Ecoregions, parks and reserves
Somali montane xeric woodlands: the northern mountains ecoregion
The Somali montane xeric woodlands are the dry mountain woodlands and scrub of northern Somalia, from the Golis range in Togdheer and Woqooyi Galbeed east through the Cal Madow of Sanaag and Bari to Cape Guardafui and south to Eyl. They rise to 2,416 m at Shimbiris. Juniper forest on the high slopes is home to birds found nowhere else, such as the Somali thrush and the Warsangli linnet.
In short
The Somali montane xeric woodlands are an ecoregion: a large area with its own mix of plants and animals, as mapped by the conservation group WWF (ecoregion code AT1319) (Wikipedia, Somali montane xeric woodlands, backup). "Xeric" means dry. The ecoregion covers the mountains that run parallel to Somalia's northern coast on the Gulf of Aden, from central Togdheer east to Cape Guardafui, and then down the coast south to Eyl (same source).
Somalia's National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan of 2016 calls the same area the "Juniperus excelsa forest in the mountainous belt of Golis". It stretches through Somaliland and Puntland, from Shimbiris mountain to Raas Caseyr at the tip of the Horn (Federal Republic of Somalia, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (Ullah and Gadain, FAO SWALIM), 2016, p. 33).
Land and climate
The western part is formed by the Golis and Ga'an Libah mountains; further east are the Cal Madow mountains of eastern Sanaag and northern Bari. A narrow coastal strip separates the mountains from the sea. The land rises from sea level to 2,416 m at Shimbiris, the highest point in Somalia. The higher mountains include outcrops of limestone and gypsum (Wikipedia, backup; NBSAP 2016, p. 33).
The climate is tropical and dry to semi-dry. Average temperatures range from 21 to 30°C in the lowlands and 9 to 21°C in the mountains. The lowlands get less than 200 mm of rain a year. The escarpment slopes near Maydh get about 700 mm a year, the highest rainfall in Somalia (NBSAP 2016, p. 33; Wikipedia, backup).
Plants
Plant cover changes with height, rain and soil. The hot coastal plains have little or no vegetation. The foothills carry open scrub of Acacia, Commiphora and Boswellia. The escarpment slopes carry evergreen and semi-evergreen shrubs and small trees, among them Dracaena schizantha, Barbeya oleoides, Mimusops laurifolia, Buxus hildebrandtii and Pistacia aethiopica. The highest slopes carry remnant juniper woodland and forest of Juniperus procera and wild olive, Olea europaea (Wikipedia, backup).
The 2016 national plan records more than ten plant species found only here, including the genus Renschia, which has a single species, four species of Helianthemum and one of Thamnosma. It notes that WWF and IUCN treat the area as a centre of plant endemism (NBSAP 2016, p. 34). The shrub Boswellia frereana, found only in this region, grows from near the coast up to about 750 m and produces frankincense resin (Wikipedia, backup).
Animals
The national plan lists the beira (Dorcatragus megalotis), Speke's gazelle, Salt's dik-dik and Soemmerring's gazelle. It records that they suffer from over-hunting and from competition with livestock for grazing. Near-endemic small mammals include the Somali hedgehog, Louise's spiny mouse and the Somali elephant shrew (NBSAP 2016, p. 34).
Three birds are endemic to the area: the Somali pigeon, the Somali thrush and the Warsangli linnet. The thrush and the linnet live only or mainly in the high juniper forests (same source). BirdLife International treats the ecoregion as the North Somali Mountains Endemic Bird Area (Wikipedia, backup). Endemic reptiles include the snakes Spalerosophis josephscorteccii and Leptotyphlops reticulatus and the lizard Pseuderemias savagei (NBSAP 2016, p. 34).
Threats recorded in 2016
Consultation workshops in Puntland and Somaliland for the national plan named the main threats as the cutting of juniper trees for timber and firewood, heavy grazing by goats and other livestock, and the poaching of larger mammals. The plan states that the forests have been degraded and that much of the information on the area is old, because it was hard to reach for decades (NBSAP 2016, p. 34).
Protected areas
The national plan names forest reserves as the only protected areas in the ecoregion, for example the Daallo (Daloh) forest reserve of montane juniper, with other patches on the Surud and Cal Madow highlands (NBSAP 2016, p. 34). The World Database on Protected Areas lists Daallo Forest, Ga'an Libah and Ras Hafun among the protected areas of the ecoregion (Protected Planet, Somalia).
Related pages
Sources
Sources
- Wikipedia, Somali montane xeric woodlands, backup · en.wikipedia.org
- Federal Republic of Somalia, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (Ullah and Gadain, FAO SWALIM), 2016, p. 33 · cbd.int
- Protected Planet, Somalia · protectedplanet.net
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Where this matters
- Boorama (Borama) and AwdalAwdal is the far north-west region, on the borders with Djibouti and Ethiopia, with Borama (Boorama) as its capital and about 300,000 to 636,000 people.
- Hargeysa (Hargeisa) and Woqooyi GalbeedWoqooyi Galbeed is the north-western region that holds Hargeisa (Hargeysa) and the port of Berbera, with about 1 to 1.45 million people.
- Garoowe (Garowe) and NugaalNugaal is the region around Garoowe (Garowe), Puntland's capital, with about 656,910 people in three districts.
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