• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2001 baseline)
The Imatong Central Forest Reserve lies in the Imatong mountain range 190 km south-east of Juba on the Ugandan border. The mountains are sharply faulted and many perennial rivers arise within this upland region. The mountains are covered by a range of vegetation-types including Albizia–Terminalia woodland and mixed Khaya lowland semi-evergreen forest up to 1,000 m, and by Podocarpus and Croton–Macaranga–Albizia montane forest at 1,000–2,900 m. Above this, forest is replaced by Hagenia woodland, Erica thicket and areas of bamboo. Average annual rainfall is c.1,500 mm.

Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 2 for key species. The wide altitudinal range and the site’s location at the meeting point of several biomes means that the Imatong mountains support a wide diversity of species. The site also includes the only known locality for Zoothera guttata maxis. One species of the Sahel biome (A03) has also been recorded (see Table 2).

Non-bird biodiversity: The site holds a number of endemic plant taxa.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Imatong mountains (South Sudan). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/imatong-mountains-iba-south-sudan on 22/11/2024.