Geography of Togo

Land use

• Natural resources: phosphates, limestone, marble, arable land
• Land use:
  • arable land: 44.2%
  • permanent crops: 3.7%
  • other: 52.1% (2011)
• Irrigated land: 73 km² (2003)
• Total renewable water resources: 14.7 km²
• Natural hazards: hot, dry Harmattan wind can reduce visibility in north during winter; periodic droughts.

Physical geography

The country consists primarily of two savanna plains regions separated by a southwest–northeast range of hills (the Chaîne du Togo). In the north lies the Ouatchi Plateau. This plateau is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) wide and located at an altitude of 60 to 90 metres (197 to 295 ft) above sea level. Terre de Barre is another name for this region, in use because of the reddish leached soil which is rich in iron. This southern area of Togo has been categorised by the World Wildlife Fund as part of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion.

Northeast of the Ouatchi Plateau lies a tableland. At its highest this region is about 500 metres (1,640 ft) above sea level. The area is drained by the Mono River and its tributaries, including the Ogou River.

To the west and the southwest of the tableland lie the Togo Mountains. These mountains run across the central region of Togo, ranging from the southwest to the northeast. The mountain range reaches into Benin where it is known as the Atakora Mountains and Ghana where it is known as the Akwapim Hills. The highest mountain in Togo is Mount Agou with a height of 986 metres (3,235 ft).

North of the Togo Mountains lies a sandstone plateau through which the Oti River flows. The vegetation is characterized by savanna. The River Oti which drains the plateau is one of the main tributaries of the River Volta.

In the far northwest of Togo lies a higher region which is characterized by its rocks: granite and gneiss. The cliffs of Dapaong (Dapango) are located in this part of Togo.

Climate

Almost all of Togo has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). Average temperatures ranging from 27.5 °C (81.5 °F) on the coast to about 30 °C (86 °F) in the northernmost regions. There is a dry season between November and March dominated by the desert winds of the Harmattan, which bring less humid and less unpleasant weather. To the south there are two seasons of rain, the first between April and July and the second weaker rainy season between September and November. In this region rainfall is much lower than in the rest of southern West Africa due to divergent coast-parallel winds between mid-July and mid-September creating a short, foggy secondary dry season.

Environment

Current issues:

• deforestation attributable to slash-and-burn agriculture and the use of wood for fuel
• health hazards and impact on the fishing industry from water pollution
• air pollution increasing in urban areas

Togo is party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution (MARPOL 73/78), Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

Deforestation

Tree cover extent and loss

Global Forest Watch publishes annual estimates of tree cover loss and 2000 tree cover extent derived from time-series analysis of Landsat satellite imagery in the Global Forest Change dataset. In this framework, tree cover refers to vegetation taller than 5 m (including natural forests and tree plantations), and tree cover loss is defined as the complete removal of tree cover canopy for a given year, regardless of cause.

For Togo, country statistics report cumulative tree cover loss of 82,074 ha (820.74 km²) from 2001 to 2024 (about 14.9% of its 2000 tree cover area). For tree cover density greater than 30%, country statistics report a 2000 tree cover extent of 551,477 ha (5,514.77 km²). The charts and table below display this data. In simple terms, the annual loss number is the area where tree cover disappeared in that year, and the extent number shows what remains of the 2000 tree cover baseline after subtracting cumulative loss. Forest regrowth is not included in the dataset.

Annual tree cover loss in Togo, 2001–2024. View chart definition.Tree cover extent in 2000 minus cumulative tree cover loss in Togo, 2001–2024 (loss-only residual; does not account for gain). View chart definition.

REDD+ reference level and monitoring

Under the UNFCCC REDD+ framework, Togo has submitted a national forest reference level (FRL). On the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform, the country's 2020 submission is listed as having an assessed reference level, while a national strategy, safeguards information and a national forest monitoring system are all listed as "not reported".

The first assessed FRL, submitted in 2020 and technically assessed in 2022, covered two REDD+ activities at national scale: reducing emissions from deforestation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks through reforestation and afforestation. Using a 2003-2018 reference period, the original submission proposed 730,590 t CO2 per year, revised during the technical assessment to an assessed FRL of 729,520 t CO2 per year. The technical assessment states that the benchmark represented the annual average of net CO2 emissions and removals, and included above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass and deadwood.

Extreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of Togo, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

• Northernmost point – the tripoint with Ghana and Burkina Faso, Savanes Region
• Easternmost point – unnamed location on the border with Benin in the Mono River immediately west of the Beninese town of Grand-Popo, Maritime Region
• Southernmost point – the point at which the border with Ghana enters the Atlantic Ocean, Maritime Region
• Westernmost point - a point about 2.5 km south-southwest of the tripoint with Ghana and Burkina Faso, Savanes Region