The Northwestern Congolian lowland 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 (ecology), habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally foun ...

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 l ...

that spans

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 C ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

, the

Republic of Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

and a minuscule part of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. It forms part of the larger

Congolian rainforests The Congolian rainforests are a broad belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forests which extend across the basin of the Congo River and its tributaries in Central Africa. They are the only major rainforests which absorb more carbon than they ...

region in Central Africa. The region is noteworthy for very high levels of species richness and endemism. It is home to a core population of the critically endangered Western lowland gorilla (

Gorilla gorilla gorilla The western lowland gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'') is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') that lives in montane, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Africa ...

). There are also large populations of forest elephants.

Location and description

The ecoregion is located in western central Africa, across the meeting of

, and the Central African Republic (CAR). It stretches 500 km west-to-east and 700 km north-to south, set back 250 km from the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in the ...

. Mean elevation is 530 meters, ranging from 79 meters to 1,451 meters. The highest areas are in the

Chaillu Mountains The Chaillu Mountains are a mountain range straddling southern Gabon and the Republic of Congo which is named after the French explorer Paul Du Chaillu, who explored and documented this region in the 19th century. The highest peaks are Mont Ib ...

of south Gabon and the Republic of Congo in the south. Much of the terrain sits on a heavily leached red

oxisols Oxisols are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest within 25 degrees north and south of the Equator. In the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), they belong mainly to the ferralsols ...

. The region is heavily forested and sparsely populated. The surrounding ecoregions are the

Congolian coastal forests The Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests, also known as the Congolian coastal forests, are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of Central Africa, covering hills, plains, and mountains of the Atlantic coast of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ga ...

to the west, the

Northern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic The Northern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic is a forest and savanna ecoregion of central Africa. It extends east and west across central Africa, covering parts of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Suda ...

to the north, the

Western Congolian forest–savanna mosaic The Western Congolian forest–savanna mosaic is an ecoregion of Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, and Gabon. Geography The forest–savanna mosaic covers a region of dissected plateaus lying between the Congo Basi ...

to the south, and the

Western Congolian swamp forests The Western Congolian swamp forests are an ecoregion of the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjoining Central African Republic. Together with the adjacent Eastern Congolian swamp forests, it forms one of the largest con ...

to the east.

Climate

The climate of the ecoregion is ''

Tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

'' (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

(Am)). This climate is characterized by relatively even temperatures throughout the year (all months being greater than average temperature). This climate is mid-way between a tropical rainforest and a tropical savannah. Minimum temperatures range from 18 to 21 degrees (C) to 27 to 30 degrees (C). Precipitation ranges from 1,400 mm/year to 2,000 mm/year in the center of the ecoregion.

Flora and fauna

Over 90% of the ecoregion is closed forest of broadleaf evergreen. Another 6% is other types of open or closed forest, and 3% is herbaceous cover. Characteristic tree species are '' Entandrophragma congoense, Pentaclethera eetveldeana,

Pericopsis elata ''Pericopsis elata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family ''Fabaceae'' and is known by the common names African teak, afromosia, afrormosia, kokrodua and assamela. Description The species grows to 30-45m tall with a trunk of 1–1.8m i ...

'' (also known as African teak), and ''

Gilbertiodendron dewevrei ''Gilbertiodendron dewevrei'' is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae, native to tropical rain forests in Central Africa. It is often the dominant tree species of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest. The timber is traded as ''limbali'', and is us ...

''.

Raffia palm Raffia palms (''Raphia'') are a genus of about twenty species of palms native to tropical regions of Africa, and especially Madagascar, with one species (''R. taedigera'') also occurring in Central and South America. ''R. taedigera'' is the sour ...

is found along the rivers. Primates richness is the highest in Africa; Cameroon alone has 29 species of primate, including the Western lowland gorilla, the vulnerable mandrill (''

Mandrillus sphinx The mandrill (''Mandrillus sphinx'') is a large Old World monkey native to west central Africa. It is one of the most colorful mammals in the world, with red and blue skin on its face and posterior. The species is sexually dimorphic, as males ...

''), and the endangered Chimpanzee (''

Pan troglodytes The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close r ...

'').

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 91,395 km², or 21%, of the ecoregion is within protected areas. 40% 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: *

Boumba Bek National Park Boumba Bek National Park is a List of national parks of Cameroon, national park in extreme southeastern Cameroon, located in its East Province (Cameroon), East Province. History The park was never logged; according to the World Wildlife Fund's sc ...

, (Cameroon) *

Dja Faunal Reserve Dja Faunal Reserve (Réserve de faune du Dja, also known as Réserve de Biosphère Dja), located in south eastern Cameroon, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1987. Causes of inscription include diversity of species present in the park, ...

, (Cameroon) *

Lobéké National Park Lobéké National Park (alternate: Lake Lobake National Park) is a national park of southeastern Cameroon within the Moloundou Arrondissement of East Province. Located in the Congo Basin, it is bounded on the east by the Sangha River which serve ...

, (Cameroon) *

Nki National Park Nki National Park (Parc national de Nki, also Réserve de Nki) is a national park in southeastern Cameroon, located in its East Province. The closest towns to Nki are Yokadouma, Moloundou and Lomie, beyond which are rural lands. Due to its remo ...

(Cameroon), *

Dzanga-Ndoki National Park The Dzanga-Ndoki National Park is located in the southwestern extremity of the Central African Republic. Established in 1990, the national park is . The national park is split into two non-continuous sectors, the northern Dzanga sector (or Dzanga ...

(Central African Republic), *

Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve The Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve (also known as Dzanga-Sangha Forest Reserve, or Dzanga-Sangha Forest Special Reserve, Dzanga-Sangha Baï, or Dzanga-Sangha Special Forest Reserve) is a protected reserve of southwestern Central African Republic. It ...

, (Central African Republic) * Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, (Central African Republic) *

Odzala-Kokoua National Park Odzala-Kokoua National Park (or Odzala National Park) is a national park in the Republic of the Congo. The park was first protected in 1935, declared a biosphere reserve in 1977, and granted official designation by presidential decree in 2001. Odz ...

(Republic of the Congo), and *

Ivindo National Park Ivindo National Park is a national park in east-central Gabon in Central Africa, straddling the border of the Ogooué-Ivindo and Ogooué-Lolo provinces. Its creation was announced in August 2002 by then-President Omar Bongo at the Earth Summit ...

, (Republic of the Congo) *

Minkébé National Park Minkébé National Park is a national park in the extreme northeast of Gabon. It covers an area of 7,570 km2. The WWF recognized it as an area needing protection as early as 1989 and has been actively working towards protecting the forest sin ...

, (Republic of the Congo) * Mwangne National Park (Gabon). Dzanga-Sanga, Dzanga-Ndoki, Nouabale-Ndoki, and Lobéké national parks and the Dzanga Sangha Special Reserve form the transboundary

Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas The Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas (DSPAC) (originally: Dzanga-Sangha Project) is a protected area in the extreme southwestern Central African Republic. The dense forest block, created in 1990, measures . It consists of the Dzanga-Sangha ...

that extends across 4,589 km² of Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Republic of the Congo.

External links

Congo Basin Ecoregions
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

References

{{reflist Afrotropical ecoregions Congolian forests Ecoregions of Cameroon Ecoregions of the Central African Republic Ecoregions of the Republic of the Congo Ecoregions of Gabon Rainforests of Africa * * * * Flora of Gabon Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests