Country/territory: Burkina Faso
IBA criteria met: A3, A4iii (2001)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 48,000 hectares (480.00 km2)
Site description (2001 baseline)
Located in the south-west of the country close to the international border with Togo, the hydroelectric dam at Kompienga, built in the 1980s, is one of the largest in the country, with a capacity of 2,000,000 m3 of water. The sites includes the lake and a 5-km strip of surrounding savanna, the vegetation of which is typical of the Pendjari–Mékrou sector of the southern Sudan savanna while, in places close to the lake shore, the shrub- and tree-savanna is now developing into gallery forest.
Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 2 for key species. There is, as yet, little ornithological information available; it is, however, thought more than 20,000 waterbirds regularly occur, amongst which Phalacrocorax africanus, Egretta garzetta and Bubulcus ibis are common.
Non-bird biodiversity: There is little information but it is known that Loxodonta africana (EN) and the occasional Damaliscus lunatus korrigum (LR/cd) come to the lake during the dry season.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Lake Kompienga (Burkina Faso). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/lake-kompienga-iba-burkina-faso on 22/12/2024.