National Park Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in the South West region of Cameroon next to the city of Buea near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its indigenou ...

on Mount Cameroon, and

Pico Basilé National Park The Pico Basilé National Park ( es, Parque nacional del Pico Basilé) is a protected area with the status of national park on the island of Bioko in the northern part of the African country of Equatorial Guinea, near the Gulf of Guinea, in the ...

and

Luba Crater Scientific Reserve The Gran Caldera de Luba Scientific Reserve ( es, Reserva Científica de la Gran Caldera de Luba) is a protected area of on the volcanic island of Bioko (formerly called Fernando Pó), a part of Equatorial Guinea. The dense rainforest is rich in ...

on Bioko.

External links

* *
Cameroon mountains Endemic Bird Area (BirdLife International)

References

{{- Afromontane ecoregions Afromontane forests Afrotropical ecoregions Ecoregions of Cameroon Ecoregions of Equatorial Guinea Flora of Bioko Montane forests Mount Cameroon Rainforests of Africa Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests