FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Broadleaved

The UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO Vegetation Map of Africa (F. White) distinguishes four major types of vegetation and vegetational mosaic comprising the following open woody formations:

• "Mosaic of lowland rain forest and secondary grassland, Guineo-Congolian", covering most of the country;
• The same mosaic, to which montane elements are added in the Fouta Djallon area;
• "Sudanian woodland with abundant Isoberlinia" in the north east of the country (the Kankan, Kouroussa and Siguiri regions);
• "Undifferentiated Sudanian woodland", covering a narrow strip along the border with Mali in the north of the Tougué and Dinguiraye regions.

The earlier version of this map divided all the savannah in Guinea (other than that found in the higher parts of the Fouta Djallon area) among:

• Forest-savannah mosaic with Lophira lanceolata and Daniellia oliveri with a shrub, Hymenocardia acida;
• Relatively moist undifferentiated types of woodland, wooded or grass savannah (and steppe) with the above species and various shrubs of the Combretum and Annona genera;
• The same grouping of formations with a predominance of woodland of Isoberlinia doka and I. dalzielii, replaced on eroded slopes by Monotes kerstingii and in clay depressions by Terminalia macroptera and T. laxiflora; such formations being confined to the north-east part of the country (the Dinguiraye, Kankan, Kouroussa and Siguiri regions).

The effects of fire, clearing and extraction of firewood and timber have led to a process of degradation, its severity depending on population density. Any attempt to classify and assess the extent of the various classes is problematic and unreliable due to lack of accurate large-scale mapping.