Senegal Environment Profile 2012

As for natural resources and environmental protection, Senegal faces diminishing rainfall while human behaviour has led to a critical deterioration of forest resources and of the people’s living conditions. The government invested XOF 122.5 billion between 2006 and 2009 on environmental protection, XOF 41.7 billion of which came from internal resources. The authorities’ realisation of the need for good environmental protection is expressed in the regional and continental framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Improvment(NEPAD) and in significant initiatives such as the Great Green Wall Initiative or the Atlantic Wall project.

Biomes

1. Savane ouest soudanienne
2. Mangrove guinéenne
3. Mosaïque de forêt-savane guinéenne

• The savanna West Sudanese (literally from English West Sudanian savanna) is of ecoregions defined by the WWF, it is of biomes of savannas and the western tropical and subtropical clear forests African. It extends over the center-South Senegal, the Burkina Faso, the Malian South, the Nigerian South, the North of Ivory Coast, Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria.This savanna is lined in the North by a desert biome and in the South by tropical forest. The western and east ecoregions are separated by the Mandara, which occupies a part of the mountain massif of high height which separates the West of Africa to its center. This massif offers a natural boundary for some let us tax vegetables and allows differentiating these ecoregions, for example Isoberlina. The fauna is on the contrary identical on both sides put has part some small endemic animals in a zone, for example as Crocidura Cendrillon, Lemniscomys

• The Guinean mangroves ecoregion (literally from English Guinean mangroves) is of the ecoregions of mangrove ecozone Afrotropical defined by the WWF. This ecoregion stretches from the coast of Senegal to Dahomey Gap where it ends at the spot where the influence begins the cold Benguela current Atlantic, which represents mangrove, non-continuous, in total. The ecology of this biome is characterized by a large range, about 25 m high, and large freshwater inputs. It may extend over 160 km within the earth as Gambia, along the rivers. This ecoregion does not form a continuous habitat along the coast. It is home to a lot of species of endangered species like the manatee or the West African pygmy hippopotamus, and as well has a very large amount of migratory birds. Although additional extensive mangrove forests of West Africa are relatively poor in tree species of mangroves compared to East Africa, in fact there are only to nine species of trees. They as well resemble additional mangroves than those of American East Africa.
   
• The Guinean forest-savanna mosaic is an ecoregion of West Africa, a band of interlaced forest, savanna, and grassland running east to west and dividing the tropical moist forests near the coast from the West Sudanian savanna of the interior.

Setting

The Guinean forest-savanna mosaic covers an area of 673,600 square kilometers (260,100 square miles), extending from western Senegal to eastern Nigeria, and including portions of Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. The Cameroon Highlands of eastern Nigeria and Cameroon separate the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic from the Northern Congolian forest-savanna mosaic, which lies to the east. The Dahomey Gap is a region of Togo and Benin where the forest-savanna mosaic extends to the coast, and separates the Upper Guinean forests of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ghana from the Lower Guinean forests of Nigeria and Cameroon.

Flora

• This region is mainly grassland crossed with trees growing alongside streams and on hillsides, with the constantly occurring fires keeping back the increase of trees in open country. Lophira laceolata is a tree that is additional resistant to fire.
  [edit] Fauna
• The mixture of forest and grassland provide habitat for a range of species from large mammals such as forest elephants, hippopotamus and antelopes such as the Red-flanked Duiker to the common tortoise inclunding additional localised species including Patas Monkeys and Ghana worm lizards (Amphisbaenia).
• The wetlands in the region are rich in birdlife, including Iris Glossy-starling and Black Crowned Crane

Human settlement

• The ecoregion covers large areas of a lot of West African nations including:
• * Senegal - much of the southern Casamance arm of the country including the city of Ziguinchor.
  * Amount of inland Guinea-Bissau
  * Guinea - the band of lowland areas parallel to the coast and then running south-east of the central mountains, including the towns of Fria, Kindia and Kissidougou.
  * Northern Sierra Leone including the towns of Makeni and Kabala.
  * Côte d'Ivoire - a swathe across the middle east from Touba through the country's second city Bouaké.
  * A wide strip across Ghana including the country east of Lake Volta, where the major town is Ho.
  * Togo - the southern plateau.
  * Benin - the southern areas including the city of Bohicon.
  * Nigeria - a large area including the cities of Ibadan, which means where the forest meets the savanna, the country's capital Abuja, Lokoja where the River Niger and River Benue meet, Enugu, and Makurdi.

Threats and preservation

• This area has been populated by humans for millennia and very little of it is formally protected. Parks include Outamba-Kilimi National Park in Sierra Leone.