Monitoring waterbird populations in three major wetland complexes of Sub-Saharan Africa
Millions of waterbirds migrate each year through Asia, Europe and Africa. These birds are generally widely dispersed during the breeding season, but during the dry season in the Sub-Saharan wetlands, many of them concentrate in huge flocks. The dry season, approximately October to March, is therefore a particularly good time to census waterbirds in West and Central Africa. A three-year programme (2006-2008) was initiated by the “Office national de la chasse et de la faune sauvage” (ONCFS), a governmental agency responsible for wildlife and hunting management in France, in order to simultaneously census birds in this extensive region.
This programme, undertaken in close cooperation with several organisations, was designed to support the International Waterbirds Census (IWC) coordinated at international level each January by Wetlands International. The censuses were made in the three main wetland complexes, located immediately south of the Sahara, in West and Central Africa:
- the Senegal Delta,
- the Inner Niger Delta in Mali,
- Lake Chad and surrounding wetlands.
Le suivi des oiseaux d’eau dans trois grandes zones humides sub-sahariennes
| Study report
| November 2008
Des millions d’oiseaux d’eau migrent au fil des saisons entre l’Asie, l’Europe et l’Afrique. Souvent dispersés pendant la période de nidification, ils se rassemblent dans les zones humides sub-sahariennes en saison sèche. Cette époque - octobre à mars - est donc particulièrement favorable pour les recenser. Un programme de 3 ans initié par l’ONCFS en 2006 a permis d’effectuer des dénombrements simultanés dans la région.
