West Africa is one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world. A large part of this diversity is contained in its forests, whether in National Parks or in Forest Reserves. The forested area in the region is drastically reducing over the last decades, mainly as a result of logging and burning for agriculture. This book is one of the results of the EU funded ECOSYN project and reviews the information available on forest in the area and focuses on forest plants.
The first part contains overviews of deforestation, changes in the forest-savannah boundaries over time, and a regional classification of forest types. Other chapters focus on diversity, with special reference to rare and endemic species. Application possibilities of the information in this atlas are explained.
The second part contains detailed treatments of 280 rare and endemic species, and also of ca 50 large and commercial tree species. A checklist of all 2800 forest species in the Upper Guinea area is provided, and indicates the species that are rare and/or endemic.
The third part contains an extensive literature list on forests and forest plants in Upper Guinea. Appendices show maps with forest types, biodiversity hotspot areas and forest reserves. In the index main items can be searched for.
