The main forest species encountered in southern and central Benin, West Africa

.BackgroundThe south of Benin, a country in West Africa, is still home to remnants of dense foreststhat benefit from a particularly rainy sub-equatorial climate, with annual rainfall of up to1,200 mm. These forest ecosystems are an integral part of the West African forest block,which stretches from Liberia to Togo. However, despite their richness and ecologicalimportance, these forests are unfortunately subject to strong human pressures,particularly from slash-and-burn agriculture, intensive logging and the growingurbanisation of coastal areas. Preserving these forests is crucial, however, as they arehome to remarkable plant and animal biodiversity, with many endemic species. What'smore, these forests play an essential role in regulating the local climate, protecting soiland water resources, as well as providing local populations with a vital source of energywood, non-timber forest products and support for their traditional agricultural practices.Faced with these conservation challenges, identifying and characterising the main treespecies found in the forests of southern and central Benin, forest species and theirecology is an essential prerequisite for implementing sustainable management andrestoration strategies for these threatened forest ecosystems in southern Benin. This workaims to identify and draw attention to the different forest species, specially tree forestspecies present in southern and central Benin.