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 nort ...

is a country in

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...

, lying along 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 ...

, just south of the Bight of Biafra.

Borders

Gabon has a total of 3,261 km of international boundaries. It borders Equatorial Guinea (335 km) and

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 ...

(349 km) to the north and the Republic of the Congo (2,567 km) to the east and south. Gabon lies on the equator. ; Maritime claims: :* Territorial sea: :* Contiguous zone: :* Exclusive economic zone:

Terrain

Narrow coastal plain with patches of

Central African mangroves The Central African mangroves ecoregion consists of the largest area of mangrove swamp in Africa, located on the coasts of West Africa, mainly in Nigeria. Location and description These mangroves are found in fertile rivermouths and lagoons and ...

; hilly interior;

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

in east and south. A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 420km² of tidal flats in Gabon, making it the 50th ranked country in terms of tidal flat area. *Irrigated land: 44.5 km² (2003) *Total renewable water resources: 164 km³ (2011)

Environment

International agreements: Party to:

Biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

Climate Change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,

Ship Pollution The environmental effects of shipping include air pollution, water pollution, acoustic, and oil pollution. Ships are responsible for more than 18 percent of some air pollutants. As for greenhouse gas emissions, the International Maritime Orga ...

Tropical Timber 83 The International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), 1983) is an agreement to provide an effective framework for cooperation between tropical timber producers and consumers and to encourage the development of national policies aimed at sustainable ...

Tropical Timber 94 The International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), 1983) is an agreement to provide an effective framework for cooperation between tropical timber producers and consumers and to encourage the development of national policies aimed at sustainable ...

, Wetlands,

Whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

Climate

The equatorial location of Gabon means that it has a

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 Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Am'') and a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(Köppen ''Aw''), with the temperature being hot year-round and humid, although the Benguela Current can moderate temperatures.

Extreme points

*Northernmost point - unnamed location on the border with

on the

Ntem River The Campo (in Spanish: ''Río Campo'') or Ntem River is a border river in Cameroon, mainland Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It rises in Gabon, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean in Cameroon in the Bight of Biafra. Towns * Campo * Minvoul, Gabon ...

Woleu-Ntem Woleu-Ntem is the northernmost of Gabon's nine provinces. It covers an area of 38,465 km and named after Woleu and Ntem rivers that cross it. The provincial capital is Oyem, which had a total of 60,685 inhabitants in 2013. As Woleu-Ntem ...

province *Easternmost point - the unnamed location on the border with the Republic of Congo immediately south-west of the Congolese village of Mbeyi-Mbola, Haut-Ogooué province *Southernmost point - the point at which the border with the Republic of Congo enters the

Nyanga Province Nyanga is the southernmost of Gabon's nine provinces. The provincial capital is Tchibanga, which had a total of 31294 inhabitants in 2013 (more than the half of the province population). Nyanga is the least populated province of the nine and th ...

*Westernmost point - the north-west point of

Cape Lopez Cape Lopez () is a headland on the coast of Gabon, west central Africa. The westernmost point of Gabon, it separates the Gulf of Guinea from the South Atlantic Ocean. Cape Lopez is the northernmost point of a low, wooded island between two mouths ...

, Ogooué Maritime province Gabon Topography

References

External links

{{Gabon topics