Geography of Guinea-Bissau

A map of Guinea Bissau.

This article describes the geography of Guinea-Bissau.

Terrain and ecology

Guinea-Bissau's topography.

The terrain of Guinea-Bissau is mostly low coastal plain with swamps of Guinean mangroves rising to Guinean forest-savanna mosaic in the east.^[1]

The lowest point on Guinea-Bissau is at sea level at the Atlantic Ocean.^[1] The highest point on Guinea-Bissau is 300 metres above sea level at an unnamed location in the northeast corner of the country.^[1]

Natural resources found in Guinea-Bissau include fish, timber, phosphates, bauxite, clay, granite, limestone and unexploited deposits of petroleum.^[1] 8.31% of the land is arable and 250 square kilometres is irrigated.^[1]

Natural hazards include a hot, dry, dusty harmattan haze that may reduce visibility during the dry season and brush fires.^[1] Severe environmental issues include deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing and overfishing.^[1]

Near the Senegal border there have been historic sightings of the Painted Hunting Dog, Lycaon pictus, but that endangered canid may now be extirpated in that locale.^[2]

Climate

Guinea-Bissau's climate is tropical. This means it is generally hot and humid. It has a monsoonal-type rainy season (June to November) with southwesterly winds and a dry season (December to May) with northeasterly harmattan winds.^[1]

Guinea-Bissau is warm all year around and there is little temperature fluctuation; it averages 26.3 °C (79.3 °F). The average rainfall for the capital city Bissau is 2,024 millimetres (79.7 in) although this is almost entirely accounted for during the rainy season which falls between June and September/October. From December through April, the country experiences drought.

Bissagos Islands

Information from the CIA World Factbook

Typical scenery in Guinea-Bissau.

Location

Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea and Senegal

Geographic coordinates

Map references

Area

• Total: 36,120 km²
• Land: 28,000 km²
• Water: 8,120 km²

Area—comparative

Slightly less than three times the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries

• Total: 724 km
• Border countries: Guinea 386 km, Senegal 338 km

Coastline

350 km

Maritime claims

• Exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi)
• Territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi)

Terrain

Mostly low coastal plain rising to savanna in east

Elevation extremes

• Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
• Highest point: Unnamed location in the northeast corner of the country 300 m

Natural resources

Fish, timber, phosphates, bauxite, unexploited deposits of petroleum

Land use

• Arable land: 11%
• Permanent crops: 1%
• Permanent pastures: 38%
• Forests and woodland: 38%
• Other: 12% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land

17 km² (1993 est.)

Natural hazards

Hot, dry, dusty harmattan haze may reduce visibility during dry season; brush fires

Environment—current issues

Deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; overfishing

Environment—international agreements

• Party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Wetlands
• Signed, but not ratified: None of the selected agreements [1]

Extreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of Guinea-Bissau, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

• Northernmost point – the northern section of the border with Senegal*
• Easternmost point – unnamed location on the border with Guinea immediately south-west of the Guinean village of Sofan, Gabú Region
• Southernmost point – unnamed headland on Ilha Cataque, Tombali Region
• Westernmost point - Cap Roxo at the point where the border with Senegal enters the Atlantic Ocean, Cacheu Region

• *Note: Guinea-Bissau does not have a northern-most point, the border here being formed by a straight horizontal line

See also

• Guinea-Bissau

Line notes

References

• C. Michael Hogan. 2009. , GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. StrombergPainted Hunting Dog: Lycaon pictus
• U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. [3]