<P> Many African countries are in economic and political change, overwhelmed by conflict, making various movements of forest exploitation to maintained forest management and production more and more complicated . </P> <P> Forest legislation of ATO member countries aim to promote the balanced utilization of the forest domain and of wildlife and fishery in order to increase the input of the forest sector to the economic, social, cultural and scientific development of the country . </P> <P> The tropical environment is rich in terms of bio-diversity . Tropical African forest is 18 per cent of the world total and covers over 3.6 million square kilometers of land in West, East and Central Africa . This total area can be subdivided to 2.69 million square kilometers (74%) in Central Africa, 680,000 square kilometers (19%) in West Africa, and 250,000 square kilometers (7%) in East Africa . In West Africa, a chain of rain forests up to 350 km long extends from the eastern border of Sierra Leone all the way to Ghana . In Ghana the forest zone gradually dispels near the Volta river, following a 300 km stretch of Dahomey savanna gap . The rain forest of West Africa continues from east of Benin through southern Nigeria and officially ends at the border of Cameroon along the Sanaga river . </P> <P> Semi-deciduous rainforests in West Africa began at the fringed coastline of Guinea Bissau (via Guinea) and run all the way through the coasts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, continuing through Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon, and ending at the Congo Basin . Rain forests such as these are the richest, oldest, most prolific, and most complex systems on earth, are dying, and in turn are upsetting the delicate ecological balance . This may disturb global hydrological cycles, release vast amounts of green house gases into the atmosphere, and lessen the planet's ability to store excess carbon . </P>

Where are africa's tropical rain forests found