Synopsis
The Guinean forests of West Africa (GFWA), the belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests along the coast running from Sierra Leone and Guinea in the west to the Sanaga River of Cameroon in the east, are among the most mega-diverse regions of the world. These forests contain an exceptional diversity of species of vascular plants, as well as vertebrates and invertebrates; a large number of species are endemic to this region. As a consequence, GFWA is considered an important biodiversity hotspot as well containing nine distinct ecoregions. Ensuring the long-term survival of the GFWA is of global conservation importance , as well as a centre for important pure and applied ecological studies, representative of one of the most developed regions of the African continent and the one with the highest human population density. In addition, the fragility of the ecological conditions of the region is further exacerbated by (i) the numerous industrial installations that directly or indirectly affect the natural forests (for instance, in the Niger Delta that is one of the main petrochemical extractive areas of the world), (ii) the extensive exploitation of forest products (for instance, world's cacao exports are for over 50% coming from this region and particularly from Ivory Coast; palm oil production is also significant), and (iii) the considerable exploitation of forest wildlife for domestic consumption and the bushmeat trade. Last but not least, GFWA have been the centre of much discussion of the potential links between zoonotic diseases and forests, especially since the 2014-2015 Ebola virus outbreak that caused about 9000 deaths and that originated in the westernmost sector of this region.
Given all of these reasons, GFWA has attracted much scientific interest for tropical ecologists and conservation biologists, and much has been published in international journals and by multilateral agencies such as UNDP, UNEP, FAO, IUCN, etc. In this collection of articles, we will present a much needed synthesis and authoritative view of the main ecological issues affecting GFWA. These include community ecology, conservation biology, ecological economy, freshwater biology, and the relationships between wildlife and diseases on human populations.
We have already received very positive comments on this project idea from several established GFWA scientists in 11 different countries (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, France, Italy, UK, USA, Spain, Germany). We are confident that we will be able to gather a critical mass of high quality manuscripts for the planned issue. For this reason, it is our pleasure to invite you to write a paper (either original or a review) on the tropical forest ecology of Western versus Central African forests. Please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to contribute. Our idea is to have all papers submitted by 01 September 2017, so that we can publish the manuscripts at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2018.
IDECC will take a lead position in the publication of this special volume, as both its president (L. Luiselli) and its scientific staff member J. E. Fa will serve as the guest editors.
Those who are interested in submitting papers, can contact directly Luca Luiselli at:
l.luiselli@ideccngo.org.
Acta Oecologica is one of the foremost journals of ecology worldwide, and will publish this volume in its normal series.
Sincerely yours
Luca Luiselli & John E. Fa
WWF-US ecoregions covered by our special issue
Upper Guinean forests
Western Guinean lowland forests (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire)
Guinean montane forests (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire)
Eastern Guinean forests (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin)
Lower Guinean forests
Nigerian lowland forests (Togo, Nigeria)
Niger Delta swamp forests (Nigeria)
Cross-Niger transition forests (Nigeria)
Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea)
Cameroonian Highlands forests (Nigeria, Cameroon)
Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests (Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea)
