East African Coastal Forests (AT7) East African Coastal Forests (AT7) East African Coastal Forests (AT7) East African Coastal Forests (AT7)

Image credits: (1) Courtesy of Aleph500Adam (2) Courtesy of Adrian Arbib (3) Courtesy of Axel Bohnstedt (4) Courtesy of Fanny Schertzer

East African Coastal Forests bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The protection goal is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.

  • 35,825
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 7
    Number of Ecoregions
  • 23%
    Protection Target
  • 7
    Protection Level

The East African Coastal bioregion, located in the Afrotropical realm, extends in a narrow band nearly the entire length of Africa’s eastern coast. It consists of tropical and subtropical moist forests including seven ecoregions – Northern Swahili Coastal Forests [1], East African Mangroves [2], Southern Swahili Coastal Forests and Woodlands [3], Zambezian Coastal Flooded Savanna [4], Maputaland Coastal Forests and Woodlands [5], Southern Africa Mangroves [6], Kwazulu Natal-Cape Coastal Forests [7]. The coastline is considered a biodiversity hotspot with 11,000 species of plants and animals, including 1000 species of seaweed, 3000 species of mollusks, and 1500 species of fish. The total land area of the bioregion is nearly 36 million hectares.

The East African Coastal Forests bioregion is part of the Madagascar & Eastern Afrotropics subrealm and is made up of seven ecoregions: Northern Swahili Coastal Forests [1], East African Mangroves [2], Southern Swahili Coastal Forests and Woodlands [3], Zambezian Coastal Flooded Savanna [4], Maputaland Coastal Forests and Woodlands [5], Southern Africa Mangroves [6], Kwazulu Natal-Cape Coastal Forests [7].

Learn more about each of the ​East African Coastal Forests ecoregions and explore the climate solution projects located in this bioregion below.

Pemba flying fox

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Explore the Global Safety Net

The Global Safety Net (GSN) is the first global-scale analysis of land areas requiring protection to solve the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, upholding and strengthening Indigenous land rights.

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