Constitution Day The Republic of Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands, officially Republic of the Marshall Islands, Marshallese Majōl, country in the central Pacific Ocean. It consists of some of the easternmost islands of Micronesia. The Marshalls are composed of more than 1,200 islands and islets in two parallel chains of coral atolls—the Ratak, or Sunrise, to the east and the Ralik, or Sunset, to the west. The chains lie about 125 miles (200 km) apart and extend some 800 miles northwest to southeast. Majuro atoll is the nominal capital of the republic. Government offices are located in the town of Delap-Uliga-Djarrit, named for three islands that were once separated but were later joined by landfill. The Marshalls were administered by the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from 1947 to 1986, when the Trust Territory was dissolved by the U.S. government. Land None of the 29 low-lying coral atolls and the five coral islands in the Marshall group rises to more than 20 feet (six metres) above high tide. The islands are coral caps set on the rims of submerged volcanoes rising from the ocean floor. The island units of the Marshalls are scattered over about 180,000 square miles of the Pacific. The largest atoll in the group and in the world is Kwajalein, which has a land area of only six square miles but surrounds a 655-square-mile lagoon. The Marshall Islands’ nearest neighbours are Wake Island (north), Kiribati and Nauru (south), and the Federated States of Micronesia (west). The climate is tropical, with a mean annual temperature for the entire group of 82 °F (28 °C). Annual precipitation varies from 20 to 30 inches (500 to 800 mm) in the north to 160 inches in the southern atolls. The wettest months are October and November. Several of the northern atolls are uninhabited owing to insufficient rainfall. Most of the Marshall Islands are true atolls, consisting of an irregular, oval-shaped coral reef surrounding a lagoon; the islets lie along the coral reef. The islands and islets of the Ratak chain tend to be more heavily wooded than those of the Ralik. Coconut and pandanus palms and breadfruit trees are the principal vegetation. Soils are generally sandy and low in fertility. People The native people of the Marshalls, the Marshallese, are Micronesians. The most populous atolls are Majuro and Kwajalein, which offers employment at the U.S. missile testing range; together they have almost three-fourths of the country’s total population. The rest of the population lives in traditional villages on the outer islands away from the two urban centres. American missionaries arrived in the Marshalls in the 1850s, introducing Christianity to the population. Today the Marshallese are predominantly Christian. The Marshallese and English languages are spoken, but only a minority are fluent in the latter. Economy The republic’s main sources of revenue are substantial U.S. subsidies under a Compact of Free Association and the leasing of land for the U.S. missile testing range on Kwajalein. Employment and modern amenities at both Majuro and Kwajalein serve as magnets that draw people to the two urban centres. On the outer islands, subsistence farming, fishing, and the raising of pigs and poultry are the principal economic activities. Coconut, pandanus, breadfruit, and taro are the major food crops. The production of copra is the chief source of income for the outer islands. The principal import is processed foods. Other major imports include machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, and fuels, primarily from the United States, Japan, and Australia. Transportation among the atolls and islands is by boat or air. Government-owned ships make scheduled trips among the islands. Several commercial cargo lines also serve the islands. Majuro has a commercial dock complex, and many of the atolls have good anchorage within their lagoons. Majuro and Kwajalein have international airports, and domestic and regional flights link some of the other atolls and islands. Government and society Under the constitution adopted in 1979, the government consists of a president elected by a unicameral, 33-member parliament known as the Nitijela. The Council of Iroij (Chiefs) has mainly a consultative function, concerned with traditional laws and customs. Hospitals on Majuro and Ebeye (part of Kwajalein Atoll) and dispensaries on other islands provide health care. There are primary schools, both public and church-run, on the inhabited islands and islets. Majuro and Jaluit atolls each have a public secondary school. Majuro is also the site of the College of the Marshall Islands (1993), which grants certificates and associate degrees in a variety of programs. …. History of the Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands were settled initially around the beginning of the Christian era by Micronesians who may have been influenced by early Polynesian (Lapita) culture. Radiocarbon dates from earth-oven charcoal samples that were excavated in Laura village on Majuro yielded dates of about 30 bce and 50 ce. The early Marshall Islanders were skilled navigators and made long canoe voyages among the atolls. Sighted in 1529 by the Spanish navigator Álvaro Saavedra, the Marshalls lacked the wealth to encourage exploitation or mapping. The British captain Samuel Wallis chanced upon Rongerik and Rongelap atolls while sailing from Tahiti to Tinian. The British naval captains John Marshall and Thomas Gilbert partially explored the Marshalls in 1788, but much of the mapping was done by Russian expeditions under Adam Johann Krusenstern (1803) and Otto von Kotzebue (1815 and 1823). U.S. whalers frequented the islands from the 1820s, and U.S. and Hawaiian Protestant missionaries began efforts to convert the islanders in the 1850s. Germany established a coaling station on Jaluit Atoll by treaty with island chiefs and in 1886, by agreement with Great Britain, established a protectorate over the Marshalls. Japan seized the islands in 1914 and later (after 1919) administered them as a League of Nations mandate. Occupied by the United States in World War II, following heavy fighting at Kwajalein and Enewetak, the Marshall Islands were made part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under jurisdiction of the United States in 1947. After their populations were removed to other atolls, Bikini and Enewetak served as an official testing ground for U.S. nuclear bombs (1946–58). The tests stopped in 1958 and cleanup efforts began in the late 1960s. During the trial resettlement of the Bikinians, however, their atoll was found to be too contaminated for permanent habitation, and by the late 1970s the people had to be evacuated once again. The Enewetak people were returned to their homeland, and a program to monitor Bikini was put in place. After voting to separate from the other entities of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, in 1978, the Marshall Islands drew up a constitution that voters approved in 1979. It formed the republic and brought internal self-government. In 1982 the government signed the Compact of Free Association with the United States. This agreement, approved by the voters in 1983, requires that the United States remain responsible for defense and external security and that it provide financial assistance for the republic. The compact entitles the United States to use the missile testing range on Kwajalein Atoll, and provides for the republic to become fully independent and to alter its status with the United States at any time, subject to approval of the residents through plebiscites. In 1983 the islanders reopened negotiations on the compact’s provision regarding compensation for the people of the four atolls affected by the U.S. nuclear tests. The United States agreed to set up a separate fund for the people of the four atolls and established an open-ended fund to cover personal injury claims among the islanders; it also agreed to set up a joint U.S.-Marshallese claims tribunal. A further agreement set up a fund to improve living conditions on Ebeye island, where all Micronesians working on the Kwajalein missile range and base resided. The Trust Territory was dissolved in 1990 with the approval of the UN Security Council, and on September 17, 1991, the Marshall Islands became a member of the UN. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Marshall-Islands/History

2024/05/01

Doing Business in Togo

Togo is firmly committed to promoting economic growth and attracting foreign investment. Among the measures undertaken, there are : The creation of a One Stop ..

2024/04/29

Welcome to the Netherlands.

Welcome to the Netherlands. Holland.com is the official website for the Netherlands as a tourist destination. The website is managed by the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions. Read ...

2024/04/29

Sierra Leone Sierraously Surprissing

Sierra Leone operates visa on arrival policy. Visitors do not need to apply for a travel visa beforehand, just jet in and you obtain visa. Be ready for the modes of transportations: Air, Land and Sea. Sierra Leone is a beautiful country surrounded with hills, valleys, bars, and lagoons, harmonious and enriched cultural fusion which brings you closer to everyday life, with a glimpse of natural hopes, as a variety of birds chirps signal of leisure and the friendly chimpanzees hoot your welcome.

2024/04/29

South African Tourism (GL)

Discover the organisation that helps to promote South Africa as a world-class tourism destination.

2024/04/29

Tanzania Tourist Board

Tanzania is waiting for you to explore it, in your own way. · Places · Kilimanjaro Golf and Wildlife Estate · Destinations · Tours Operators · Tours Packages.

2024/04/28

Togolese Republic Independence Day

Togo, country of western Africa. Lomé, the capital, is situated in the southwest of the country and is the largest city and port. Until 1884 what is now Togo was an intermediate zone between the states of Asante and Dahomey, and its various ethnic groups lived in general isolation from each other. In 1884 it became part of the Togoland German protectorate, which was occupied by British and French forces in 1914. In 1922 the League of Nations assigned eastern Togoland to France and the western portion to Britain. In 1946 the British and French governments placed the territories under United Nations trusteeship (see Trusteeship Council). Ten years later British Togoland was incorporated into the Gold Coast, and French Togoland became an autonomous republic within the French Union. Togo gained independence in 1960. The economy rests largely on agriculture, although the country’s extensive phosphate reserves are also significant. Land From its 32-mile (51-km) coastline on the Gulf of Guinea, Togo extends northward for about 320 miles (515 km) between Ghana to the west and Benin to the east to its boundary with Burkina Faso in the north. Relief, drainage, and soils Togo consists of six geographic regions. The low-lying, sandy beaches of the narrow coastal region are backed by tidal flats and shallow lagoons, the largest of which is Lake Togo. Beyond the coast lies the Ouatchi Plateau, which stretches about 20 miles (32 km) inland at an elevation of some 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90 metres). This is the region of the so-called terre de barre, a lateritic (reddish, leached, iron-bearing) soil. Northeast of the plateau is a tableland, the highest elevations reaching 1,300 to 1,500 feet (400 to 460 metres). This region is drained by the Mono River and its tributaries, including the Ogou, and other smaller rivers. West and southwest of the tableland the terrain gradually rises toward the Togo Mountains, also known as the Togo-Atakora Mountains, which run across central Togo from the south-southwest to the north-northeast. Part of a chain that begins in the Akwapim Hills of Ghana (see Akwapim-Togo ranges), the range ends in Benin, where it is known as the Atakora Mountains. Mount Agou (Baumann Peak), which rises to about 3,235 feet (986 metres), is the highest mountain in Togo. Beyond the Togo Mountains to the north lies the Oti River sandstone plateau. This is a savanna region drained by the Oti River, one of the main tributaries of the Volta. To the far northwest is a higher region of granite and gneiss; the cliffs of Dapaong (Dapango) are located in this region. Climate Togo has a tropical climate. In the south the rainy seasons occur from mid-April through June and from mid-September through October. The narrow coastal zone, which receives about 35 inches (890 mm) of precipitation annually, is the driest region. The area near Palimé, about 65 miles (100 km) inland, receives the highest amount of precipitation—about 70 inches (1,800 mm) annually. The north has only one rainy season, when precipitation averages about 45 inches (1,150 mm), mostly falling from June to the end of September; during the rest of the year the warm, dry harmattan (a dust-laden wind) predominates. Mean annual temperatures vary from the high 70s F (mid-20s C) along the coast and in the mountains to the low 80s F (high 20s C) on the northern plateau. Daily minimum temperatures reaching the high 60s F (low 20s C) are recorded in the mountains in August. Daily maxima in the low 100s F (high 30s C) occur in the north during March and April at the end of the long dry season. Plant and animal life Savanna-type vegetation is predominant in Togo. On the southern plateaus large trees, including the baobab, are common, but they are rare in the north. The southwestern highland regions are covered with tropical forests, also found along the river valleys. The coastal zone is dotted with mangrove and reed swamps. Wild animals are not found in great numbers, especially in the southern and central regions. A few lions, leopards, and elephants can be seen in the north. Monkeys, snakes, and lizards are numerous in many areas, and crocodiles and hippopotamuses abound in the rivers. In the Keran Forest Reserve near Sansanné-Mango in the north, there are wild herds of buffalo, asses, warthogs, antelope, and deer. Numerous species of birds and insects are found in the country. Fish caught off the coast include mackerel, bass, seabream, red snapper, triggerfish, dorado, ray, and sole, while crustaceans include shrimp and lobster. People Ethnic groups and languages The population of Togo is made up of about 30 ethnic groups, many of whom are immigrants from other parts of western Africa. The groups indigenous to Togo live in the north and southwest. The northern groups include the following Gur-speaking peoples: the Gurma; the Natimba, Dye, and Konkomba; the Tamberma; the Basari; the Moba; the Losso (Naudem); the Kabre and Logba; and the Lamba (Namba); a small number of Atlantic-speaking Fulani; and the Kebu (Akebu). In the southwest the indigenous Kwa peoples also belonging to the central Togo group are the Kposo (Akposso), the Adele, and the Ahlo. The Ewe, who emigrated from Nigeria between the 14th and 16th century, form the major ethnic group. There are also some scattered Yoruba, mainly Ana. Groups who emigrated from present-day Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire since the 17th century include the Mina (Ga and Ané), the Ga-Dangme, the Kpelle and the Anyama, the Chakosi, and the Dagomba. The northern groups—the Kotokoli (or Temba), Gurma, and Mossi—entered mainly from Burkina Faso.Most of the country’s non-Africans—the majority of whom are French—live in Lomé. Brazilians, or Portuguese of Brazilian birth, constituted the original trading settlement in Togo, and today African-Brazilians are closely associated with economic and political development. The official language is French, although it is not widely spoken outside of business and government. Widely spoken indigenous languages belong to the Niger-Congo language family and include Ewe in the south and Kabiye in the north. More …. Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Togo

2024/04/27

King's Day Kingdom of the Netherlands

Netherlands, country located in northwestern Europe, also known as Holland. “Netherlands” means low-lying country; the name Holland (from Houtland, or “Wooded Land”) was originally given to one of the medieval cores of what later became the modern state and is still used for 2 of its 12 provinces (Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland). A parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, the kingdom includes its former colonies in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government The Hague. The country is indeed low-lying and remarkably flat, with large expanses of lakes, rivers, and canals. Some 2,500 square miles (6,500 square km) of the Netherlands consist of reclaimed land, the result of a process of careful water management dating back to medieval times. Along the coasts, land was reclaimed from the sea, and, in the interior, lakes and marshes were drained, especially alongside the many rivers. All this new land was turned into polders, usually surrounded by dikes. Initially, man power and horsepower were used to drain the land, but they were later replaced by windmills, such as the mill network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The largest water-control schemes were carried out in the second half of the 19th century and in the 20th century, when steam pumps and, later, electric or diesel pumps came into use.Despite government-encouraged emigration after World War II, which prompted some 500,000 persons to leave the country, the Netherlands is today one of the world’s most densely populated countries. Although the population as a whole is “graying” rapidly, with a high percentage over age 65, Amsterdam has remained one of the liveliest centres of international youth culture. There, perhaps more than anywhere else in the country, the Dutch tradition of social tolerance is readily encountered. Prostitution, “soft-drug” (marijuana and hashish) use, and euthanasia are all legal but carefully regulated in the Netherlands, which was also the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. This relative independence of outlook was evident as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Dutch rejected monarchical controls and took a relatively enlightened view of other cultures, especially when they brought wealth and capital to the country’s trading centres. In that period Dutch merchant ships sailed the world and helped lay the foundations of a great trading country characterized by a vigorous spirit of enterprise. In later centuries, the Netherlands continued to have one of the most advanced economies in the world, despite the country’s modest size. The Dutch economy is open and generally internationalist in outlook. With Belgium and Luxembourg, the Netherlands is a member of the Benelux economic union, which in the 1950s and 1960s served as a model for the larger European Economic Community (EEC; now embedded in the European Union [EU]), of which the Benelux countries are members. The Netherlands is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and it plays host to a number of international organizations, especially in the legal sector, such as the International Court of Justice. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now The Dutch reputation for tolerance was tested in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, when an increase in immigration from non-European Union countries and a populist turn in politics resulted in growing nationalism and even xenophobia, marked by two race-related political assassinations, in 2002 and 2004, and the government’s requirement that immigrants pass an expensive ‘‘integration’’ test before they enter the country. Land Relief The Netherlands is bounded by the North Sea to the north and west, Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south. If the Netherlands were to lose the protection of its dunes and dikes, the most densely populated part of the country would be inundated (largely by the sea but also in part by the rivers). This highly developed part of the Netherlands, which generally does not lie higher than about three feet (one metre) above sea level, covers more than half the total area of the country. About half of this area (more than one-fourth of the total area of the country) actually lies below sea level. The lower area consists mainly of polders, where the landscape not only lies at a very low elevation but is also very flat in appearance. On such land, building is possible only on “rafts,” or after concrete piles, sometimes as long as 65 feet (20 metres), have been driven into the silt layer. In the other, higher area, the layers of sand and gravel in the eastern part of the country were pushed sideways and upward in some places by ice tongues of the Saale Glacial Stage, forming elongated ridges that may reach a height of more than 330 feet (100 metres) and are the principal feature of the Hoge Park Veluwe National Park. The only part of the country where elevations exceed 350 feet (105 metres) is the border zone of the Ardennes. The Netherlands’ highest point, the Vaalserberg, in the extreme southeastern corner, rises to 1,053 feet (321 metres). Drainage and dikes The Zuiderzee was originally an estuary of the Rhine River. By natural action it then became a shallow inland sea, biting deep into the land, and eventually it was hollowed into an almost circular shape by the action of winds and tides. In 1920 work was begun on the Zuiderzee project, of which the IJsselmeer Dam (Afsluitdijk), begun in 1927, was a part. This 19-mile- (30-km-) long dam was completed in 1932 to finally seal off the Zuiderzee from the Waddenzee and the North Sea. In the IJsselmeer, or IJssel Lake, formed from the southern part of the Zuiderzee, four large polders, the IJsselmeer Polders, with a total area of about 650 square miles (1,700 square km), were constructed around a freshwater basin fed by the IJssel and other rivers and linked with the sea by sluices and locks in the barrier dam. The first two polders created there—Wieringermeer and North East (Noordoost) Polder, drained before and during World War II—are used mostly for agriculture. The two polders reclaimed in the 1950s and ’60s—South Flevoland Polder (Zuidelijk) and East Flevoland Polder (Oostelijk)—are used for residential, industrial, and recreational purposes. Among the cities that have developed there are Lelystad and Almere.In the southwest, the disastrous gales and spring tide of February 1, 1953, which flooded some 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares) of land and killed 1,800 people, accelerated the implementation of the Delta Project, which aimed to close off most of the sea inlets of the southwestern delta. These delta works were designed to shorten the coastline by 450 miles (725 km), combat the salination of the soil, and allow the development of the area through roads that were constructed over 10 dams and 2 bridges built between 1960 and 1987. The largest of these dams, crossing the five-mile- (eight-km-) wide Eastern Schelde (Oosterschelde) estuary, has been built in the form of a storm-surge barrier incorporating dozens of openings that can be closed in the event of flood. The barrier is normally open, allowing salt water to enter the estuary and about three-fourths of the tidal movement to be maintained, limiting damage to the natural environment in the Eastern Schelde. In the interest of the commerce of the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, no dams were constructed in the New Waterway, which links Rotterdam to the North Sea, or the West Schelde, an approach to Antwerp, Belgium. The dikes along these waterways consequently had to be strengthened. A region with a very specific character has been formed by the great rivers—Rhine, Lek, Waal, and Maas (Meuse)—that flow from east to west through the central part of the country. The landscape in this area is characterized by high dikes along wide rivers, orchards along the levees formed by the rivers, and numerous large bridges over which pass the roads and railways that connect the central Netherlands with the southern provinces. More …. Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Netherlands

2024/04/27

Republic of Sierra Leone Independence Day

Sierra Leone, country of western Africa. The country owes its name to the 15th-century Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, the first European to sight and map Freetown harbour. The original Portuguese name, Serra Lyoa (“Lion Mountains”), referred to the range of hills that surrounds the harbour. The capital, Freetown, commands one of the world’s largest natural harbours. Although most of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture, Sierra Leone is also a mining centre. Its land yields diamonds, gold, bauxite, and rutile (titanium dioxide). Internal conflict crippled the country from the late 1980s onward, culminating in a brutal civil war that took place from 1991 to 2002. Since the end of the war, the government of Sierra Leone has undergone the arduous task of rebuilding the country’s physical and social infrastructure while fostering reconciliation. Relief Sierra Leone is bordered on the north and east by Guinea, on the south by Liberia, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. The country can be divided into four distinct physical regions: the coastal swamp, the Sierra Leone Peninsula, the interior plains, and the interior plateau and mountain region. The coastal swamp region extends along the Atlantic for about 200 miles (320 km). It is a flat, low-lying, and frequently flooded plain that is between 5 and 25 miles (8 and 40 km) wide and is composed mainly of sands and clays. Its numerous creeks and estuaries contain mangrove swamps. Sandbars, generally separated by silting lagoons, sometimes form the actual coast. The Sierra Leone Peninsula, which is the site of Freetown, is a region of thickly wooded mountains that run parallel to the sea for about 25 miles (40 km). The Peninsula Mountains rise from the coastal swamps and reach some 2,900 feet (880 metres) at Picket Hill. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Inland from the coastal plain is the interior plains region. In the north it comprises featureless seasonal swamps known as “Bolilands” (boli being a Temne word for those lands that are flooded in the rainy season and dry and hard in the dry season and on which only grass can grow). In the south the plains comprise rolling wooded country where isolated hills rise abruptly to more than 1,000 feet (300 metres). The interior contains a variety of landforms ranging from savanna-covered low plains to rocky scarp and hill country. The interior plateau and mountain region, encompassing roughly the eastern half of the country, is composed mainly of granite with a thick laterite (iron-bearing) crust; to the west it is bounded by a narrow outcrop of mineral-bearing metamorphic rocks known as the Kambui Schists. Rising above the plateau are a number of mountain masses; in the northeast the Loma Mountains are crowned by Mount Loma Mansa (Mount Bintimani) at 6,391 feet (1,948 metres), and the Tingi Mountains rise to 6,080 feet (1,853 metres) at Sankanbiriwa Peak. Numerous narrow inland valley swamps associated with the river systems occur in this region. Drainage The country’s drainage pattern is dense. Numerous rivers rise in the well-watered Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea and flow in a general northeast-to-southwest direction across Sierra Leone. Their middle courses are interrupted by rapids that restrict navigability to only a short distance inland. River levels show considerable seasonal fluctuations. The drainage system has nine major rivers and a series of minor coastal creeks and tidal streams. From north to south the principal rivers are the Great Scarcies (also called the Kolenté), Little Scarcies, Rokel (also called the Seli; known in its lower course where it meets the Atlantic as the Sierra Leone River), Gbangbaia, Jong, Sewa, Waanje, Moa, and Mano. The Great Scarcies, Moa, and Meli (one of the Moa’s tributaries) form portions of the border with Guinea, while the Mano forms much of the country’s frontier with Liberia. The river basins range in size from 5,460 square miles (14,140 square km) for the Sewa to less than 385 square miles (1,000 square km) for the smaller basins. Soils In most areas the dominant soils are of the weathered and leached lateritic type. Red to yellow-brown in colour, they contain oxides of iron and aluminum and are acid. Kaolin (china) clays are important in some areas; when cultivated, they are light, readily workable, and free-draining, with productivity that depends largely on the nutrients provided by the vegetation previously cleared and burned. In the coastal plains, lateritic soils that have developed on sandy deposits are agriculturally poor, but those derived from basic igneous rocks are somewhat better. Swamp soils occur over large areas on the coastal plains where drainage is a problem. In coastal and estuarine areas where mangrove is the natural vegetation, productive soils can be acquired by clearance, but careful water control is sometimes needed to prevent toxicity. At the foot of the main escarpment, on the Sula Mountain plateau, and elsewhere an iron-rich laterite crust forms a surface that is intractable for agricultural production. Climate The climate is tropical and is characterized by the alternation of rainy and dry seasons. Conditions are generally hot and humid. Mean monthly temperatures range from the upper 70s F (mid-20s C) to the low 80s F (upper 20s C) in low-lying coastal areas; inland they may range from the low to mid-70s F (low 20s C) to the low 80s F. In the northeast, where extremes of temperature are greater, mean daily minimums fall to the mid-50s F (low to mid-10s C) in January, and mean daily maximums rise to the low 90s F (low 30s C) in March. During the rainy season, from May to October, humid air masses from the Atlantic dominate. The sky is cloudy, the winds are southwesterly, sunshine is minimal, and rain falls almost daily, especially during July and August. Precipitation is greater on the coast than inland; the Peninsula Mountains receive more than 200 inches (5,000 mm) annually, while the northeast receives about 80 inches (2,000 mm) a year. The dry season, from November to April, is characterized by the harmattan, a hot, dry wind that blows from the Sahara. The rainy season tends to have cooler daily maximum temperatures than the dry season by about 10 °F (6 °C). The relative humidity, however, may be as high as 90 percent for considerable periods, particularly during the wettest months, from July to September. Plant and animal life The distribution of plants and animals has been influenced by such factors as relief and soil types and, perhaps more important, by farming methods and civil strife. Remnants of the extensive original forest cover survive in the Gola Forest Reserves, in the southeastern hill country near the Liberian border. Secondary forest is now dominant; valuable timber species including African mahogany and African teak, once common in the original forests, are now rare. The secondary forest consists of other tree species such as the fire-resistant palm tree, a valuable source of palm oil and kernels. The prevalence of savanna vegetation increases to the north as precipitation decreases. The savannas owe their present extent and character largely to the erosion produced by farming, grazing, and the use of fire. There are some small areas of climax savanna—a closed area of broad-leaved, low-growing trees and tall tussocky grasses. Other savannas are derived from forest and are characterized by fire-resistant savanna trees with tall grasses. Tracts of tallgrass savanna also occur. Remnants of mangrove swamps constitute the main coastal vegetation community, especially in the saline tidal areas of river estuaries. Piassava, a kind of raffia palm, is common in the swampy grasslands of the south. Unrestricted hunting during Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991–2002) adversely affected much of the country’s wildlife. Large game animals, such as elephants, leopards, lions, hyenas, and buffalo, are rarely seen outside of national parks or reserves. Chimpanzees and various species of monkeys are common in the forest zones, while other animals, such as antelope and bushpigs, are more generally distributed. There is a wide variety of insects, including the malaria-carrying mosquito and the tsetse fly. Hippopotamuses, crocodiles, and manatees occupy the rivers, including such rare species as the pygmy hippopotamus and the dwarf crocodile. The coastal waters, estuaries, and rivers, such as the Sierra Leone and the Sherbro, contain a wide variety of fish and shellfish, such as tuna, barracuda, bonga (shad), snapper, herring, mackerel, and lobster. Sierra Leone’s rich birdlife, which emerged relatively unscathed from the years of conflict, includes emerald cuckoos, owls, little African swift, vultures, and many other species. Several parks, sanctuaries, and reserves have been established to protect Sierra Leone’s wildlife, including Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary and the Gola Forest Reserves in the south and Outamba-Kilimi National Park in the north. Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, located near Freetown, was established to rescue and rehabilitate abandoned or orphaned chimpanzees. More …. Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sierra-Leone

2024/04/27