Côte d'Ivoire Geography
Côte d'Ivoire is located just north of the Gulf of Guinea, between Liberia and Ghana in southern West Africa. The country is shaped like a square, and at 318,000 sq km of land, it is slightly larger than New Mexico. Cote d'Ivoire is bordered by Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Mali. The longest of these borders is the Liberian border.
Most of Côte d'Ivoire is a vast plateau tilted toward the Atlantic, starting at sea level along the southern coastline and gradually rising to about 500m above sea level in the northern regions. There are some mountains in the west, including the highest point of Mont Nimba at 1,752m, at the point where the Ivoirian, Guinean, and Malian borders meet.
There are four major rivers in Côte d'Ivoire, running roughly parallel from north to south. From west to east they are: the Cavally, Sassandra, Bandama, and Comoe. They are not very helpful for transportation, especially in the dry season; they are broken by many falls and rapids. Water pollution is a concern in the rivers due to sewage and industrial and agricultural runoff. The rainy season brings torrential flooding along the rivers, while the coast is also hard hit due to heavy surf and an absence of natural harbors.
The southeast regions are marked by coastal lagoons, while the southwest is densely forested and moist. The northern region is the savannah zone of lateritic or sandy soils. For each region, vegetation decreases from south to north. Most of the inhabitants live in the southern areas. The interior forested regions are sparsely populated, except for the capital, Yamoussoukro.
There are distinct climate zones in Côte d'Ivoire: equatorial in the south, tropical in the north, and semiarid in the far north. The south has rain in most months, but heavier rains between May and September. Throughout the country there are three seasons . warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), and hot and wet (June to October).
Côte d'Ivoire is abundant in natural resources, making it relatively successful in Africa.s economy. Among these resources are petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper and limited hydropower. With 13.84% of the land used for permanent crops, Côte d'Ivoire is the world.s largest producer of cocoa. Coffee is another major crop. The country also has a large timber industry, with its hardwood exports matching those of Brazil. There has recently been much concern about the rate of deforestation, sometimes said to be the highest in the world. The only forest left untouched is the Taï National Park in the southwest, home to over 150 endemic animal species.
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~LM