Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau is a low-lying country, cut about by estuaries and covered by one of the most extensive mangrove systems in West Africa. Its most singular feature is the Bijagós archipelago, eighty-eight islands and islets of sedimentary origin, most of them uninhabited, declared a biosphere reserve. Its shallows, palm groves and coastal forests sustain African manatees, crocodiles, otters and an extraordinary birdlife of migratory waders that winter there after crossing from Europe. On the mainland, the rainforests of Cantanhez keep western chimpanzees at the northern limit of their range, as well as colobus and Campbell's monkeys. The sandy beaches of the southern islands are green turtle nesting grounds of continental importance, and the waters of the archipelago hold dolphins and coastal sharks.