FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Forest cover map

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Map source: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, base map: ESRI

The above map is an extract from the Global Forest Cover map produced as part of FRA 2000. Please refer to FRA Working Paper 19 for a background to the production of the map.

The natural woody vegetation of Yemen is diverse due to variations in environmental conditions. Forest formations in Yemen include savannah woodlands in the foothills of the Tihama plain, Acacia scrub woodlands in the foothills and highlands, tree communities located on the larger fans of the major wadis that flow onto the Tihama, tree cover in wadi bottoms in the intermountain region and mangroves in the coastal belt from Hodeidah to the Saudi Arabian border.

Cavalcaselle (1990) and Ali and Mohamed (1995) classified the forest zones in Yemen into four geographical regions as follows:

Tihama woodlands: This region includes the coastal plains along the Red Sea and those between the gulf of Aden and the southern highlands around Toaz at altitudes from sea level up to 400 m, with a mean annual temperature of about 30o C, annual rainfall of 200 mm and high relative humidity.

Steep slope and western mountains woodlands: This region includes mountains less than 1 000 m up to more than 2 000 m altitude, such as Jabal Malhan, J. Bura and J. Rima. They extend west as a narrow strip from Toaz to the Loder steeps. The mean annual temperature is about 26o C. and the annual precipitation varies between 200 and 600 mm, with much higher precipitation on the western slopes.

Middle escarpment and valley woodlands: This region is located east of the mountain slopes of the highlands. It includes Wadi Hadramout and the plains south to Loder steeps.

Al-Khowf forest (Mahra): This forest is located in Mahra province. The annual precipitation in the mountains of the region is about 500 mm.