The Cameroon Highlands forests cloak the chain of mountains that runs inland from the Gulf of Guinea and forms much of the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, rising to Mount Oku at 3,011 meters. Above roughly 900 meters the slopes carry a mosaic of submontane and montane forest, montane grassland, and bamboo, with characteristic trees such as Podocarpus latifolius, Prunus africana, Syzygium guineense, Nuxia congesta, and Rapanea (Myrsine) melanophloeos. Although it sits in tropical Africa, the altitude keeps mean maximum temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius, while rainfall ranges from around 4,000 mm a year near the coast to 1,800 mm or less further inland. The forests are exceptionally rich in endemic life, including the endangered Cross River gorilla, the flagship Bamenda apalis, and a large suite of amphibians found nowhere else, though forest cover has declined by more than half since the 1960s through farming, logging, and fire.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 5.5°N, 10.1°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12b-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +4.1°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Afrotropic
Approximate area
14,688 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.
Currently suited · 4
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: