Coastal forests of eastern Africa

The forests extend in a narrow band along the coast of the Indian Ocean, from southern Somalia in the north, through coastal Kenya and Tanzania to the mouth of the Limpopo River in southern Mozambique.

The forest belt is 50 to 200 km wide, and extends further west along river valleys.

Pockets of coastal forest grow on the windward eastern slopes of mountains further inland, including the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya and some inselbergs in northern Mozambique, where rainfall and dry-season humidity are higher than the adjacent lowlands.

Rainfall averages from 800 and 1200 mm per year in most of the coastal belt, with a well-defined dry season.

Rainfall is similar to the interior savannas, but humidity in the coastal belt is higher during the dry season.