Trifter

Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves is a world heritage site located at Niger. (08º00′E -10º57′E and 17º14′N – 20º30′N). It is the largest world heritage site in Africa and 3rd largest reserve in the world. It covers an area of 7.7 million hectares. It was first listed on the world heritage site in 1991. The site has a variety of flora, fauna, and landscapes. It is listed due to its natural signficance. The site became in danger in 1992 due to military and civil disturbances. This place is classified as a natural heritage site. Over useing of the land and animal poaching led to the site being in danger too.

There are two dominant landscapes in the reserve. The first one is the Air Mountains containing several massifs above a rocky plateau. The second is the sand dunes and desert of Ténéré which contain part of the Sahara desert. The Ténéré desert contains one of the world’s biggest sand seas in the world and has some of the highest sand dunes in the Sahara desert with some reaching 300metres. The air mountain range is made of heavily eroded rock from the Cambrian. The mountain range is crucial for Niger as it supplies water for the country when it rains. Thick vegetation may also grow after rains.

The reserve has an arid desert climate and has just beyond the 100 millimetres average annual rainfall. Due to the fact it’s in the inter-tropical convergence zone, the result is desiccating prevailing winds from the north-east. There are three distinguishable seasons in this area. There is a cold season ranging from September to February. A hot season ranging from March to June and a humid season ranging from June to September. Annual temperatures range between 15 to 35 degrees, making the average 28 degrees. Temperatures in January range from 10-29 degrees and in June, the temperatures range from 25-44 degrees.

The air mountain range is a crucial part of vegetation growth as it supports many species. It supports many species of grass, plants and trees and is the first sign of green land for many birds. During the past years, young trees were hard to be produced and erosion occurred due to local logging, over browsing and overgrazing. This isn’t a good thing to the vegetation as it’s getting harder for them to reproduce. This is also one of the ways why this world heritage site is under danger. More rare species unique to this area are grown near the peak of the mountain range. If humans don’t dedicate them, like many perished species, they will perish from the world also. The constant disappearance of vegetation leads to fauna to have their food chain being upset.

There are a fair bit of endangered species that are nearly extinct. Some of which are Saharan species can survive without water for a very long time. Due to poaching, tourist disturbance and animal smuggling, these unique species are declining rapidly. Many have become extinct and others are severely in danger with around 15 left of some species. This is extremely bad for the environment as it severely upsets the food chain. On top of the constant vegetation disappearance, it becomes harder for species to survive. In order to resolve this problem, everyone should help and get the population back to its normal size.

There are many reasons why this world heritage site shouldn’t be removed from the list. This place contains unique landscapes, some which were from ancient times that should be preserved and kept as a monument of ancient landscape history. Also, unique fauna and flora exists on the unique terrain. Many are near extinct and should be helped in order to insure their survival. In order to ensure these things will happen, the most basic way is to keep it on the world heritage site. That way, the chances of fauna, flora and landscape being preserved is much greater.