On opportunities and challenges to conserve the African baobab under present and future climates in Benin (West Africa)

Modeling current and future distribution patterns of Uvaria chamae in Benin (West Africa): Challenges and opportunities for its sustainable management

“…Globally, the distribution of the species is influenced by both climate and soil type. This corroborates the finding of Assogba et al [ 21 ] who showed that soil factors and climatic variations contribute to the distribution of the species in West Africa. Similarly, Dimobe et al [ 54 ] in Burkina Faso mentioned that rainfall and temperature are the main bioclimatic factors influencing the distribution of suitable habitats for plant biodiversity.…”

“…However, Lawin et al [ 60 ] reported that the species is threatened and field conservation is the measure adopted by the local population. It is therefore important to introduce the species into agroforestry systems and to encourage local communities to cultivate it in order to limit its possible extirpation as previously suggested for other declining agroforestry species in West Africa [ 21 , 55 ]. In addition, this study showcases that the bush banana is widely distributed in Benin in the Guineo-Congolian, Sudano-Guinean zones and to a lesser extent in the Sudanian zone.…”

“…In the Sudanian region, rainfall is unimodal and sometimes less than 1000 mm per year, its relative humidity varies from 18% to 99% while its temperature varies from 24 °C to 31 °C. The Sudano-Guinean region is characterized by bimodal rainfall with a tendency to unimodality and an annual average rainfall that varies between 900 mm and 1110 mm, relative humidity varies from 31% to 98%, and annual temperature is 25 °C–29 °C [ 21 ]. In the Guinean-Congolese zone (southern Benin), the land cover types is mainly fallow land and agricultural fields, due to the high human population density [ 27 ].…”

“…Despite increasing efforts to document the importance of the species for the locals' communities and the threats that lead to its decline, scientific knowledge on its geographical distribution and dynamics in different climatic zones in West African countries is limited. Identifying the current and future potential distribution areas and assessing the factors underlying the geographical distribution is an important task [ 21 , 22 ]. In order to predict the dynamics of the geographic distribution of species in the context of climate change, species range modeling (SRM) is applied [ 23 ].…”

Mopane (Colophospermum mopane): A potential winner under climate change in southern Africa

“…Expansion of suitable habitat of mopane under climate change is consistent with other results of species adapted to drought conditions, such as Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra (Jinga et al, 2022), Abies alba , Fagus sylvatica , Fraxinus excelsior , Quercus robur , Quercus petraea (Dyderski et al, 2018), Adansonia digitata (Assogba et al, 2022) and Boswellia dalzielli (Esser & Weldemariam, 2023). Withstanding climate change has been attributed to evolutionary drought tolerance characteristics of the species.…”