Mangroves occur in all estuaries, bays and lagoons along coast and they are more extensive on the south banks than in the northern banks. The main concentration is at the mouths of River Como, and around the Ogooué River. Mangrove stands in Gabon consist primarily of Rhizophora racemosa, R. mangle, R. harrisonii, Avicennia germinans and Laguncularia racemosa. Other mangrove species present are Conocarpus erectus and Acrostichum aureum. There does not appear to be much commercial exploitation of the mangroves.
Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. & Field, C.D., eds. 1997 World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp.
Year |
Area |
Source |
Trend |
Methodology/Comments |
1970 |
232 000 |
FAO, UNEP. 1981. Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project, Forest Resources of Tropical Africa. Part II: Country Briefs FAO, UNEP 586pp. |
The figure refers to all coastal forests (of which 60% is mangroves). | |
1980 |
140 000 |
FAO, UNEP. 1981 Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project, Forest Resources of Tropical Africa. Part II: Country Briefs FAO, UNEP 586pp. |
X |
The reference year dates back to the end of 1970. The mangrove extent appeared not to have changed between 1970 and 1980. |
1983 |
250 000 |
Saenger, P., Hegerl E.J. and J.D.S., Davie. 1983. Global status of mangrove ecosystems. Commission on Ecology Papers No.3. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland. 88 pp. |
Secondary reference, no primary source provided. The "Year" is the publication year. Taking into account the information provided by FRA 1980 this figure could represent the extent of the total area, and not the forested part. | |
1992 |
350 000 |
Hughes, R.H. and Hughes, J.S. 1992. A Directory of African Wetlands. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK/UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya/WCMC, Cambridge, UK. 820 pp. |
Analysis of maps and/or remote sensing imageries. No specific scale is given. The "Year" is the publication year. | |
1993 |
175 900 |
Spalding, M.D., Blasco, F. and Field, C.D., eds. 1997. World Mangrove Atlas. The International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178 pp. |
Map analysis. Scale 1:150 000 | |
1995 |
612 900 |
Saenger, P. and Bellan, M.F. 1995. The Mangrove vegetation of the Atlantic coast of Africa. Universitè de Toulouse Press, Toulouse 96 pp. |
Secondary reference, no primary source provided. The "Year" is the publication year. This figure is very high compared with the other information for Gabon. It could represent the original extent of mangroves, or, it could include the freshwater swamp. | |
1997 |
147 400 |
Iremonger, S., C. Ravilious and T. Quinton. 1997. A statistical analysis of global forest conservation. In: Iremonger, S., C. Ravilious and T. Quinton. eds. A global overview of forest conservation. Including: GIS files of forests and protected areas, version 2. CD-ROM. CIFOR and WCMC, Cambridge, U.K. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/data/cdrom2/index.html |
Seconday source, no primary reference provided. The “Year” is the publication year. | |
2000 |
115 000 |
World Resources Institute. 2000. World resources 2000-2001: people and ecosystem—the fraying web of life. Washington, DC., UNDP. 400 pp. |
X |
Secondary reference, no primary source provided. The "Year" is the publication year. |
