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KNOWLEDGE BASE

West and Central African mangroves

West Africa holds more than half of Africa's mangrove, anchored by the Niger Delta and the Guinea coast.

In Atlas, Western Africa has about 1.74 million hectares across 12 countries, well over half of the continent's mapped mangrove.

Hot spots

  • Niger Delta, Nigeria: Africa's largest mangrove area, shaped by oil and gas extraction, spills, dredging and fuelwood demand.
  • Guinea-Bissau and Guinea: the Rio Grande de Buba and Bijagós region; rice farming behind dykes is a long-standing use of mangrove land.
  • Senegal and The Gambia: Saloum and Casamance deltas, where some mangrove has recovered after community replanting campaigns.
  • Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Togo: smaller, often fragmented stands under coastal development pressure.

Central Africa (Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, DR Congo, São Tomé) adds roughly 450,000 ha, with large estuaries such as Cameroon's Douala-Edea and Gabon's Libreville region.

What the maps show: net losses in Nigeria and Guinea, gains in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. Use the country comparison tool on the Ask page to see any pair side by side.

Limits. Net area change does not show the cause. Atlas does not yet hold layers for oil, aquaculture or farming.

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