Mission: The west coast of Africa, from southern Senegal to Africa of West Land cover and avian biodiversity in rice fields mangroves Sierra Leone, is characterised by extensive mangrove Land cover and avian To sustain and restore vegetation, interspersed with rice-fields and tidal wetlands, flats. Many millions of people live in this area and biodiversity in rice their resources and depend on its resources - rice, fish, wood etc. The biodiversity for region is of great biological importance, particularly fields and mangroves future generations since it harbours extensive wetlands that function as through research, staging sites for Afro-tropical and migrating of West Africa information Palaearctic birds. Over the past decades, rainfall has exchange and been erratic and the severe droughts in the 1970s Daan Bos conservation and 1980s impacted on the existing mangrove Ion Grigoras & activities, worldwide. stands and rice fields. Abdoulaye Ndiaye A change in land cover over time could also have oc- curred due to developments in management and the socio-economical framework. Such change poten- tially affects people and biodiversity. In this report we aim to quantify the availability of different wetland habitats for birds and the changes therein, over the past 15 to 20 years. Furthermore we investigate the composition of the bird populations in the different wetland types and identify the threats to these sys- tems. Daan Bos, Ion Grigoras & Abdoulaye Ndiaye For further information please contact: Wetlands International, West Africa Programme PO Box 8060 407, Cite Djily Mbaye, Yoff Dakar – Yoff, Senegal Tel: +221 8 206478 Fax: +221 8 206479 e-mail:
[email protected] web: www.wetlands.org ISBN 90-5882-034-3 and 978-90-5882-034-1 Land cover and avian biodiversity in rice fields and Mangroves of West Africa Financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (DGIS), as part of the International Policy Programme Biodiversity, 2002- 2006 of the Netherlands.