The Guinean forests

• The Upper Guinea forests extend from Guinea to Ghana, passing through Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire.
• The Lower Guinea forests extend from western Nigeria to the Sanaga River in southwestern Cameroon.

For more information: https://papfor.org/Les-differents-types-de-foret-constituant-les-forets-guineennes

The Guinean forests are composed of different types of vegetation:

Humid evergreen tropical forests
Mixed humid and semi-deciduous forests
Swamp forests
Guinean montane forests
Mangroves

For more information about these forests and the different plant species that characterize them, visit: https://papfor.org/-La-vegetation-

The fauna of the Guinean forests is both rich and varied, and moreover, many species are endemic, meaning they are found only in these forests and nowhere else in Africa or the world.

• Over 300 species of mammals
• Over 1,000 species of birds
• Over 100 species of reptiles and 200 species of amphibians
• Over 600 species of freshwater fish
• Over 10,000 species of moths, 1,000 species of butterflies, and 300 species of odonates (dragonflies and damselflies)

The mammals of the Guinean forests range from forest elephants weighing up to six tonnes to shrews that can weigh less than 10 grams.

Find out about elephants, chimpanzees and pangolins here. For more mammals, see the following map.

PAPFor is a very important programme for the survival of many primate species. Twenty-six primate species are found in the six PAPFor landscapes, most of them endemic to the Guinean forests.

Other mammals typical of Guinean forests include duikers, a genus of small forest antelopes. Several duikers are endemic, some of which are emblematic because of their unique appearance.

For more information on the mammals in these forests : https://www.papfor.org/Mammals

The Guinean forests are home to no fewer than 1,000 species of birds.

• The yellow-headed picathartes (or white-necked rockfowl), found only in certain dense forests.
• The Timneh parrot, found only in the forests from Guinea to Côte d’Ivoire.
• 10 species of hornbills, including 2 endemic species: the yellow-casqued hornbill and the brown-cheeked hornbill.

For more information about the birds, visit: https://www.papfor.org/Les-oiseaux

Guinean forests are home to no less than 300 species of reptiles and amphibians, including The viviparous toad in the Mount Nimba PA.

For more information : https://papfor.org/Reptiles-and-amphibians

The Guinean forests are home to tens of thousands of insects, including thousands of butterfly species and more than 300 damselflies and dragonflies

For more information : https://www.papfor.org/Insects

Despite the inestimable value of West Africa’s tropical forests, they are under serious threat from a variety of human activities. The main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are :

• Slash-and-burn agriculture
• The expansion of industrial plantations
• Unsustainable industrial logging
• Industrial and artisanal mining
• Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade
• Climate change

The Support Programme for the Preservation of Forest Ecosystems in West Africa (PAPFor) was set up in 2019, and is now being implemented, thanks to funding from the European Union, within 6 cross-border forest landscapes.

To find out more, check out the following story map : Presentation of the PAPFor Programme