Algeria
TL;DR
Algeria exhibits keystone-species dynamics: state-owned Sonatrach controls 95% of exports, supplying 25% of EU gas imports while the Sahara holds untapped renewable potential.
Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, yet 80% of its 2.38 million square kilometers is Sahara desert. The population clusters along the Mediterranean coast, creating an economy that behaves like an organism living on an edge—the fertile northern strip that French colonizers occupied for 132 years until independence in 1962. Oil was discovered in the southern Sahara in 1956, just before independence, and this accident of timing shaped everything that followed.
Hydrocarbons now constitute 95% of export earnings and 60% of government revenue, making Algeria a textbook case of resource dependence. State-owned Sonatrach functions as the economy's keystone species—controlling oil and gas production that supplies 25% of the EU's natural gas through the Medgaz and Transmed pipelines. This makes Algeria Europe's second-largest pipeline gas supplier after Norway, a position that gained strategic importance after 2022.
The numbers tell the story of path dependence: GDP of $266-288 billion, 3.4-4.5% growth in 2025, and Africa's largest economy by some measures. But non-hydrocarbon exports, though tripled since 2017, reached only $7 billion in 2024—just 2% of GDP. The government targets $30 billion in non-oil exports by 2030, but diversifying an economy structured around extraction requires overcoming decades of accumulated specialization.
Algeria is now positioning for a different future. In January 2025, it joined the SouthH2 Corridor project to supply green hydrogen to Europe, attempting to convert its solar-drenched Sahara into the substrate for a new energy export industry. Whether Algeria can evolve from fossil fuel exporter to renewable energy hub will determine if it escapes the resource trap or remains locked into a niche that climate transition may eventually eliminate.
Related Mechanisms for Algeria
Related Organisms for Algeria
States & Regions in Algeria
Adrar ProvinceAdrar exhibits path dependence like mycorrhizal networks: 1,900 foggaras built over ten centuries now compete with boreholes draining the same aquifer.Ain Defla ProvinceAin Defla exhibits niche specialization like a seed source: 220,000 tons of potatoes plus seed stock supplying 30 provinces across Algeria.Ain Temouchent ProvinceAin Temouchent exhibits secondary succession like a cleared vineyard: 60,000 colonial hectares collapsed post-independence, now diversifying into fishing.Algiers ProvinceAlgiers exhibits apical dominance like an octopus head: 0.1% of land area controlling 20% of GDP across Algeria's economy.Annaba ProvinceAnnaba exhibits punctuated equilibrium like metabolic transitions: from Roman wheat port to Africa's largest steel complex, now facing another industrial reset.Batna ProvinceBatna exhibits keystone control like a mountain pass species: the El Kantara gateway between Mediterranean coast and Saharan resources.Bechar ProvinceBechar exhibits niche construction like desert plants: from trans-Saharan trade junction to solar energy zone harvesting 321 GWh/km² annually.Bejaia ProvinceBejaia exhibits horizontal gene transfer like knowledge crossing cultures: Fibonacci learned numerals here in 1190, now it's the western Mediterranean's top oil port.Biskra ProvinceBiskra exhibits niche specialization like a dominant species: 41% of Algeria's dates from one province, 4.3 million palms at the Sahara's gate.Blida ProvinceBlida exhibits founder effects like Andalusian irrigation: 1553 techniques still yield 50% of Algeria's citrus, now threatened by urban competitive exclusion.Bordj Bou Arreridj ProvinceBordj Bou Arreridj exhibits preferential attachment like manufacturing clusters: Ottoman fortress evolved into Algeria's electronics capital with 1,588 companies.Bouira ProvinceBouira exhibits refugia dynamics like mountain populations: Djurdjura terrain preserved Berber autonomy and now protects traditional olive cultivation.Boumerdes ProvinceBoumerdes exhibits punctuated equilibrium like tectonic rebuilding: the 2003 M6.8 quake killed 2,266, yet the province rebuilt and now leads regional attractiveness.Chlef ProvinceChlef exhibits post-catastrophe rebranding like renaming after disaster: the 1980 M7.1 quake killed 2,500, so El Asnam became Chlef.Constantine ProvinceConstantine exhibits topographic determinism like a fortress species: 8 bridges span a 175m gorge that made it Numidia's capital and Algeria's third city.Djelfa ProvinceDjelfa exhibits source-sink dynamics like a pastoral epicenter: 3.2 million sheep (12% of Algeria's flock) as steppe desertification accelerates.El Bayadh ProvinceEl Bayadh exhibits carrying capacity overshoot like degraded rangeland: livestock density hit 10x sustainable levels, halfah zones shrank 30%.El Oued ProvinceEl Oued exhibits niche construction like gravity-fed oases: the 12th-century ghout system requires no irrigation, now threatened by modern pumping.Ghardaia ProvinceGhardaia exhibits cultural refugia like an isolated community: Mozabite pentapolis preserved identical Ibadi urbanism for 1,000 years in desert isolation.Guelma ProvinceGuelma exhibits geothermal concentration like hot springs attracting civilizations: Roman Aquae Thibilitanae remains among world's hottest thermal sites.Illizi ProvinceIllizi exhibits environmental archiving like rock art galleries: 15,000 Tassili n'Ajjer paintings record 12,000 years of Saharan climate change.Jijel ProvinceJijel exhibits edge effects like coastal concentration: 120 km corniche unites 35 beaches, UNESCO biosphere, deep-water port, and steel industry.Khenchela ProvinceKhenchela exhibits altitudinal zonation like mountain transhumance: cedars at 2,328m transition to palms 30 km away in compressed Tell-Sahara contact.Laghouat ProvinceLaghouat exhibits resource concentration like a gas field anchor: Hassi R'Mel contributes $50B to Algeria's GDP, second-largest energy province.Mascara ProvinceMascara birthed Emir Abdelkader in 1832, whose humanitarian warfare inspired the Geneva Conventions. French wine vineyards replaced Sufi resistance—path dependence visible in every grape.Medea ProvinceMedea's 1,000m altitude made it Ottoman Titteri's capital (1548-1830) and Algeria's mountain wine zone. Now pharmaceuticals and shoes anchor an industrial transition.Mila ProvinceMila's Byzantine walls (6th century) still stand, sheltering Algeria's oldest mosque (675 AD). Two millennia of continuous habitation from Roman Milevum to modern olive country.Mostaganem ProvinceFrom Barbarossa's corsair base to France's wine colony—Algeria's top export by the 1930s. Independence killed viticulture; the port now ferries cargo to Valencia.M'Sila ProvinceThe Hodna basin: from -5°C to 46°C, 69-200mm annual rain. Nomads settled, jessour water walls crumbled, 50,000 hectares of rangeland turned to bare soil since 1984.Naama ProvinceThree million hectares of pastoral steppe where nomads still trade—but transhumance is collapsing. Erratic seasons and degraded grazing force herders to adapt or abandon.Oran ProvinceOran changed hands from Andalusi to Spanish (1509-1708) to Ottoman to French—each conqueror built atop the last. Camus set "The Plague" here; Raï was born here. Algeria's second port remains worth fighting over.Ouargla ProvinceOuargla birthed Algeria's oil economy in 1956 at Hassi Messaoud (8 billion barrels). A $3.68 billion refinery under construction will triple southern refining by 2027.Oum El Bouaghi ProvinceBen Bella's autogestion experiment met the Aures high plains. Salt marshes, barite mines, and perpetual bureaucratic subdivision—identity always in transition.Relizane ProvinceFrom Roman Castellum de Mina to French cotton farms decimated by malaria. The Bakhadda Dam saved what colonialism started—irrigation on the burnt hill.Saida ProvinceThe 2nd Foreign Regiment's Mediterranean recruits made Saida their base from 1854. Railways arrived 1862. The Legion is gone; the infrastructure remains.Setif ProvinceSetif's May 8, 1945 massacre on VE Day—3,000 to 45,000 killed in French reprisals—turned Algeria's independence movement from petition to armed struggle.Sidi Bel Abbes ProvinceFrench Foreign Legion headquarters 1843-1962. The Legion built the city, processed every recruit through it, then marched out carrying its museum to France.Skikda ProvinceFrom Phoenician Rusicade to French Philippeville to petrochemical port. The 2004 LNG explosion killed 29 and cost $940M—2nd worst gas incident since 1974.Souk Ahras ProvinceBirthplace of Augustine of Hippo (354 AD). The olive tree where he meditated still stands. UNESCO Tentative List for Augustinian heritage.Tamanrasset ProvinceTamanrasset's 336,839 km²—larger than Poland—shelters Algeria's highest peak (3,003m) and Tuareg culture. Trans-Saharan trade routes are now tourist trails.Tebessa ProvinceRoman Theveste above ground (Arch of Caracalla, St. Crispina's basilica), Djebel Onk phosphate deposits below (2.8B tonnes, 4,000 tons of daily waste since 1965).Tiaret ProvinceCapital of the Rustamid Ibadi state (776-909 AD)—unusually tolerant for its era. French colonists added Arabian horse breeding. Both legacies persist.Tindouf ProvinceSahrawi refugee camps since 1975—a government-in-exile for Western Sahara. Disputed population (45,000-165,000), 50°C heat, 94% aid-dependent. The referendum never came.Tipaza ProvinceTipasa (UNESCO) and Cherchell (ancient Caesarea): Roman Algeria's showcase. Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II's tomb still stands. 2,000 years of Mediterranean history.Tissemsilt ProvinceThe Ouarsenis mountains: "nothing higher" in Berber. Zenete Berbers, Atlas cedar forests, and 419mm annual rain on erosion-prone slopes.Tizi Ouzou ProvinceBirthplace of the 1980 Berber Spring: a banned poetry lecture sparked 30+ deaths and decades of language activism. Tamazight became official in 2016.Tlemcen Province"The African Granada": Zayyanid capital (1235-1557) where 12,000 Jewish refugees arrived after 1492. 60% of Algeria's Arab-Islamic architectural heritage survives here.
1 more location coming soon