On April 14, 2026, Reuters reported from Lomé, citing Togo's foreign minister: the West African nation plans to submit a draft resolution to the United Nations, calling for a gradual phase-out of map projections such as Mercator — which often depict the African continent as smaller than its actual size — in international settings and public education materials. Instead, it advocates for greater use of equal-area projections that more faithfully represent the area ratios of countries.
Togo, located along the Gulf of Guinea and a member of the African Union (AU), has garnered considerable support from more than 50 AU member states. The AU is also advancing related initiatives, moving the question of "how the world map should be drawn" from classrooms and media onto the diplomatic agenda. The Reuters report emphasized that on commonly used world maps, Africa sometimes appears roughly the same size as Greenland, whereas in reality, Africa is about 14 times larger. This stark contrast is one of the issues Togo hopes the international community will address.
What is the Mercator Projection?
The Mercator projection was developed in the 16th century, originally for maritime navigation. It projects the Earth onto a cylindrical surface, creating a conformal cylindrical projection with orthogonal latitude and longitude lines. Its defining feature is the preservation of angles, allowing compass bearings to be read as straight lines on the map — highly practical for navigation by compass.
Today, the vast majority of web maps are based on this projection or its variants, such as popular online map services: Google Maps, Baidu Maps, Amap, etc. However, the convenience comes with a systematic trade-off in area representation.
Why Does Distortion Occur When Flattening the Globe?
This is a fundamental lesson for all GIS students. The Earth is a sphere, and when projecting it onto paper or a screen, it is impossible to simultaneously preserve area, angle, and distance accurately everywhere. One must prioritize which property to maintain based on the intended use. Some projections preserve area, others preserve angles, and others preserve distances. These goals cannot all be satisfied in a single flat map. "Choosing a projection" is essentially deciding where to place the distortion.
In the Mercator projection, the higher the latitude, the more exaggerated the area becomes. Greenland, Europe, and North America often appear larger than their true size, while landmasses near the equator tend to appear smaller.
To mitigate area distortion, various equal-area projections have been developed. One such pseudocylindrical equal-area projection is designed to make area ratios across regions closer to reality. It is increasingly used as an alternative to Mercator in thematic mapping for education, population distribution, and other topics. Under such projections, the outlines of continents and countries more closely reflect true area ratios, helping readers intuitively grasp the scale of regions like Africa and South America.
How Does Visual Cartography Influence Perception?
Maps are never just illustrations. The repeated use of certain basemap shapes in education, media, and policy discussions can unconsciously shape impressions of "what matters and what doesn't." If a region is consistently depicted as smaller, people may psychologically underestimate its significance. Togo's proposal reminds the international community to be aware of such cognitive biases introduced by cartographic choices.
In GIS practice, web maps commonly use pseudo-Mercator variants like Web Mercator (EPSG:3857), which facilitate tile pyramids and front-end interactive rendering. The trade-off is that area distortion increases dramatically with latitude. Comparing areas across countries or regions directly under a single display projection without reprojection or area-based correction can systematically elevate the visual weight of mid- to high-latitude features while diminishing that of equatorial landmasses.
Summary
Togo's initiative at the UN brings to the forefront the theme of how basemap and projection choices shape the spatial cognition of the public and decision-makers. For GIS and thematic cartography, projection is not a neutral parameter but a trade-off among area fidelity, angle fidelity, distortion distribution, and engineering cost. For navigation and local bearing measurements, conformal solutions are preferable; for global-scale thematic maps focusing on area-based narratives such as land area, resources, or population, equal-area projections are more suitable. Before finalizing outputs, it is advisable to review potential interpretation biases that the map may evoke in the target audience.
PS: Have you ever encountered any funny blunders related to map projections in real life? Feel free to share in the comments!