Togolese Geography
Togo is a small black sub-Saharan nation comprising a long, narrow strip of land in West Africa.
The average geographic coordinates of Togo are 8° 00' north latitude and 1° 10' east longitude. It is bordered by three countries: Benin, to the east, with a 644-kilometre border; Burkina Faso to the north, with a 126 km border, and Ghana, with a 877 km border. To the south, Togo has 56 km of coastline along the Gulf of Benin, a section of the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean.
Togo is 579 kilometers long from north to south (from its border with Burkina Faso to its coastline on the Gulf of Benin) and measures only 160 km from west to east at its widest point. In total, Togo has an area of 56,785 km², of which 54,385 km² is land and 2,400 km² is water.
On the coast (the most populated area of Togo), is the country's capital, Lomé, which has the peculiarity of being one of the few nation's capitals located in a border area, in this case next to the border from Ghana. As one advances inland, the territory gains in height, so that in the center of the country there is a wide plateau.
Physical geography
In Togo there are three different regions: the coastal plain, in the S, with 56 km of low and sandy coasts, where lagoon formations abound; the central highlands, generally made up of low undulating reliefs, although in the central region there is a SW-NE oriented mountain range formed by the Togo mountains, called the Atakora mountains in Benin, where the reliefs reach 1,000 m altitude (Mount Agou, 1,020 m, maximum height); finally, the alluvial plain of the N, for the most part formed by the basin of the Oti river, a tributary of the Volta river.
Hydrography
The hydrographic network is mainly made up of the Mono River and its tributaries that irrigate the central section of the country and the southern plain, to later flow into the Gulf of Guinea; in the N the Oti river stands out, belonging to the Volta basin. 60% of the population is concentrated in the coastal plain, where the capital, Lomé, the only city in the country, is located. Other minor centers are Sokodé, Palimé, Mango and Atakpamé.
Vegetation
The vegetation cover is made up of coconut palms along the coastal strip, gallery forests along the river courses, tropical forests on the mountainous slopes, and savannah or steppe in the central highlands.
Almost the entire country is part of the Sudanese-Guinean savannah biome, and a small part, in the western highlands, is part of the Guinean-Congolese forest biome. Despite its small size and the two biomes, there is a diversity of habitats including residual forest, Sudanese savannah in the northwest corner, and extensive stretches of Guinean savannah to the north and south. In the highlands there is submontane forest and grassy hills. there is a major coastal lake, Lake Togo, and a coastline of coconut palms. Two main basins drain the country, the Mono River basin in the southern half of the country through the Guinean savannah, and the Oti River basin through the Guinean savannah to Lake Volta in Ghana.
Climate
The climate is generally tropical with average temperatures ranging from 27.5 °C on the coast, to about 30 °C in the northernmost regions, with a dry climate with characteristics of a tropical savannah. Being a very long country from south to north, from the coast to the interior, there are significant differences in climate, even within the same tropical area.
In the center and in the north, winter is dry and warm, with much more contrasting temperatures than on the coast and that can fluctuate between 10.oC on January nights and the 40s.oC in April or May. Temperatures rise in March and April, when the rains begin. In Sokodé, in the center of the country, the average annual rainfall is 1,420 mm, with maximums that exceed 200 mm between July and September, and minimums that drop below 20 mm between December and February, with a marked contrast between the six months of winter and the six of summer, although not so much in temperatures, which oscillate between 18 and 34.oC in January and the 20th and 27th.oC in July.
In the center-south, in the Altiplano region, in a hilly area that culminates at 986 m on Mount Agou, the rains are more abundant in summer above 500 m.
On the coast, temperatures do not drop during the winter. In Lomé, in January, the average ranges from 23 to 32.oC, and, in August, oscillates between 22 and 28.oC, in the dry summer period. Rainfall is about 900 mm per year in the capital, with two dry and two wet periods. Between November and February, and in August, it barely rains. The two rainy seasons occur, the first between April and July, and the second, between September and November, with a maximum in June of 200 mm.
The climate is tropical and humid for seven months, while dry winds from the harmattan desert blow south from November to March, bringing cooler weather.
Human Geography
In Togo, in 2020, the estimated population is 8,278,000 inhabitants, with a density of 152 inhab/km². 43.3% of the population is urban and the average age is 194 years. Population growth is affected by the incidence of AIDS. However, it has quadrupled between 1960 and 2010, due to the high birth rate, established at 4.22 children per woman in 2020 and a growth rate of 2.56%. The birth rate is 32 per thousand inhabitants, and the death rate is 6.5 per thousand inhabitants. The average age is 20 years, and the age when the first child is born is 21 years.
Togo is a country of emigration and asylum. In the 1990s, due to the repression of the dictator Gnassingbé Eyadéma and his northern ethnic group, the Kabye, 300,000 to 350,000 Togolese emigrated to Benin and Ghana, many of whom returned when the situation stabilized in 1997. In 2005, others 40,000 Togolese fled to Benin and Ghana when violence broke out between the opposition and the security forces over the election of Faure Gnassingbé, the current president and son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma. half of the refugees returned in 2006. As of September 2017, it was home to 9,600 Ghanaian refugees. As of January 2020, there were 11,968 refugees in the country, 9,768 from Ghana, 1,544 from the Ivory Coast, 236 from CAR.
It is estimated that there are 37 ethnic groups in Togo, dominated by the Aja-ewé people (42.4%), followed by the Kabye (26%), Para-gourma/akan (17.1%), Akposso/ akebu (4.1%), ana-ife (3.2%), other Togolese (1.7%) and foreigners, 5.2%.
Most belong to the Sudanese racial group, 80% of whom live in rural areas within traditional villages, where they practice subsistence agriculture. The majority are Christians (43.7%), animists (35.6%), Muslims (14%), Hindus, Buddhists and Jews less than 1%.
Economic geography
Togo is a country with an underdeveloped economy, which is based on the rudimentary agricultural sector centered mainly on the southern plain (40% of the territory). Subsistence crops provide yams, millet, sweet potatoes, cassava, maize, sorghum, rice, legumes, fruits and vegetables; plantation crops for export produce coffee, cocoa, cotton, peanuts, palm for oil production, and coconut for copra production.
Livestock, of little importance, focuses on raising cattle, goats, sheep and pigs, as well as volatile animals. Fishing, practiced in the Atlantic and in inland waters, is of little importance. The exploitation of the subsoil is based mainly on phosphates, extracted in the Lake Togo region; deposits of limestone, iron ore and bauxite are also exploited, although to a lesser extent.
The reduced industrial sector, located in Lomé, has small companies dedicated to the elaboration of agricultural products (palm oil, tapioca) and manufactures (shoes, cotton textiles); there is also a cement factory, an oil refinery, and mechanical and steel plants. Togo mainly imports food products, capital goods, manufactures and raw materials, and exports phosphates, cocoa and coffee. The main customer and supplier is France, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain. The limited internal transport network has a railway built in colonial times, linked to the Benin railway system, and some 7,000 km of roads, insufficient for internal communications.
Lomé is home to the country's main port and international airport. Togo is a member of the UN, the OAU, the OCAM, the Council of the Entente, and the Economic Community of West African States, and is associated with the EC within the Lomé Convention
Togo's protected areas
In Togo there are 92 protected areas covering some 15,877 km², 27.62% of the total 57,481 km², and 31 km² of marine areas, 0.2% of the 15,521 km² that belong to the country. There are 3 national parks, 78 forest reserves and 6 wildlife reserves, as well as a UNESCO biosphere reserve (Oti-Keran/Oti-Mandouri, 419 km²), and four Ramsar sites.
National Parks
- Fazao Malfakassa National Park, 690 km2
- Kéran National Park, 1636 km2
- Fosse aux Lions National Park, 16.5 km2
Ramsar Sites
- Kéran National Park, 1634 km2, 10°15'N 01°00'E
- Wet areas of the coast of Togo, 5910 km2, 06°34'N 01°25'E
- Togolese wildlife reserve, 310 km2, 06°49'N 01°40'E
- Cuenca Oti-Mandouri, 4250 km2, 10°37'N 00°37'E. It includes the Oti Valley Wildlife Reserve, one of the four IBAs (area of importance for birds) of the country, with 1478 km2.
Unesco Biosphere Reserves
- Oti-Keran/Oti-Mandouri Biosphere Reserve, 1790 km2, in the north of the country, with some 16,700 inhabitants and a nucleus of 419 km2. It has a varied topography dominated by large valleys and vast plains, with different ecosystems that include the sudano-guineana savannah with trees.
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