National Report : Marine biodiversity in Côte d’Ivoire – the known and the unknown

Abstract

Located in the Gulf of Guinea, with an area of 322 465 km², Cote d’Ivoire (4°30’ and 10°30’N and 2°30’ and 8°30’W) is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the south, Liberia in the south east, Guinea in the northwest, Burkina Faso in the north and Ghana in the east. The coast between Liberia and Ghana is about 540 km length. The country is influenced by the Monsoon (humid) and Harmattan (dry) tropical air masses. These two air masses are separated by the intertropical front that influences the local climate. The climate in southern part, including the coast, is humid tropical and characterized by a climate with four seasons: two dry seasons from November to March and from July to August and two rainy seasons from April to June and from September to October. Forests occupy more than half part of the southern part of the country. Littoral savanna vegetation is found south of the lagoons between Port-Bouet and Grand-Bassam. Pre-lagoon savanna is located north of the lagoons in the dense forest of the south. The littoral zone contains different natural habitats, including five lagoon systems, closed lagoons, swamp forests, mangrove forests (mainly by Rhizophora racemosa and Avicennia africana) The continental shelf, with an area of 12 000 km², has two types of bottom sediments, sandy bottoms in the eastern part and rocky bottoms in the western part. The continental shelf is narrow, with a width that varies between 9 and 18 miles, with a mean of 13 miles. Different types of human activities are conducted in the region, notably agriculture, power generation, timber exploitation, sand extraction, and various industries (e.g. petrol and gas). Several ports are located in this region, including the political capital Abidjan.