Published on and written by Cyril Jarnias
Wedged between Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, and the Gulf of Guinea, the country of Togo is a small, narrow territory, yet one of astonishing geographical complexity. In barely 56,000 km², it lines up a fragile coastline, agricultural plateaus, a mountain range, dry savannas, and a hydrographic network largely shared with its neighbors. This diversity of environments shapes human activities, regional inequalities, and vulnerabilities to climate change.
A long, narrow country, between sea and savanna
The country of Togo stretches from north to south over approximately 510 to 580 km depending on the source, with a maximum width of only 140 to 160 km from east to west. Its southern border is formed by the Bight of Benin – part of the Gulf of Guinea – along a coastline of barely 56 km. To the west, the border follows Ghana, to the east Benin, and to the north Burkina Faso. This “spindle” shape explains that within a few hundred kilometers, one moves from coastal beaches to almost Sahelian Sudanian savannas.
236
Togo’s average altitude is about 236 meters, with gentle and varied relief.
The territory is generally described as comprising three main physical units: the coastal plains, the central plateau, and the northern highlands. In detail, geographers distinguish up to six natural regions, which shows how, despite its small size, the country of Togo concentrates a mosaic of landscapes.
Five administrative regions, five geographies
Administratively, the country is divided into five major regions, from north to south: Savanes, Kara, Centrale, Plateaux, and Maritime. This administrative map corresponds quite well to physical and climatic realities.
The Maritime region includes the coastline and the coastal hinterland. It is the most urbanized area, dominated by Lomé and its metropolitan area. It concentrates over 40% of the population on just over 11% of the national surface area (about 6,400 km² of coastal zone). It is also where more than 90% of industrial units and almost all major port and road infrastructure are located.
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The Plateaux region, in the south-center, is the country’s former green belt. Its fertile soils, moderate altitudes, and abundant rainfall favor cash crops (coffee, cocoa) and food crops.
The Centrale region, further north, forms a transition zone between the wetter plateaus and the drier savannas of Kara and Savanes. It is characterized by sandstone plateaus and valleys, with a climate that is already drier but still relatively rainy.
The Kara and especially Savanes regions correspond to the north of the country, where savannas, rocky plateaus, and open forests dominate. This is where conditions become distinctly Sudanian to Sudano-Sahelian: rains concentrated in a few months, a strong dry season, soil degradation, and advancing desertification.
Relief: from savannas to the mountains of the Togo Range
The terrain is often described as a gently undulating savanna towards the north, a rugged central plateau of hills and valleys, and a low coastal plain along the Atlantic. But this simple pattern masks several very distinct units.
In the south, a low, sandy coastal plain borders the sea. It is separated from the interior by a string of lagoons and marshes, and a sandy coastal cordon about a mile wide, reaching only 4.5 to 6 m in altitude. Part of Lomé was built on this narrow sand strip.
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Just north of the plain lies the Ouatchi plateau, also called “Terre de Barre,” a 30 km wide strip with red, iron-rich but highly leached soils. Its altitude varies between 60 and 90 m, and this area is part of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion according to the WWF.
Further north still, tablelands – including that of the Mono, with clayey soils – alternate with hills and incised valleys. It is here that the Togo Range begins, a series of heights oriented southwest/northeast that cross the center of the country. These mountains, 700 to over 1000 m high, extend the Atakora Mountains of Benin and the Akwapim Hills of Ghana. They form the backbone of the central relief, with slopes having relatively fertile soils, particularly suitable for cash crops.
Attention:
North of the mountains, a vast sandstone plateau dominates the far north, cut by the Oti River valley and its tributaries. In the far northwest, landscapes become rockier with outcrops of granite and gneiss.
This organization of relief, from the low coastline to the sandy plateaus and central mountains, up to the northern savannas, is reflected in the distribution of soils, vegetation, and human activities.
Climate: from humid coast to semi-arid savannas
Despite the small size of the territory, the climate is far from uniform. The country of Togo lies in the hot, humid intertropical zone, but is strongly influenced by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), whose seasonal oscillations explain the distribution of rainfall.
The south, around Lomé and the Maritime region, experiences a bimodal regime: two rainy seasons – a main one from March-April to July, and a second, weaker one in September-October or even November – separated by a dry “little summer” often with fog in August. In this zone, annual rainfall ranges around 800 to 1,200 mm, which is significantly lower than other parts of southern West Africa. A particular feature is the presence of winds parallel to the coast, diverging between mid-July and mid-September, which induce a short secondary dry season with frequent fogs.
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In the central plateau and mountain areas, the climate is more temperate with annual precipitation of 1,400 to 1,600 mm and a single rainy season from April to September. Temperatures vary between 20 and 33 °C.
In the north, in the Kara and especially Savanes regions, the climate is of the tropical savanna type with a semi-arid tendency. Rainfall, on the order of 900 to 1,100 mm per year, only falls between May and October. The dry season, more pronounced, lasts from November to March. Temperatures then vary from 18 °C at night during the dry season to over 38 °C during the day, with extreme heat episodes frequently exceeding 40 °C.
Nationally, estimates of average annual precipitation are around 1,200 to 1,300 mm depending on the climate dataset. But these averages hide an underlying trend: a general decrease in rainfall and an increase in temperatures since the 1960s, particularly marked in the north.
0.34
The average temperature has been increasing by nearly 0.34 °C per decade since the 1990s.
This trend is already visible in daily life: between 1960 and 2003, the number of hot days increased by more than 15%, particularly between September and November. Over the recent period 1995–2014, the country faced an average of 57 days per year with maximum temperatures exceeding 35 °C. Climate scenarios project 105 days per year of this type of extreme by 2040–2059 (about 3.5 months) and up to 174 days around 2080–2099 – nearly six months of the year.
So-called tropical nights (minimum temperature > 23 °C) are also expected to increase by 27 days per decade until 2050. The population’s exposure to these high temperatures is set to skyrocket: from about 49% historically, it could affect 68% of inhabitants by mid-century and over 80% by the end.
The already hottest regions – Savanes, Kara, Centrale – are and will remain the most exposed, with exposure rates already near 100%. But the more temperate regions of the south-center and the coast will also see a rapid increase in the frequency of heatwaves and oppressive nights.
No major river is entirely national. The main waterways cross borders or serve as natural boundaries, making water management an inherently transboundary issue.
The Volta basin, shared with several neighbors, drains all of northern Togo via the Oti, a large sandstone plateau that cuts through the northern region before flowing into Ghana. Further south, the Mono River occupies a key role: about 400 to 530 km long depending on the sections considered, it originates in western Benin, receives many Togolese tributaries – including the Ogou – then marks the border between the two countries on its lower stretch before emptying into the Atlantic in a large estuary in Benin.
24,300
The Mono basin covers approximately 24,300 km², shared between Togo and Benin.
Total renewable water availability is estimated at around 14.7 km³, which is still a comfortable per capita level at the regional scale. But this resource is under pressure. More than two-thirds of the waters are shared with neighboring countries: besides the Mono and the Volta, the coastal sedimentary aquifers are common to Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. Issues range from pollution by agricultural inputs and domestic waste to reduced flows linked to climate change.
Lagoons and coastal lakes also play a major ecological and economic role. Mangroves, marshes, and estuaries harbor rich biodiversity and support artisanal fishing. Yet coastal pollution, eutrophication, and the gradual filling in of these wetlands weigh on these fragile environments.
Ecological observation
Access to drinking water and sanitation
Access to drinking water remains highly contrasted. About 63% of the population has a basic service, while only a quarter have limited access. The rest must rely on unimproved sources or surface water. Regarding sanitation, the situation is more concerning: more than half the population still practices open defecation, which contributes to water contamination and the spread of waterborne diseases.
The authorities have embarked on a policy of integrated water resource management, supported by international conventions on transboundary watercourses. Action plans are underway for the Volta and Mono basins, with a focus on shared governance, pollution reduction, and adaptation to climate hazards (floods, droughts).
Soils, vegetation, and forests: a declining natural capital
Most soils in the country of Togo derive from highly weathered, heavily leached rocks. They are often moderately fertile, easily degraded once the vegetation cover is broken or when agricultural practices become too intensive.
In the southern zone, the coastal plains host mangroves, reed marshes, and coconut plantations along the sea. The “Terre de Barre” of the Ouatchi plateau is characterized by a red, iron-rich horizon, but depleted in nutrients by decades of extensive farming and leaching rains.
Further inland and north, the potential vegetation alternates between semi-deciduous dense forests in the mountains (ecological zones IV and V) and wooded or shrubby savannas in the Sudanian plains. In practice, the current physiognomy is dominated by savanna: forests likely cover only a fraction of the territory.
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More than 400 km² of forest are lost each year in Brazil between 1985 and 2020.
In the northern savanna region, the figures are even more telling: in 1984, dry and riparian forests covered nearly 45% of the area; by 2020, they covered only about 10%. Conversely, crops and agroforestry parks now occupy nearly half the area, compared to less than a quarter in the mid-1980s. Savannas first expanded at the expense of forests, then retreated in the face of advancing fields and villages.
Deforestation with multiple causes
This massive and widespread deforestation is due to several combined factors. Rain-fed agriculture, mostly family-based, has expanded at the expense of forests to feed a rapidly growing population. Cotton cultivation and the introduction of chemical inputs have contributed to increasing pressure on land, especially in the north and center.
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More than 80% of household energy needs are met by firewood and charcoal.
Add to this recurrent bushfires, extensive livestock farming, artisanal mining, and uncontrolled clearing for housing. In the Savanes region, for example, analyses have highlighted a major role of overgrazing, wood cutting, and fires in ecosystem fragmentation.
25
National forest cover is now estimated at between 20 and 25%, marked by a decline in dense forests in favor of savannas and fallows.
Restoration attempts and landscape management
Faced with this erosion of forest capital, the state, with support from international partners, has adopted the principle of “Forest Landscape Restoration” (FLR). The idea is no longer just to plant trees, but to rethink the entire mosaic of land uses, reconciling agricultural production, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem services (water, carbon, soils).
Two main approaches are promoted: a mosaic strategy, adapted to densely populated areas where forest plots are interspersed with fields; and a larger-scale strategy, relevant for mountainous massifs where forest must remain the dominant land use, with agriculture integrated in the form of agroforestry (coffee, cocoa under tree cover).
The stated objectives are ambitious: achieve 20% forest cover by 2035, then 30% by 2050. Priorities have been defined for mangrove rehabilitation on the coast, restoration of mountain forests, controlled grazing management, and fire control.
A short, strategic, and highly vulnerable coastline
The maritime facade of Togo is short but crucial. It concentrates the capital, the deep-water port of Lomé, most industries, and rapid urbanization. It is also an extremely mobile coastline, eroded and threatened by sea level rise.
Long-term measurements show an average shoreline retreat of about 1.6 to 5.3 m per year, with particularly critical sectors – Alogavi, Dévi-Kinmé, Agbavi, Baguida – where the coast sometimes recedes by 5 to 12 m per year. Over several decades, this means hundreds of meters of shoreline lost and hundreds of hectares submerged or nibbled away.
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The annual sea level rise, in millimeters per year, constitutes a worrying trend for coastal areas.
Several factors worsen the situation. Human structures modify sediment exchanges: the port of Lomé, built on a coast where the natural longshore drift runs from west to east, has broken this sand drift. Result: sediment accumulation west of the port, increased erosion to the east. The Akossombo Dam on the Volta, on the Ghanaian side, also retains much of the sediment that once fed the coast. Intense urbanization of the coastal strip, sand mining, and bank hardening further reduce natural resilience.
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Coastal erosion causes destruction of homes and infrastructure, forced displacement of villages like Aného, weakening of coastal roads, and damage to lagoon ecosystems and fisheries. The most vulnerable areas are around the Baguida–Agbodrafo–Aného complex, while the port sector, although having contributed to erosion, is protected and classified as lower vulnerability.
Economic studies estimate the potential damage costs from urban flooding at nearly 6.5% of GDP by 2050, with losses almost doubling along the coast. The investment needed to strengthen the resilience of the road network and combat erosion near the port of Lomé is estimated at about $1.6 billion by 2050, or nearly 0.8% of GDP per year.
A dominant agricultural geography
Land use illustrates the weight of agriculture. The most recent statistics suggest that approximately 67% of the country’s area is used for agricultural purposes. Arable land represents over 45% of the territory, permanent crops less than 4%, and permanent pastures nearly 18%. Forest areas, meanwhile, are under 5% in some strict estimates, with the rest classified as “other” uses.
Land considered suitable for agriculture is estimated at 3.6 million hectares, or about 64% of the total area. Already around the 1990s, nearly 2.6 million hectares were cultivated, more than half of which was fallow. The underlying trend is toward reducing fallow periods, which weakens ecosystems.
50%
In 1996, maize occupied nearly half of the area devoted to food crops.
On the export side, flagship products remain cotton, coffee, cocoa, shea nuts, and palm oil – to which are added phosphates for the mining sector. Since the late 1980s, cotton has gradually dethroned coffee and cocoa as the main cash crop. But this cash cereal crop has also proven highly dependent on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, increasing soil degradation in some regions.
Livestock farming is mainly developed in the plateaus and the north: cattle, small ruminants (sheep, goats), pigs, and poultry. On the rocky plateaus of the north, where agriculture is more difficult, livestock constitutes an essential capital.
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Annual catches from local fisheries total about 23,000 tons, mainly destined for the domestic market.
Agriculture, economy, and regional disparities
Agriculture employs more than 70% of the active population and represents about one-third of the gross domestic product. In the 1990s, it even reached 40% of GDP, largely because urban and formal sectors were in deep recession.
This agricultural geography is not homogeneous. The Plateaux and central mountain range regions are more fertile and better watered, making them production heartlands for cash crops and market food crops. The northern savannas, drier and subject to erosion, offer lower yields, reinforcing economic and food vulnerability.
Poverty indicators reflect this north-south divide: in the Savanes region, some prefectures have poverty rates exceeding 90%, while coastal areas and the Lomé agglomeration are well below. Malnutrition and infant mortality rates follow the same geography, with the highest values in the northern regions.
Cities, urban coastline, and Lomé’s macrocephaly
The urban geography of Togo is dominated by Lomé, a true coastal metropolis that alone concentrates nearly a third of the national population and more than two-thirds of the urban population. In 1960, the capital still had only about 80,000 inhabitants. By 2010, the urban area approached 1.5 million; in 2022, the Greater Lomé agglomeration exceeded 2.1 million.
Growth is spectacular, with an average annual rate of over 2.7% for the metropolis, combining high natural growth and migratory influx from rural areas and secondary cities. The city is literally glued to the Ghanaian border: the city center is a few hundred meters from the Aflawo border post, and no buffer zone exists between the Ghanaian and Togolese urban fabrics.
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The urban fabric extends over more than 400 km² from the coast to peri-urban villages, converting nearly 26% of cultivated land into built-up areas annually in the near outer rings. This expansion creates a marked contrast between a dense, well-equipped historic core (paved roads, street lighting, networks) and under-equipped peripheries where access to drinking water is rare and travel depends on motorcycle taxis.
The other major urban geographic pole is the Port of Lomé. It is the only natural deep-water port on the West African coast, capable of receiving very large container ships (up to 24,000 TEU) thanks to depths of about 16 to over 18 m. Its container terminal, with over 1,700 m of quay and a capacity of nearly 2.7 million TEU per year, makes the Port of Lomé the leading container port in West Africa and one of the most important on the continent.
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The port generates more than 75% of the country’s national tax revenue.
Lomé is only one node, however; the urban network remains limited. The country has only one city of more than one million inhabitants (Lomé) and two cities between 100,000 inhabitants and that threshold. Inland cities – Sokodé, Kara, Atakpamé, Kpalimé, Bassar, Tsévié, Aného, Mango, Dapaong, etc. – remain modest in size, generally under 120,000 inhabitants each. This weakness of the intermediate city network contributes to Lomé’s macrocephaly and the concentration of infrastructure on the coast.
Urbanization is nevertheless advancing rapidly across the country. The share of the urban population has risen from about one-third in 2000 to over 44% in 2025, and is expected to exceed 60% around mid-century, as existing cities swell and new secondary centers emerge.
Protected areas, biodiversity, and key zones
Despite anthropogenic pressure, Togo still harbors remarkable biodiversity, protected by a network of protected areas covering about 14% to 28% of the terrestrial territory depending on the perimeters considered (strictly national classified areas, community forests, Ramsar sites, biosphere reserves…).
There are nearly 80 to 90 officially protected sites for various purposes: three national parks (including Fazao-Malfakassa, Kéran, and Fosse aux Lions), wildlife reserves (Oti-Mandouri, for example), and numerous classified forests. Added to this are wetlands recognized as internationally important, and a few UNESCO biosphere reserves.
Good to know:
In the north, the Oti corridor allows the migration of large mammals such as elephants and antelopes. In the center, Fazao-Malfakassa protects mountain forests and diverse fauna. In the southeast, the Togodo complex hosts more than a hundred bird species thanks to its gallery forests and wetlands.
A network under pressure
The theory on paper contrasts with reality on the ground. The rapid expansion of fields, villages, wood cutting, poaching, and decades of political tensions have led to significant human intrusion into many of these protected areas. Some classified zones have been invaded and converted into plantations or pastures; elsewhere, park boundaries have been contested by local communities, who see them as “food reserves surrounded by hunger.”
Good to know:
Since the 2000s, the authorities have replaced the human exclusion approach with participation by local populations. National biodiversity strategies (NBSAPs) have been adopted, but resources remain limited.
Indicators nevertheless show a certain level of coverage: nearly 28% of terrestrial land would be covered by protected areas and other area-based conservation measures (OECMs), with about a quarter of the country’s above-ground biomass carbon located within these perimeters. However, marine protected area coverage remains almost zero, even though the coastal strip concentrates particularly sensitive ecosystems (mangroves, seagrass beds, lagoons).
Land degradation and climate risks: a geography of vulnerability
The geographic picture of Togo would be incomplete without the dimension of risks and degradation. Soil erosion, the advance of agricultural frontiers, recurrent floods, and coastal salinization draw a geography of vulnerability that largely follows socioeconomic fault lines.
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At least 86% of arable land suffers from some form of degradation according to diagnostic studies.
In the semi-arid north, the combination of more irregular rainfall, reduced fallow periods, overgrazing, and deforestation accelerates water and wind erosion. Deep gullies form in fields, rendering some land permanently unfit for cultivation. Grazing lands degrade, reducing carrying capacity for livestock. It is not uncommon to see fields abandoned due to erosion.
Environmental risks in the south
Impacts of deforestation and coastal pressures in the southwest
Plantations on deforested slopes cause intense runoff and sheet erosion, carrying away the thin layer of fertile topsoil.
The coastline suffers from sea level rise, coastal erosion, marine submersion, and urban pluvial flooding on impermeable surfaces.
Floods – whether from river floods like the Mono or from urban runoff in Lomé – endanger homes, roads, bridges, and farmland. Projections for 2050 point to a substantial increase in built-up areas exposed to 100-year floods, with between 3 and 6% of urban areas already located in these high-hazard zones.
A geography in recomposition: urbanization, climate, and rural pressures
The geography of Togo is not static. Three major dynamics now overlap: rapid urbanization, the transformation of agrarian systems, and the acceleration of climate change.
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Urbanization is concentrated along the coast and road axes, drawing in poor rural populations from the north. Cities like Lomé, Kara, Sokodé, Atakpamé, and Dapaong are growing rapidly, often without planning, encroaching more and more on agricultural land, with a notable acceleration of artificialization around Lomé.
At the same time, rural areas remain largely dependent on subsistence agriculture, highly sensitive to climate hazards. The Savanes region concentrates a large share of poverty, with an agro-pastoral economy very vulnerable to rainfall variability and droughts. Agricultural intensification remains limited: few farms have sufficient means to correct declining soil fertility with adequate organic or mineral inputs.
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Moderate increase in annual precipitation projected by 2050, masking a decrease in rainy days and an intensification of extreme events.
For a country where about 40% of the poor already regularly suffer extreme climate shocks, the stakes are high. Economic models estimate that, without adaptation, climate impacts could reduce average per capita income by 6 to 12% by 2050, with an increase in the poverty rate of several percentage points.
Conclusion: a small territory, but geographically decisive
On the map of West Africa, the country of Togo appears as a thin ribbon. Yet this ribbon concentrates a set of geographic features that give it a disproportionate role: a strategic deep-water port for the Sahelian hinterland, a coastline at the heart of a growing urbanization corridor, major shared river basins, and a mosaic of ecosystems ranging from mangroves to dry savannas.
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Rapid deforestation, soil degradation, vulnerability to climate extremes, accelerated coastal erosion, and regional fractures between a southern coast integrated into global flows and a marginalized, drought-exposed northern interior.
The geography of Togo is therefore not just a set of reliefs, climates, and soils: it is also the canvas on which the economic, social, and ecological balances of a state wedged between the Sahel and the Atlantic are played out. It is this canvas that must be read and managed – from the mountains of Agou to the shifting shores of the Gulf of Guinea – to reconcile development, resilience, and preservation of natural resources.
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Cyril Jarnias is an independent expert in international wealth management with over 20 years of experience. As an expatriate himself, he is dedicated to helping individuals and business leaders build, protect, and pass on their wealth with complete peace of mind.
On his website, cyriljarnias.com, he shares his expertise on international real estate, offshore company formation, and expatriation.
Thanks to his expertise, he offers sound advice to optimize his clients' wealth management. Cyril Jarnias is also recognized for his appearances in many prestigious media outlets such as BFM Business, les Français de l’étranger, Le Figaro, Les Echos, and Mieux vivre votre argent, where he shares his knowledge and know-how in wealth management.
