The Eastern Guinean forests stretch across West Africa through Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin, running from the east bank of the Sassandra River to the shores of Lake Volta, with outlying enclaves in the Togo Mountains. The forest shifts gradually from moist evergreen stands in the wetter south to dry semi-evergreen forest inland, supporting tall hardwood trees such as Khaya ivorensis, Triplochiton scleroxylon, Entandrophragma utile, Milicia excelsa, and Ceiba pentandra alongside Celtis species. The climate is tropical with distinct wet and dry seasons, annual rainfall falling from around 2,500 mm in the west to roughly 1,500 mm toward the drier northern and mountain margins. Four small mammals occur nowhere else, including Wimmer's shrew and the Togo mouse, and the king colobus is a flagship resident, though heavy logging, farming, and bushmeat hunting have fragmented the forest and driven Miss Waldron's red colobus to extinction. Only about 23 percent of the ecoregion lies within protected areas such as Ghana's Kakum and Bia National Parks. For gardeners, the kapok (Ceiba pentandra) and the iroko (Milicia excelsa) are striking large native trees rooted in this forest.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 6.3°N, 3.5°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13a-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.4°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
73,239 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
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
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
Collections for this ecoregion
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: