Geography
The Central African Republic, a landlocked country in Africa, which was once a French colony under the name Ubangi-Shari, is a rich rainforest area of 22.755 million ha with tropical forest covering 35% of the area of the country. The rich forests of the Central African Republic vary and are largely delimited within the major tropical rain forests of Africa and the great open savannas that stretches from across the continent, south of the Sahara. Depending on the climatic conditions, it is distributed with thick forests in the south, woody savanna in the centre and grasslands in the north. The wild life in these forests reflects all the species identified in Africa; the most conspicuous species are the elephants, chimpanzees, crocodiles, hippos, giraffes and many more. The ecosystem in Central African Republic comprise the Western Congo Basin Forests, the Northeastern Congo Basin Forests, and the Sudanian Savannas. The land use is categorised under the grass and shrub as 59%, under crops and settlements at 5% and major forests at 36% of the total land area of the country. Anthropological pressure is reported to be low in 46% area; medium in 44% and high in 10% of the land area.
Apart from all the savanna species of wild animals, the unique species found here is of forest gorillas.
It had recorded the least percentage of forest loss in the period between 1990 and 2005 of 1.9%. Subsequently logging roads were built not only to sustain subsistence agriculture but mostly for poaching for bush meat and ivory hunting, which has caused severe depletion of the abundant and diverse wildlife of CRA.
Read more about this topic: Wildlife Of The Central African Republic
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