The Angolan Scarp savanna and woodlands is an ecoregion located on the coast of Angola, an area with a variety of habitats and rich in wildlife including many endemic birds and animals.
Geography
This ecoregion consists of the strip of land that runs along the coast of Angola and the steep west-facing ridge that rises from the Atlantic coast to Angola's large central plateau, to a height of about 1000m.[2]
The ecoregion contains Angola's capital Luanda, a city that has grown to more than 3.5 million people.
Climate
This coast has a tropical climate with summer rains and high humidity all year round.
This diverse ecoregion can be divided into three different areas according to their type of habitat. North of the Cuanza River is a forest of tall trees surrounded by tall grasses, with areas of mangrove and swamp on riverbanks especially in the river estuaries.[2]
Finally, on the coastal strip and the low slopes of the escarpment south of the Cuanza there are dry woodlands and wooded grasslands. (See Central African mangroves for a description of the coastal swamps).[2]
This is a populous part of Angola and farming, logging and uncontrolled hunting are all affecting the forest habitats and the large mammals in particular are now rare. Until the 1970s the cloud forest area on the escarpment was used for planting coffee, which meant clearing the undergrowth, but coffee growing ceased during the Angolan Civil War and the undergrowth has renewed itself. The dry area to the south of the region has not been settled and much grassland remains. Some larger mammals have been protected in Quiçama National Park (Kissama), which is on the coast near the Cuanza River, but in general this area has been badly affected by the civil war and is poorly studied or protected.