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Benin

Vegetation description

Mangrove ecosystems in Benin are limited to in the brackish coastal lagoons, there are no active deltas, and the action of waves along the shorelines is significant. Common species are Rhizophora racemosa, Rhizophora harrisonii (the most common species), Laguncularia racemosa and Acrostichum aureum. Two sites are designated as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention: Basse Vallée du Couffo and Basse Vallée de l'Ouémé.

Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. & Field, C.D., eds. 1997 World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
. nd. What's New @ Ramsar. Benin becomes the Convention's 119th Contracting Party. http://www.ramsar.org/w.n.benin_119th.htm.

National level mangrove area estimates

Year

Area (ha)

Source

Trend

Methodology/Comments

1980

5 000

FAO, UNEP. 1981. Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project, Forest Resources of Tropical Africa. Part II: Country Briefs FAO, UNEP 586pp.

X

Estimation

1983

3 000

Saenger, P., Hegerl E.J. and J.D.S., Davie. 1983. Global status of mangrove ecosystems. Commission on Ecology Papers No.3. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland. 88 pp.

X

Secondary reference, no primary source provided. The "Year" is the publication year.

1989

1 700

Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. and Field, C.D., eds. 1997. World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp.

X

Map analysis, scale 1:30 000

1995

6 900

Saenger, P. and Bellan, M.F. 1995 The Mangrove vegetation of the Atlantic coast of Africa. Universitè de Toulouse Press, Toulouse 96 pp

 

Secondary reference, no primary source provided. The "Year" is the publication year.

Trends in mangrove area extent over time

The estimate for 2000 has been calculated applying the FRA 2000 (FA0, 2001) annual forest cover change rate for 1990-2000 (-2.3 percent) to the most recent, reliable figure.


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