Libya

África

232

Documented species

Parks and reserves

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Libya is more than ninety per cent desert, with dune ergs, stony plateaux and depressions where fossil springs come to the surface. The habitable strip is reduced to the Mediterranean coast and two mountain areas: the Jebel Nafusa, to the west, and above all the Jebel Akhdar of Cyrenaica, the Green Mountain, a limestone step that catches the sea moisture and keeps the densest Mediterranean woodland in the country, with junipers, carobs and cypresses. In the Fezzan, the Ubari lakes dot the dunes with hypersaline water where only extremophile crustaceans and algae thrive, and the crater of Waw an Namus rings a volcano of dark lagoons. The Libyan coast, little built up, keeps extensive sandy beaches and salt wetlands that draw flamingos and waders on migration.

The nature of Libya

National animal: No official national animal; the falcon and the dromedary are the traditional faunal symbols

Did you know?

The Libyan coast, barely transformed by tourism, concentrates a very high share of all the loggerhead turtle nesting in the Mediterranean. Its beaches were not systematically surveyed until the mid-2000s, and the counts then revealed thousands of nests a year spread along deserted stretches of coast, which turned the country into a key piece in the species' survival across the basin.

Biodiversity profile

Norte de AfricaEl ecoregion Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat, compartida con 3 paises vecinos, cuenta con apenas 245 km2 protegidos (menos del 1% de su superficie total)

Climate

•Mediterraneo (Csa) en la estrecha franja costera
•Desertico (BWh), dominante en mas del 90% del territorio (Sahara libio)

Main biomes

•Matorral mediterraneo costero (franja norte, muy reducida)
•Desierto sahariano (bioma dominante, incluye el macizo montañoso de Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat en el sureste, compartido con Chad, Egipto y Sudan)
•Erg y hamada sahariana
•Bosque mediterráneo de montaña
•Lago hipersalino interior
•Oasis de manantial fósil
•Playa de puesta de tortugas
•Sebja o depresión salina
•Cráter volcánico

Marine and coastal ecosystems

•Costa mediterranea con escasos humedales costeros remanentes

Flagship wildlife

•Gacela dorcas
•Fenec o zorro del desierto
•Muflon de Berberia
•Aves rapaces del desierto
•Tortuga boba
•Zorro del desierto
•Guepardo sahariano
•Adax
•Hiena rayada
•Flamenco común
•Halcón peregrino
•Chacal dorado
•Muflón del Atlas

Notable endemic species

•Libia registra el menor numero de especies vegetales superiores del Norte de Africa (1.875 especies), reflejo de su extrema aridez
•El macizo de Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat, compartido con Chad, Egipto y Sudan, es un refugio montañoso de biodiversidad dentro del Sahara oriental

Notable threatened species

•Especies saharianas de amplia distribucion regional (gacela dorcas, muflon de Berberia) en declive por caza furtiva y perdida de habitat en oasis

Notable protected areas

•Taizerbo (area protegida sahariana)
•Parque Nacional del Yebel Ajdar
•Parque Nacional de Kouf
•Lagos de Ubari
•Waw an Namus
•Acacus
•Golfo de Sirte

Main conservation threats

•Sobreexplotacion de agua en oasis (unicas zonas de concentracion de biodiversidad en el desierto)
•Escasez extrema de estudios cientificos y de gestion de areas protegidas, agravada por la inestabilidad politica del pais
•Caza furtiva de fauna sahariana

Conservation

Political instability has left much of the protected area network without effective management, although paradoxically it has slowed the building-up of the coast. Saharan antelopes have almost completely disappeared through motorised hunting.

Where and when to watch wildlife

The coast of Sirte and Cyrenaica between June and August for loggerhead turtle nesting. The Jebel Akhdar in spring for woodland birds and Mediterranean flora. The Fezzan in winter for Saharan wildlife.

La informacion cuantitativa de biodiversidad de Libia es de las mas limitadas del Norte de Africa en las fuentes internacionales consultadas, en parte por la inestabilidad politica reciente del pais.

Sources: Biology Online - Northern Africa and biodiversity | Wikipedia - Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat montane xeric woodlands | One Earth - East Sahara Desert

Desert Mountain Freshwater