Geography of Benin

Benin is located in the area of former French West Africa. Its geographical limits are: to the east with Nigeria, to the west with Togo, to the northwest with Burkina Faso, to the northeast with Niger and to the south with the Atlantic Ocean.

It is one of the smallest countries in Africa, one eighth the size of Nigeria, its eastern neighbor. It extends from the Niger River in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south for 700 km, with a maximum width in the north of 325 km and a narrower coastline of 121 km. The average height is 200 m. In general, it is an undulating plain, with some hills and mountains.

Biogeography

The country is divided into four main areas from south to north. The coastal zone, sandy, with a maximum elevation of 10 m, has a width of 10 km. It is swampy and has lakes and lagoons connected to the ocean. It is followed by the southern plains of the country, with an altitude ranging from 20 to 200 m, crossed by valleys that go from north to south along the Couffo, Zou and Ouémé rivers, an area listed by the World Fund for Nature as part of the Guinean jungle-savanna mosaic. This is followed by an area of flat land with rocky hills reaching 400 m, between Nikki and Savé. Finally, the Atakora Range extends between the northwestern border and Togo, with a maximum elevation at the border of 658 m, on Mount Sokbaro. The Alibori and Sota rivers flow north in this region to the Niger River, which marks the northeastern border. The Pendjari River turns southwest upon reaching the border with Burkina Faso, indicated by the river itself to Togo, and is a tributary of the Volta River.

Vegetation

Mekrou River at your pass through the National Park of W.

Forests account for 31 percent of Benin's land area, although some of them border only riverbeds as riparian forests. The mangroves found in the brackish coastal lagoons are of some importance, not on the coast itself, beaten by the waves. In some places there are mangroves 22 m high, which are cared for because they are associated with religious beliefs. In Benin there are four Ramsar sites. Two are found in the coastal lagoons: the Ouémé Valley, Porto-Novo lagoon and Nokoué lake, and the lower Couffo valley, Coastal lagoon, Chenal Aho and Ahémé lake. And two, cataloged in 2007, are located in the north: the W Complex Ramsar Site, in the W National Park, and the Pendjari River Wet Area, in the national park of the same name.

Climate

Pendjari National Park, in the northwest of Benin, very hot in spring, before the arrival of the rains, but not as much as the W National Park, in the Niger River.

The climate of Benin is hot and humid. The average annual rainfall on the coast is about 1,360 mm, not too high for the west coast of Africa. Benin has two wet periods and two dry periods. The main rainy season is between April and the end of July, with a short but intense episode of rain from the end of September to November. The main dry season runs from December to April, with a short dry and cold episode from late July to early September. Temperatures and humidity are high on the tropical coast. In Cotonou, on the coast (1,310 mm), the average maximum is 31.oC, and the minimum of 24.oC, almost constant throughout the year. In Kandi, to the north, in the Niger river basin, 1,005 mm falls in 71 days, between April and October, the average maximum in April is 37.oC, but often exceed 40.oC, especially in the W National Park, and the average low in December drops to 17.oC.

Temperatures are more variable as you travel north through the savannah and plateaus near the Sahel. The harmattan wind, from the Sahara, blows from December to March, when it does not rain. The grass dries up, the vegetation turns brown, and a veil of dust stains the air, blurring the sky. It is the time when the peasants burn the fields.

Protected areas of Benin

Complex W-Arly Pendjari, which includes the national parks of Pendjari and W of Benin in a wide range of protected areas, which if the partial reserves are added and the hunting hedges reach 32,250 km2.

According to the IUCN, there are 63 protected areas in Benin covering 34,369 km², 29.6% of the 116,095 km² territory. Of these, 2 are national parks, 3 are hunting areas, 1 is a regional park, 37 are cataloged forests, 7 are reforestation areas, and 3 meet other criteria. In this set there are 3 Unesco biosphere reserves, 1 world heritage site and 4 Ramsar sites.

National Parks

• Pendjari National Park, 2755 km2, which is part of the W-Arly Pendjari Complex, also called the Transfrontier Reserve of the W-Arly-Pendjari Biosphere, a mosaic of protected areas divided between Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso, covering 17,150 km2. Pendjari Park is opposite the Arli National Park in Burkina Faso.
• W de Benin National Park, 5020 km2. It is east of the former, forming part of the W-Arly Pendjari Complex. While to the west are the national parks of Pendjari and Arli, to the east is what is called the National Park W, by the zigzagging form of the Niger River, but that in reality are three parks that add up to about 10 000 km2 shared by Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin, in an extensive landscape of wooded savannah.

Ethnic groups of Benin

There are more than 50 ethnic groups in Benin. The main ones are the Fon and related groups (38.4%), the Adja and related groups (15%), the Yoruba (12%), the Bariba (9.6%), the Peul or Fulani (8.6%), the Gua/ottamari or Tammari (6.1%), the Yoa-lokpa or Lukpa (4.3%) and the Dendi (2.9%).

Benin has a very young population: 65% are under 25 years of age, due to high fertility that has been declining anyway, from 7 children per woman to 4.8 in 2016. The average age is 17 years old. 40% of Beninese live outside the country, some 4.4 million people, due to poverty, especially in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. Less than 1% live in Europe, the majority in France, the former colonial government. The growth rate was 3.4% in 2020, the urban population is 48.4% out of a total of almost 13 million inhabitants. The most populated cities are Porto Novo, with 285,000 inhabitants, the metropolitan area of Abomey-Calavi, with more than 1 million, and Cotonou, with 692,000 inhabitants.

40% live in extreme poverty. Many parents send their children to work as servants, in mines, quarries or in agriculture in Nigeria or nearby countries. Unlike neighboring countries, where the rural population moves to the coast, farmers from the densely populated areas of the south and northwest move to the historically sparsely populated central regions to engage in agriculture.

In 2013, 48.5% of the population was Christian, 27.7% Muslim, 11.6% practiced voodoo, although many practitioners are Christian and Muslim; 2.6% practice animistic religions and 2.6% belong to other religions.