Country

Niger: 6 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

A north-south rainfall gradient sorts Niger's six ecoregions into bands. The Saharan north is covered by the East Sahara Desert, the South Sahara desert, and the West Saharan montane xeric woodlands of the Aïr massif. Southward, the vast Sahelian Acacia savanna takes over, grading into the West Sudanian savanna along the southern border, while the Lake Chad flooded savanna adds seasonal wetland in the southeast corner. Notably, the desert ecoregions are Palearctic while the savannas are Afrotropic, so the realms of Africa and Eurasia meet inside the country. For growing, water is everything: thorny acacias, drought-cycling grasses, and hardy sahelian trees define the possible, cropping concentrates in the savanna belt and river valleys, and the flooded savanna supports the only reliably moist ground.