Upper Guinean forests

The Upper Guinean forests extend from Guinea and Sierra Leone in the west through Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana to Togo in the east, and a few hundred kilometers inland from the Atlantic coast.

[3] The Guinean moist forests are much affected by winds from the hot dry area to the north and the cool Atlantic currents.

Over 2000 species of vascular plant have been recorded in the ecoregion, and mammals found here include the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), leopard (Panthera pardus), pygmy hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis), Ogilby's duiker (Cephalophus ogilbyi), Nimba otter shrew (Micropotamogale lamottei) and the African golden cat (Profelis aurata).

[1] There are twenty-one endemic/near-endemic and seasonal forest birds in the ecoregion; three avian species, the Nimba flycatcher (Melaenornis annamarulae), the Gola malimbe (Malimbus ballmanni) and the spot-winged greenbul (Phyllastrephus leucolepis) are further restricted in distribution to the western forests only.

[4] The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) listed the Upper Guinean forests (which it calls the Guinean moist forests) on its Global 200 Critical Regions for Conservation.