IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. Sandy Beaches & Dunes of the Gulf of Guinea North

Kwasi Appeaning Addo, Selasi Y. Avornyo, Philip-Neri Jayson-Quashigah, Michael Kwame-Biney, Winnie N. A. Sowah, Lord Offei-Darko, Obed O. Okyere, Sean G. MCGregor

The sandy beaches and dunes of the Gulf of Guinea North is a regional ecosystem subgroup along the West African coast. It had a mapped extent of 256 km² in 2022, with a width ranging from of 0.01 km to 1.02 km, and stretches over approximately 2481 km. This ecosystem subgroup extends along the shores of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Guinea Bissau.
This province encompasses both tropical, and equatorial climates, but is characteristically humid, with relatively high precipitation. The ecosystem routinely experiences coastal hazards at varying scales, sometimes beyond its resilience threshold. Prominent among the hazards are erosion (-0.1 m/yr to -27.97 m/yr) and submergence with regional sea-level rise (SLR) rates of ≈ 4 mm/yr. This ecosystem is threatened by anthropogenic factors such as coastal infrastructure development & urbanisation, sand mining, upstream river management & damming, coastal land subsidence, and climate change driven SLR.
In 2022, the sandy beach and dune ecosystem covers approximately 15% less than in 1986. The ecosystem area will decrease a further 18% by 2072, should the current trend continue. Using a precautionary approach, the adoption of a very high SLR scenario (IPCC SSP5-8.5) indicated that about 17% of the ecosystem would be submerged by 2072. However, the inherent uncertainties in the landward delineation of the ecosystem, dune extents especially, and the Multi-Error Removed Improved Terrain Digital Elevation Model (MERIT DEM), may have resulted in the underestimation of the spatial distribution and the projected inundated extents respectively.
Overall, the status of the sandy beach and dune ecosystem of the Gulf of Guinea North is assessed as Least Concern (LC).