Country Comments

Mongabay reports Guinea-Bissau has extensive natural resources including coastal mangrove swamps, rich tropical forests, and unexploited petroleum fields. More than 70 percent of the country is forested—more than 45 percent of which is primary forest. About 1,000 plants species are known to exist in Guinea-Bissau. The country is also home to 108 species of mammals, 459 species of birds, and 110 types of freshwater fish.

There is concern about increasing development, especially in a new era of relative political stability. In particular, coastal mangrove swamps—some of the most important in Africa—are giving way to rice fields and hydroelectric projects. Slash-and-burn agriculture, coal production, fires, fuelwood cutting, and logging for timber have resulted in forest loss and subjected Guinea-Bissau to serious soil degradation and erosion in some areas. Hunting and poaching threaten wildlife in virtually all areas.

The country is currently sustainable and could double its population level and not overshoot its carrying capacity, but with a fertility rate averaging 4 ½ children per mother and population increasing at a pace of adding almost 50,000 more citizens a year it will approach a level of unsustainability within about three decades.