The archipelago of the Comoros in the Indian Ocean, is composed of the islands of Anjouan, Moheli, and Grand Comore. The Comoros, from their recent volcanic nature, their exiguity and their multi-insularity have a great originality which the diversity of the landscapes and the richness of the biodiversity (fauna and flora) translate. The variety of the coastal and marine ecosystems met (coral mangroves, reefs, underwater beaches, herbaria) constitutes a potential to be protected and develop from the tourist point of view. The Comorian flora and fauna intrinsically have interests economic, scientific, entertaining, aesthetic and cultural which deserve to be protected and developed. The discovery in 1938 of the Coelacanth (Latimeria Challumnae) in Comorian water allowed indeed, to make enormous progress in the field of the anatomical evolution of the vertebrate ones. This alive fossil which one believed extinct (it did not have there fossil traces of this fish since 80 million years) represents at the same time an example of a endemism led to the extreme and an animal whose position in the evolution is single. Coral, rich formations of 50 species, developed differently around the islands and this, in relation to the age of the islands and the local hydrodynamic conditions. They occupy approximately 60% of the littoral of Large-Comore, 80% of that of Anjouan and nearly 100% of that of Moheli.
Environment
Land use: Agricultural land: 84.4% ; Arable land 46.7%; permanent crops 29.6%; permanent pasture 8.1%; forest: 1.4%; other: 14.2% (2011 est.)
Irrigated land: 1.3 sq km (2012)
Threatened species (2014): 106
Forested area (% of land area) (2012): 1.2
Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected (%) (2014): 2.4
Population using improved drinking water sources (%) (2012): 95.0
Population using improved sanitation facilities (%) (2012): 35.0
CO2 emission estimates (000 metric tons and metric tons per capita) (2011): 158/0.2
Energy supply per capita (Gigajoules) (2012): 7.0 UNSD estimate.
Total renewable water resources: 1.2 cu km (2011)
Environment – international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Social indicators
Population growth rate (average annual %) (2010-2015): 2.4
Urban population growth rate (average annual %) (2010-2015): 2.7
Rural population growth rate (average annual %) (2010-2015): 2.3
Urban population (%) (2014): 28.2
Source
- National Status Report for Comoros
- UN Data