Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
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 m
3 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.
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.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Livestock and cultivation are quickly building up around the periphery of the lake. A large number of local fishermen have been joined by migrants from Mali, Niger, Togo and Benin. Although a management plan was drafted prior to the construction of the dam, until recently little effort had been made to implement it. Government has now begun to take action but much still needs to be done to regulate wood-cutting, fishing and hunting. A sport-fishing camp has been built on the edge of the lake from which the hunting of gamebirds is also based. A corridor needs to be established to link the eastern lake shore with the Arli–W–Singou complex (IBA BF008), nearby to the east.
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 23/12/2024.
