:''This article refers to the forest zone of Western Africa.'' In

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...

, the forest zone refers to the southern part of the region once covered by

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equator ...

. Sometimes this region is referred to as ''

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

'' to distinguish it from the grassland-covered

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, drier

Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid cli ...

and per-arid

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. it's is made-up of vegetation having mainly trees and consist of the following local biotic communities: -mangrove swamp forest (salt and fresh water swamp) -tropical rain forest.

Extent

The forest zone of West Africa, in the strict sense, covers all of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast� ...

and

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

, most of

, the southern halves of

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, and parts of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

and

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

. The ''

Dahomey Gap In West Africa, the Dahomey Gap refers to the portion of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic that extends all the way to the coast in Benin, Togo, and Ghana, thus separating the forest zone that covers much of the south of the region into two separat ...

'' splits the forest zone into two halves by producing an area of much drier

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

receives less than 760 millimetres (30 inches) of rainfall per year - between the wetter regions capable of supporting

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

. The western forest zone is known as the Upper Guinea forests, and extends from Guinea to western Togo, and the eastern forest zone is known as the Lower Guinea forests, and extends from southeastern Benin through southern Nigeria and into

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 ...

. To the north, as the length for which the region is affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone declines, the dry season becomes too long to support rainforest except in the wettest areas of the far west. Thus the forest fades out, except on some

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

s, north of about 7 N in the east and 9° N in the west.

Geography

Except for the extreme east near Mount Cameroon, the forest zone is entirely with a series of

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and ...

s and has not been tectonically active in

Phanerozoic The Phanerozoic Eon is the current geologic eon in the geologic time scale, and the one during which abundant animal and plant life has existed. It covers 538.8 million years to the present, and it began with the Cambrian Period, when anim ...

periods. (It is believed that these cratons came together near the end of the Precambrian). Most of it is flat to undulating lowland, with mountains only on its northern fringe, rising to 1948 metres in the Loma Massif. Many rivers cross the forest zone, with the most important being the

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesVolta.

Climate

Being so close to the equator, the forest zone experiences almost no variation in temperatures across the year. The climate is consistently hot, with maxima typically being about 31 °C and minima around 24 °C. In the

Fouta Djallon Fouta Djallon ( ff, 𞤊𞤵𞥅𞤼𞤢 𞤔𞤢𞤤𞤮𞥅, Fuuta Jaloo; ar, فوتا جالون) is a highland region in the center of Guinea, roughly corresponding with Middle Guinea, in West Africa. Etymology The Fulani people call the r ...

and around Mont Nimba, maxima are about 27 °C but minima can be relatively low at 16 °C. The major factor governing the climate of the forest zone is rainfall. During the northern summer, a vast area of very low pressure centred on

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

extends a trough across the region. This trough reaches its most northerly position between July and September driving extremely moist westerly winds onto the coast from the Atlantic and producing extremely heavy rain of as much as thirty inches per month in lowland sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. As this trough moves north and south, it creates two rainy seasons on the extreme southern coast: a heavy one between May and July and a lighter one in October and November. During the northern winter, an

anticyclone An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined as a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from ...

develops over the Sahara and drives dry northeasterly winds over the region, creating a dry season except in the extreme southeast (where the monsoonal low over

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

has the unusual effect of producing westerly winds on its northern flank north of the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can also ...

). This effect is sufficiently widespread that the driest months of January and February are not ''totally'' dry on the coast as they are further inland (though average rainfall is typically only 1 inch per month even in Abidjan). Total annual rainfall decreases with distance from the coast and is also heavily influenced by the aspect of the coastline. In the wettest areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, average annual rainfall ranges from 3000 to 5000 millimetres (120 to 200 inches), whilst in

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...

it is about 2050 millimetres (81 inches), in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

1800 millimetres (71 inches) and about 1400 millimetres (55 inches) at the northern edge of the forest.

Land use and demographics

In the eastern part of the forest zone, because of the influence of

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 ...

, soils are often fertile and there are large areas of

subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

. Major crops include

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets a ...

, yams and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

, whilst

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

is extensive on the best soils, producing chiefly

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter an ...

. Further west, due to the ancient geology of the region, soils are much less fertile and farming becomes chiefly confined to the raising of perennial crops, with cocoa remaining pre-eminent. Forestry, however, has devastated much of the natural rainforest in countries such as Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia, and farmers without land have been pushed onto land with

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

very marginal for agriculture by population growth, which, despite frequent warfare, continues to be among the highest in the world. The eastern part of the forest zone is one of the most heavily populated parts of Africa, largely owing to its abundant and highly reliable rainfall and the fertile alluvial soils. Whilst this region contains numerous large cities, the most important being Lagos,

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its ...

and Port Harcourt, both of which have grown into mega-cities since the 1970s, the majority of its population remains rural and dependent upon subsistence farming. Major ethnic groups include the Igbo and

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

. The western part is less populated but is similar demographically to the east, with numerous African tribes predominating. The major cities here are Abidjan and

Conakry Conakry (; ; sus, Kɔnakiri; N’ko: ߞߐߣߊߞߙߌ߫, Fula: ''Konaakiri'' 𞤑𞤮𞤲𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤭𞤪𞤭) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its p ...

Flora, fauna and conservation

Because of its history of glacial epochs, and also the strong seasonality of rainfall, the West African forest zone is not nearly so rich in plant species as other tropical forest areas. There are, however, many species unique to the area, and numerous valuable plants native to the region, including such timber trees as iroko (''Chlorophora excelsa''). The fauna includes many

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

mammal species, most of which are now highly

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

because of

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

. The most famous is the

pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It ha ...

(''Hexaprotodon liberiensis''), whilst the

royal antelope The royal antelope (''Neotragus pygmaeus'') is a West African antelope, recognized as the world's smallest antelope. It was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It stands up to merely at the shoulder and weighs . A char ...

(''Neotragus pygmaeus'') is one of the smallest hoofed mammals in the world and is remarkable for its ability to leap up to ten times its body size. Though many national parks and strict nature reserves exist to protect what remains of the forests in this region, most of them exist only on paper because of lack of finance. Thus, the future of the forests of this region is in grave doubt.

References

Davis, Stephen D. (Editor), Heywood, V. H. (Editor), Hamilton, A. C. (Editor) ''Centres of Plant Diversity : A Guide and Strategy for Their Conservation: Volume 1 (Europe, Africa, South West Asia, and the Middle East)'' published 1993 by World Wide Fund For Nature and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

External links

LGM vegetation
Geography of Africa Climate of Africa