Important Bird Areas in Africa and associated islands – Sierra Leone ■ SIERRA LEONE ARNOLD D. OKONI-WILLIAMS, HAZELL SHOKELLU THOMPSON, PETER WOOD, ALIE P. KOROMA AND PETER ROBERTSON Rufous-sided Broadbill Smithornis rufolateralis. (ILLUSTRATION: MARK ANDREWS) GENERAL INFORMATION from 2,000 mm in the north to 3,000 mm in the south and along the Freetown Peninsula in the west. Rainfall usually peaks in July. The Republic of Sierra Leone is located in coastal West Africa The dry season lasts from November to April, with March typically between 06º55’N and 10º14’N and between 10º14’W and 13º17’W, the driest month. Average temperatures (27ºC) are largely equable, bordered by the Republic of Guinea to the north and north-east, but slight variations occur during the height of the wet season, and by Liberia to the south-east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south-west. The total land area is 72,278 km² and the population is Map 1. Location and size of Important Bird Areas in Sierra Leone. 4.3 million (1992 census). The average population density is estimated to be 59 persons/km². However, the density varies from Area of IBA (ha) over 778/km² in the Western Area, to fewer than 40/km² in the 100,000 to 999,999 sparsely populated north. The annual population growth-rate is GUINEA 2.4% and population is expected to double by 2020. 50,000 to 99,999 Administratively, the country is composed of four Provinces that are divided into 12 districts. There are 13 major ethnic groups, 10,000 to 49,999 distributed across 140 tribal chiefdoms. Agriculture is the 1,000 to 9,999 predominant activity, with over 70% of the population engaged in 1 subsistence farming. Diamond and titanium mining are major foreign-exchange earners. 2 Topographically, the country may be divided into four regions: 3 the coastal lowlands, the interior plains, the interior plateau and scattered mountains and hills. The coastal lowlands occupy the 4 south-western third of the country and do not rise above 75 m. They are interrupted by inselbergs and merge into the interior plains, 5 6 which reach 200 m in the east and cover 43% of the country’s land 7 surface. The interior plains end in an abrupt escarpment which runs 8 from north-west to south-east and marks the start of the eastern 9 interior plateau (at 300–600 m elevation), which covers 22% of the country. Two massifs top the plateau: the Sankan Biriwa–Tingi 10 Hills (1,709 m) and Mount Bintumani (1,945 m). The latter is the LIBERIA highest peak in West Africa west of Mount Cameroon. Ten major rivers flow roughly parallel in a south-westerly direction across the country to estuaries and bays on the coast. ATLANTIC 0 75 150 Sierra Leone has a typical equatorial climate, with wet and dry OCEAN seasons each lasting about six months. The unimodal wet season km extends from May to October and average annual rainfall ranges 769 Important Bird Areas in Africa and associated islands – Sierra Leone Table 1. Summary of Important Bird Areas in Sierra Leone. 10 IBAs covering 5,776 km² Criteria (see p. 11; for A2/A3 codes, see Tables 2/3) IBA A1 A2 A3 A4i A4iii code Site name Administrative region 084 A04 A05 SL001 Outamba-Kilimi National Park Northern Province ✔✔ SL002 Lake Sonfon and environs Northern Province ✔ SL003 Loma Mountains Non-hunting Forest Reserve Northern Province ✔✔ ✔ SL004 Tingi Hills Non-hunting Forest Reserve Eastern Province ✔✔ ✔ SL005 Sierra Leone river estuary Western Area ✔✔ SL006 Kangari Hills Non-hunting Forest Reserve Southern Province ✔✔✔✔ SL007 Western Area Peninsula Non-hunting Forest Reserve Western Area ✔✔ ✔ SL008 Yawri Bay Southern Province ✔✔ SL009 Kambui Hills Forest Reserve Eastern Province ✔✔ ✔ SL010 Gola Forest Reserve Eastern Province ✔✔ ✔ Total number of IBAs qualifying: 763622 during the Harmattan (December to January) when temperatures eximia (VU), Criniger olivaceus (VU), Picathartes gymnocephalus are usually lower than normal, and again in March, which is (VU), Prinia leontica (VU), Bathmocercus cerviniventris (VU), normally hotter than average. Relative humidity ranges from an Melaenornis annamarulae (VU) and Malimbus ballmanni (EN). average of 50% in the dry season to 80% in the rainy season. A further 11 are globally near-threatened: Phoenicopterus minor, Two major biomes characterize the country’s vegetation; the Circus macrourus, Gallinago media, Sterna balaenarum, Sudan–Guinea Savanna and the Guinea–Congo Forests. The Ceratogymna cylindricus, C. elata, Phyllastrephus baumanni, Sudan–Guinea Savanna biome occurs in the north and includes Laniarius turatii, Malaconotus lagdeni, Illadopsis rufescens and grassland, savanna woodland and Lophira-dominated tree-savanna. Lamprotornis cupreocauda. Of these, Phoenicopterus minor, Circus A large area of forest-savanna mosaic stretches over parts of the macrourus, Falco naumanni and Gallinago media are merely north and north-east and forms a zone of transition between the occasional visitors, the latter three from the Palearctic. Sterna savanna and forest biomes. The Guinea–Congo Forests biome balaenarum reaches the westernmost extremity of its known non- occupies much of the north-east and south-east. The vegetation breeding range in Sierra Leone. The remainder are all thought to typical of this zone is moist evergreen lowland forest with be resident. Afromontane elements at higher altitudes. Local climatic conditions The forests of eastern Sierra Leone form the western part of the and human activities have, however, particularly modified the Upper Guinea forests Endemic Bird Area (EBA 084). Fourteen of climax forest vegetation in various parts of the country so that large the 15 restricted-range species whose distributions define this EBA areas are now covered by secondary regrowth. occur in Sierra Leone (Table 2). Of these, 13 are of global A recent study of vegetation-cover showed about 5% of the conservation concern. Some 174 species of the Guinea–Congo country (c.365,200 ha) to be covered by closed-canopy evergreen Forests biome are known from Sierra Leone (Table 3), as are 28 of forest, occurring mostly in the south-east, 3.6% (c.261,000 ha) by the Sudan–Guinea Savanna biome (Table 3), including the little- secondary forest and about 52% (c.3,774,400 ha) by forest regrowth known starling Coccycolius iris, whose range is restricted to Guinea, and bush fallow. Distinctive fringing vegetation and gallery forests Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. occur along the main riverbanks, while coastal mangroves cover Sierra Leone’s coastline forms part of the eastern Atlantic flyway some 286,600 ha (Davies and Palmer 1989). for Palearctic migrant waterbirds and is probably one of the major Some 170 mammal species are known from Sierra Leone. These stop-over and wintering sites for many of the Palearctic waders include 15 primates (six of which are globally threatened), 18 species that winter along the West African coast. The Sierra Leone river of antelope (16 considered threatened) and nine species of fruit-bat estuary and Yawri Bay are probably the most important sites for (one, Epomops buettikoferi (VU), is endemic to West African Palearctic and Afrotropical migrant waterbirds in Sierra Leone. It forests). Tiwai Island in the south-east has one of the highest-known is estimated that these sites annually support a total of 130,000– densities of monkeys in Africa. Other threatened mammals include 200,000 Palearctic waders (Tye and Tye 1987). The majority of these small populations of Loxodonta africana cyclotis (EN), Hexaprotodon liberiensis (VU) and Trichechus senegalensis (VU). Other animal species of global conservation concern include two Table 2. The occurrence of restricted-range species within crocodiles, a frog (Cardioglossa aureoli) endemic to West Africa, Important Bird Areas in Sierra Leone. Sites that meet the found in the Western Area Peninsula Forest and the toad Bufo A2 criterion are highlighted in bold. Species of global cristiglans, also endemic to the region, which occurs in the Tingi conservation concern are highlighted in bold blue. Hills Forest Reserve. Two endemic species of dragonfly, Argiagrion 084 – Upper Guinea forests Endemic Bird Area leoninum (EN) and Allorhizucha campioni (EN), have also been (14 species in Sierra Leone; six sites meet the A2 criterion) recorded, and the threatened African swallowtail butterfly Papilio IBA code: 003 004 006 007 009 010 antimachus (DD) reaches its westernmost limit in Sierra Leone. Agelastes meleagrides ✔ Scotopelia ussheri ✔✔ Ceratogymna cylindricus ✔✔ ✔ ORNITHOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE Campephaga lobata ✔ ✔✔✔✔ A total of 626 species have currently been recorded in Sierra Leone, Bleda eximia four more than the national list provided by Dowsett and Dowsett- Criniger olivaceus ✔✔ Lemaire (1993). The four additions were made during surveys of Illadopsis rufescens ✔✔✔✔✔✔ Important Bird Areas in 1994 and include Recurvirostra avosetta, Picathartes gymnocephalus ✔✔✔✔✔✔ Burhinus vermiculatus, Sterna bengalensis and S. balaenarum (Taylor Prinia leontica ✔✔ and Rose 1994). Of the 626 species, 437 are known to be residents Apalis sharpei ✔✔✔✔✔✔ and 137 species are regular seasonal migrants, including 90 from Bathmocercus cerviniventris ✔✔ the Palearctic. Melaenornis annamarulae ✔ There are 23 species of global conservation concern recorded Malimbus ballmanni ✔ for the country. Of these, 12 are globally threatened: Falco naumanni ✔✔✔ (VU), Agelastes meleagrides (VU), Scotopelia ussheri (EN), Lamprotornis cupreocauda Melignomon eisentrauti (VU), Campephaga lobata (VU), Bleda Number of species recorded: