• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2001 baseline)
This site, also spelt Lach Dere, is centred on a large temporary watercourse, or laag, situated in southern Somalia, north-west of Kismaayo, and abuts the frontier with Kenya. Laag Dheere drains the south-eastern sloping plateau of part of north-eastern Kenya and, at the point where it flows into Somalia, it is flanked by permanent swamps and widens into a flood-plain over 40 km across with an area of c.228,000 ha. This includes 11,000 ha of permanent swamp with large Typha and reedbeds with water-lilies in areas of deeper water. In times of flood this seasonal wetland drains, through a series of channels and pans, into the Jubba river, at a point c.40 km before it reaches the coast. In addition, c.400,000 ha of the proposed protected area consists of Acacia–Commiphora bushland and thicket.

Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 3 for key species. Of the Somali–Masai biome species, Batis perkeo, Pseudonigrita cabanisi and Lamprotornis shelleyi are recorded from few other IBAs in Somalia. Other species which are only known in Somalia from this area include Sporopipes frontalis and Lonchura griseicapilla.

Non-bird biodiversity: Mammals which occur, or that used to do so, include Loxodonta africana (EN), Giraffa cameleopardalis (LR/cd), Oryx beisa (LR/cd), Gazella granti (LR/cd), Damaliscus lunatus (LR/cd), Litiocranus walleri (LR/cd), Ourebia ourebi (LR/cd), Beatragus hunteri (CR) and Gazella granti (LR/cd).

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Laag Dheere (Somalia). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/laag-dheere-iba-somalia on 22/11/2024.