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internal drainage (the country being well drained by a number
of large as well as several small rivers running practically
at right angles to the coast). A third type of soil is found
along the coastline where azonal soils lacking well developed
characteristics owing to recent or continuous erosion have developed
into regosols. This type of soil covers approximately
5 percent of the total land area.
(IV) Liberia's relief consists of four different natural regions
which generally stretch from northwest to southeast and run parallel
to the coast.
The coastal zone is made up of a narrow strip of land with an
altitude that rarely exceeds 50 feet and which is intersected
by lagoons, tidal creeks and marshes. In this strip of land,
which is about 10 miles wide, but occasionally extends 25 miles
inland, we find oil palms and scrubby bush as well as mangroves.
The second zone is about 15 to 30 miles wide and is called the
belt of rolling hills. This is the zone of the evergreen rain
fprest though much of the original rain forest has disappeared
as a result of human activities. The actual secondary bush is
periodically cut and burned for agricultural purposes (shifting
agriculture). Rainfall in this zone varies between 100-200
inches a year. The altitude varies between 200 and 500 feet.
The third zone is a mountainous area, generally beginning 50-80
miles inland and forming a strip of approximately 20 miles of
steeply rolling and hilly escarpment area. Annual precipitation
is between 70 and 100 inches. This zone is marked in the western
area of the country by the Gibi and Bong Ranges and in the eastern
part by the Putu Range. Here deciduous forest can be found.
Much of the original vegetation, however, has also been destroyed
and burnt to allow agricultural activities.
The fourth zone is in the northwestern corner of the country -
the upper part of Lofa County - and in some parts of Nimba County
where the vegetation is savanna woodlands of the Guinea savanna
type, with its high elephant grass and small localised
patches of forest vegetation. This zone ("the Northern highlands")
also comprises the Wologisi and Nimba Ranges, Their altitude is
above 4,400 feet (2).
The Liberian forests thus offer a great variety of trees - and
may contain 275 - 300 different species (3) - with timber ranging
from very light and soft wood, such as the African White Wood,
to the heaviest ebony hard wood. Because of this great variety in
tree species Liberia's forest resources are comparable to those
of Gabon and Southern Cameroun rather than to those of neighbouring
West African countries as Ivory Coast and Ghana (4).
Some Liberian species are not found elsewhere, e.g. the
Tetraberlinia Tubmaniana (Sikon tree) which was not classified
until 1958 and was named after President William Tubman.
In 1944, however, when William Tubman assumed office as Liberia's
new President the entire country's forest potential had never
been assessed. Except for a few botanical studies and a
comprehensive study of the trees of one particular area nothing
had been done in this respect.