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Niger - Geography

Niger covers more than one million square kilometers. The country is enclaved. It shares more than eight hundred kilometers of border with Mali to the west, nearly a thousand with Algeria to the north, three hundred and fifty with Libya to the northeast, nearly one thousand two hundred with Chad to the east , One thousand five hundred with Nigeria to the south, more than two hundred and fifty with Benin and over six hundred with Burkina Faso to the southwest. The majority of the territory is located in the arid and semi-arid areas of the Sahara and the Sahel. The southern regions, in the Niger River valley and on the border with Nigeria, enjoy a wetter climate.

Niger is one of the largest inland countries in West Africa and is historically a gateway between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. With two-thirds of the country lying within the Sahara Desert, it is one of the hottest countries in the world. Niger is mostly a vast plateau, with an average elevation of 500 m, with low local relief. In the Sahelian zone of the country, the climate becomes semiarid and the vegetation cover increases. The central part of Niger is dominated by an extensive pastoral zone — mostly steppes or short grass savannas with shrubs and sparsely scattered trees.

Most of the people derive their income from agriculture and stock raising and are highly vulnerable to periodic droughts and desertification. Moreover, land potential for agriculture is very unevenly distributed among Niger’s regions, with the southern regions providing nearly 98 percent of the arable land. The Niger River, for which the country is named, nourishes a ribbon of life as it flows about 550 km through western Niger. The river is the main source of freshwater and an important part of the economy through transportation and irrigation. Niger is a leading producer of uranium and is rich in many other minerals.

The Libyan border is marked by the plateaux of Manguéni, Tchigaï and Djado, which overlook the desert of the Ténéré in the south. It occupies the eastern part of the Niger. It is bounded to the west by the Aïr massif, where is the highest point of the country, Mount Indoukat-n-Taglès, which rises to two thousand and twenty meters of altitude. To the south-east, on the border with Nigeria and Chad, is Lake Chad. The south-west, finally, is occupied by the basin of the river Niger.

The territory of Niger is made up of 80% of the Sahara and the Sahel. Only one band in the south of the country is green. Access to water is a problem for a large part of the population, although water towers are gradually coming into the cities.

The desert is growing by 200,000 hectares each year. Government reforestation programs face frequent droughts and the growing demand for wood and agricultural land. Since 1990 , the forest has lost a third of its surface and covers only one per cent of the country. Thanks to the natural regeneration collective managed by farmers, more than 5 million hectares of land in Niger now show signs of regeneration of vegetation in 2005 compared to the 1970s. Land degradation has been significantly reduced, the erosion decreased, increased fertility and agricultural productivity improved dramatically.

Some animals, such as elephants , lions and giraffes , are in danger of extinction due to the destruction of the forest and poaching . The last flock of free-ranging giraffes in all of West Africa is located in the vicinity of the village of Kouré, 60 km from the capital Niamey. On the other hand, a reserve named " Parc du W " (due to the sinuosities of the Niger River at this location) is located in the territory of three countries: Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso. In the Niger River, hippopotamuses are protected and multiply to the point of becoming threatening to local populations. At nightfall, it is not rare that "

With an annual rate of 4.0 percent, Niger has one of the highest population growth rates in West Africa. Driven by the rapid population growth and the increasing demand for food, agricultural expansion is the most dramatic change in Niger’s landscapes. Over the period 1975–2013, cultivated areas have increased from 12.6 percent in 1975 to 18.1 percent in 2000 and 24.5 percent in 2013. This represents a total increase of 94.2 percent. Agriculture expansion mostly occurred on the productive sandy soils of the valleys in the Tillaberi region, where cropland is now encroaching on traditional pastoral lands. On the surrounding plateaus and terraces of western Niger, a mosaic of steppe and short grass savanna dominates. The Zinder-Maradi region, already heavily cultivated in 1975, is now a wall-to-wall homogeneous agricultural landscape. However, agriculture is still expanding eastward on the remaining short grass Sahelian savannas of the Manga regions. In addition, an increase of 50 percent in irrigated agriculture was observed along the Niger River.

Sandy areas have increased by 24.8 percent since 1975. This trend is a concern because it indicates a decrease in soil stability and a loss of vegetation cover in some areas of Niger. Moreover, the trend appears to have become more acute since 2000. This change occurs mainly in the Manga pastoral ecoregions (MA1 and MA2) characterized by ancient sand dunes stabilized by the natural Sahelian short grass savanna. During the drought years of the 1970s and 1980s, many of these dunes became active when vegetation cover was lost. In addition, wind erosion, overgrazing on low vegetation, and loss of woody cover from drought and deforestation, often result in land degradation and enhance the process of desertification.