Protected areas in Sudan

Sudan is large country situated in northern Africa, with an area of 1,886,068 km2 (728,215 sq miles), it is the third largest country on the continent (after Algeria and DR Congo), and the sixteenth largest in the world.

Sudan lies between latitudes 8° - 23°N and longitudes 24 - 38 E. and shares boundaries with seven countries (South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Egypt, Eritrea and Ethiopia) and possesses a 750 Km coastline on the red sea.

Sudan is composed of 17 states and 184 localities; its terrain is generally flat, with mountains in the northeast and west, while desert dominates the north. It has a population of 34 million.

Sudan includes various ecological and climatic zones (table 1). These zones hold considerable number of wildlife species according to their habitats preference.

The wide variety of ecosystems and vegetation types in Sudan is reflected in its fauna. Setzer (1956) reported that 224 species and sub-species of mammals, other than bats, belonging to 91 genera represented twelve mammalian orders out of thirteen mammalian orders occur in Africa. Nimir (1983) produced a list of 52 major wildlife species and their distribution in Northern Sudan. Hillman (1991) produced a list of 83 major wildlife species and their distribution in 19 protected areas in the Sudan. Cave and Macdonald (1955) stated that 871 species of birds were distributed in the Sudan. Nikolaus (1987) produced the distribution atlas of the Sudan’s birds with notes on habitat and status, which included information on 931 species.

Table (3-1): The National Parks and Ecological Zones in Sudan.

 Source: combined form Hillman (1985) and Turba (1996) and WCGA.