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new terms related to African ecology #1654

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@sformel

I'm working on publishing a dataset from various African protected areas. These are some terms that I would like to propose. I will have time to submit them as a PR later, this is just an issue to announce I intend to create them in case others have feedback:

  1. bai

Bais are natural forest clearings dominated by vegetation in the Cyperaceae family (sedges), often with patches of Graminae (grasses) and aquatic vegetation. The term bai is a local word used by the Ba’Aka people of the “Sangha Trinational” region, which comprises the area where Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic meet. Bais are relatively common throughout Central Africa, and also occur in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are usually located on a watercourse and can be found in forest blocks or savannahs and gallery forests, where they are often known as “salines”. (Fishlock, Vicki, and Thomas Breuer, eds. Studying forest elephants. Neuer Sportverlag, 2015)

Unique to the Congo basin, bais are one of the world's largest types of forest clearings....bais are a rare and clustered riparian ecosystem...bais are divided into two distinct types with different biodiversity and abiotic conditions: elephant and gorilla bais. (Hockridge, E. G. and A. B.Davies2025. Islands in the Forest: A Photo Exploration of Congo's Bai Ecosystem. Bull Ecol Soc Am106(1):e02191. https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.2191)

  1. desert dune area

This might be that I don't grasp how to combine desert area (ENVO:00000097) with dune (ENVO:00000170)

  1. desert grass area

Same as above.

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