Forests in Somalia

Forests cover 12% of Somalia’s land area, but only 4% of the land has dense tree stands. Somalia is one of the few areas in the world where frankincense is produced; incense trees of the genus Boswellia are found in the northeast. Gum arabic in small quantities is also produced. In the scant forests along the rivers of the Jubba region,Euphorbia ruspoli is milled and used for the production of banana crates. Roundwood production was estimated at 9,338,000 cu m (329.6 million cu ft), with almost 99% of it burned as fuel.

Change in Forest Cover

Between 1990 and 2010, Somalia lost an average of 76,750 ha or 0.93% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2010, Somalia lost 18.5% of its forest cover, or around 1,535,000 ha.The forests have faced challenges of overgrazing and deforestation which have reduced the forest cover.

Somalia’s forests contain 394 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass.

Flora and Fauna

Somalia has some 1078 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 6.1% are endemic and 2.8% are threatened.

Somalia is home to at least 3028 species of vascular plants, of which 16.5% are endemic.

 

For more reading

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Somalia.htm

http://somaliecologicalsociety.org/PDFs/SES%20Somaliland%20Fact%20Finding%20Miision%20Report.pdf

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Somalia-FORESTRY.html