Afrotropical realm

South of the Sahara, two belts of tropical grassland and savanna run east and west across the continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian Highlands. Immediately south of the Sahara lies the Sahel belt, a transitional zone of semi-arid short grassland and vachellia savanna. Rainfall increases further south in the Sudanian Savanna, also known simply as the Sudan, a belt of taller grasslands and savannas. The Sudanian Savanna is home to two great flooded grasslands, the Sudd wetland in South Sudan, and the Niger Inland Delta in Mali. The forest-savanna mosaic is a transitional zone between the grasslands and the belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests near the equator.

South Arabia, which includes Yemen and parts of western Oman and southwestern Saudi Arabia, has few permanent forests. Some of the notable ones are Jabal Bura, Jabal Raymah, and Jabal Badaj in the Yemeni highland escarpment and the seasonal forests in eastern Yemen and the Dhofar region of Oman. Other woodlands scatter the land and are very small and are predominantly Juniperus or Vachellia forests.

The forest zone, a belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forests, runs across most of equatorial Africa's intertropical convergence zone. The Upper Guinean forests of West Africa extend along the coast from Guinea to Togo. The Dahomey Gap, a zone of forest-savanna mosaic that reaches to the coast, separates the Upper Guinean forests from the Lower Guinean forests, which extend along the Gulf of Guinea from eastern Benin through Cameroon and Gabon to the western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The largest tropical forest zone in Africa is the Congolian forests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa.

A belt of tropical moist broadleaf forest also runs along the Indian Ocean coast, from southern Somalia to South Africa.

In northeastern Africa, semi-arid Acacia–Commiphora woodlands, savannas, and bushlands are the dominant plant communities. This region is called the Somali-Masai centre of endemism or Somali-Masai region. It extends from central Tanzania northwards through the Horn of Africa, and covers portions of Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Thorny, dry-season deciduous species of Acacia and Commiphora are the dominant trees, growing in open-canopied woodlands, open savannas, and dense bushlands and thickets. This region includes the Serengeti ecosystem, which is renowned for its wildlife.[2]

Afromontane region, from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, including the East African Rift. Distinctive flora, including Podocarpus and Afrocarpus, as well as giant Lobelias and Senecios.

• Ethiopian Highlands
• Albertine rift montane forests
• East African montane forests and Eastern Arc forests

The Zambezian region includes woodlands, savannas, grasslands, and thickets. Characteristic plant communities include Miombo woodlands, drier mopane and Baikiaea woodlands, and higher-elevation Bushveld. It extends from east to west in a broad belt across the continent, south of the rainforests of the Guineo-Congolian region, and north of the deserts of southeastern Africa, the countries are Malawi, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the subtropical.[3]

Southern Africa as described in Plant Taxonomic Database Standards No. 2. Approximate locations of deserts are overlaid in red.

Southern Africa contains a number of deserts. The Namib Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world and extends for over 2,000 kilometers along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. It is characterized by towering dunes and a diversity of endemic wildlife. Further inland with respect to the Namib Desert, the Kalahari Desert is a semi-arid savanna spanning Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. The Kalahari is known for its diversity of mineral resources, particularly diamonds, as well as a variety of flora. South of the Namib and Kalahari deserts is the Karoo. A semi-desert natural region, the Karoo desert spans across parts of the Western and Eastern Cape in South Africa and contains vast open spaces and unique vegetation, such as certain species of Asteraceae flowering plants. Within the boundaries of the larger Karoo, the Tankwa Karoo is a more arid sub-region known for harsher conditions and starker landscapes. Further to the west, the Richtersveld, a mountainous desert in the north-western corner of South Africa, presents a rugged landscape. It is celebrated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique biodiversity and cultural significance to the local Nama people.

The Cape floristic region, at Africa's southern tip is a Mediterranean climate region that is home to a significant number of endemic taxa, as well as to plant families like the proteas (Proteaceae) that are also found in the Australasian realm.

Madagascar and neighboring islands form a distinctive sub-region of the realm, with numerous endemic taxa like the lemurs. Madagascar and the Granitic Seychelles are old pieces of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, and broke away from Africa millions of years ago. Other Indian Ocean islands, like the Comoros and Mascarene Islands, are volcanic islands that formed more recently. Madagascar contains a variety of plant habitats, from rainforests to mountains and deserts, as its biodiversity and ratio of endemism is extremely high.

The Afrotropical realm is home to a number of endemic plant families. Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands are home to ten endemic families of flowering plants; eight are endemic to Madagascar (Asteropeiaceae, Didymelaceae, Didiereaceae, Kaliphoraceae, Melanophyllaceae, Physenaceae, Sarcolaenaceae, and Sphaerosepalaceae), one to Seychelles (Mesdusagynaceae), and one to the Mascarene Islands (Psiloxylaceae). Twelve plant families are endemic or nearly endemic to South Africa (including Curtisiaceae, Heteropyxidaceae, Penaeaceae, Psiloxylaceae, and Rhynchocalycaceae) of which five are endemic to the Cape floristic province (including Grubbiaceae). Other endemic Afrotropic families include Barbeyaceae, Dirachmaceae, Montiniaceae, Myrothamnaceae, and Oliniaceae.

The East African Great Lakes (Victoria, Malawi, and Tanganyika) are the center of biodiversity of many freshwater fishes, especially cichlids (they harbor more than two-thirds of the estimated 2,000 species in the family).[4] The West African coastal rivers region covers only a fraction of West Africa, but harbours 322 of West Africa's fish species, with 247 restricted to this area and 129 restricted even to smaller ranges. The central rivers fauna comprises 194 fish species, with 119 endemics and only 33 restricted to small areas.[5]

The Afrotropic has various endemic bird families, including ostriches (Struthionidae), the secretary bird (Sagittariidae), guineafowl (Numididae), and mousebirds (Coliidae). Also, several families of passerines are limited to the Afrotropics; These include rock-jumpers (Chaetopidae) and rockfowl (Picathartidae).

Africa has three endemic orders of mammals, the Tubulidentata (aardvarks), Afrosoricida (tenrecs and golden moles), and Macroscelidea (elephant shrews). The East-African plains are well known for their diversity of large mammals.

Four species of great apes (Hominidae) are endemic to Central Africa: both species of gorilla (western gorilla, Gorilla gorilla, and eastern gorilla, Gorilla beringei) and both species of chimpanzee (common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, and bonobo, Pan paniscus). Humans and their ancestors originated in Africa.

Tropical rainforests are distributed across West African countries. However, it is becoming clear that the area is experiencing a high rate of deforestation. The term deforestation refers to the complete obstruction of forest canopy cover for means of agriculture, plantations, cattle-ranching, and other non-forest fields. Other observed changes in these forests are forest disintegration (changing the spatial continuity and creating a mosaic of forest blocks and other land cover types), and selective logging of woody species for profitable purposes that affects the forest subfloor and the biodiversity.[7]

Several conservation and development demographic settings indicate that maximum loss of rainforests has occurred in countries with higher population growth. Lack of dependable data and survey information in some countries has made the account of change in areas of unbroken forest and/or land under use and their relation to economic indicators difficult to ascertain. Hence, the amount and rate of deforestation in Africa are less known than other regions of tropics.

One reason for forest depletion is agriculture of cash crops. West African countries depend on cash crop exports. Products like gum, copal, rubber, cola nuts, and palm oil are an important source of steady income revenue for the West African countries. Land use change spoils entire habitats with the forests. Converting forests into timber is another cause of deforestation. Over decades, the primary forest product was commercial timber. Urbanized countries account for a great percentage of the world's wood consumption, that increased greatly between 1950 and 1980. Simultaneously, preservation measures were reinforced to protect European and American forests.[7] Economic growth and growing environmental protection in industrialized European countries made request for tropical hardwood to become strong in West Africa. In the first half of the 1980s, an annual forest loss of 7,200 km² (2,800 sq mi) was note down along the Gulf of Guinea, a figure equivalent to 4-5 per cent of the total remaining rainforest area.[7] By 1985, 72% of West Africa's rainforests had been transformed into fallow lands and an additional 9% had been opened up by timber exploitation.[7]

Tropical timber became a viable choice to European wood following World War II, as trade with East European countries stop and timber noticeably became sparse in western and southern Europe. Despite efforts to promote lesser known timber species use, the market continued to focus on part of the usable timber obtainable. West Africa was prone to selective harvesting practices; while conservationists blamed the timber industry and the farmers for felling trees, others believe rainforest destruction is connected to the problem of fuel wood.[7] The contribution of fuel wood consumption to tree stock decline in Africa is believed to be significant. It is generally believed that firewood provides 75% of the energy used in sub-Sahara Africa.[7] With the high demand, the consumption of wood for fuel exceeds the renewal of forest cover.

African Pygmies living in the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve

The rainforests which remain in West Africa now greatly differ in condition from their state 30 years ago. In Guinea, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast, there is almost no primary forest cover left unscathed; in Ghana the situation is much worse, and nearly all of the rainforest being removed. Guinea-Bissau loses 200 to 350 km² (77 to 135 sq mi) of forest yearly, Senegal 500 km² (190 sq mi) of wooded savanna, and Nigeria 6,000,050,000 of both. Liberia exploits 800 km² (310 sq mi) of forests each year. Extrapolating from present rates of loss, botanist Peter Raven pictures that the majority of the world's moderate and smaller rainforests (such as in Africa) could be destroyed in forty years. Tropical Africa is comprises 18% of the world's total land area covering 20 million km² (7.7 million sq mi) of land in West and Central Africa.[7] The region has been facing deforestation in various degrees of intensity throughout the recent decades. The actual rate of deforestation varies from one country to another and accurate data does not exist yet. Recent estimates show that the annual pace of deforestation in the region can vary from 150 km² (58 sq mi) in Gabon to 2,900 km² (1,100 sq mi) in Cote d'Ivoire. Remaining tropical forest still cover major areas in Central Africa but are abridged by patches in West Africa.

The African Timber Organization member countries eventually recognized the cooperation between rural people and their forest environment. Customary law gives residents the right to use trees for firewood, fell trees for construction, and collect of forest products and rights for hunting or fishing and grazing or clearing of forests for maintenance agriculture. Other areas are called "protected forests", which means that uncontrolled clearings and unauthorized logging are forbidden. After World War II, commercial exploitation increased until no West African forestry department was able of making the law. By comparison with rainforests in other places of the world in 1973, Africa showed the greatest infringement though in total volume means, African timber production accounted just one third compared to that of Asia.[7] The difference was due to the variety of trees in Africa forests and the demand for specific wood types in Europe.

Forestry regulations in east Africa were first applied by colonial governments. The Tropical Forestry Action Plan was conceived in 1987 by the World Resources Institute in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank with hopes of halting tropical forest destruction.[7] In its bid to stress forest conservation and development, the World Bank provided $111,103 million to developing countries, especially in Africa, to help in developing long range forest conservation and management programs meant for ending deforestation.