Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Ouagadougou Forest or the Forêt Classée du Barrage, commonly known as the Bois de Boulogne, lies to the north-east of the capital city. It is bounded in the west and north by the Ouagadougou to Kaya road and is contiguous there with the Ouagadougou No. 3 Barrage while to the south it is bounded by the Ouagadougou–Niamey road and is adjacent to the botanic garden of the national research centre (CNRST). To the east it is bounded by an east-north-easterly flowing tributary (draining most of the site) of the Massili stream, which itself flows south-eastwards into the Nakambé river. The site is low-lying with the central area (c.50 ha) consisting of seasonally open water and swampy grassland surrounded by
Mimosa pigra and
Mitragyna inermis thickets and dense riverine woodland. To the north and south c.120 ha consists of well-grown native woodland with an abundance of
Vitellaria paradoxa,
Balanites aegyptiaca,
Combretum micranthum,
C. glutinosum,
C. nigricans,
Piliostigma reticulatum,
Terminalia avicennioides,
Parkia biglobosa,
Acacia seyal and
A. macrostachya. Other tree species include
Anogeissus leiocarpus,
Bombax costatum,
Combretum paniculatum and
Pterocarpus erinaceus. The remainder of the site (c.60 ha) consists of plantations of exotic trees, especially
Azadirachta indica,
Eucalyptus spp. and
Gmelina arborea, together with open areas along the eastern border. The site is a virtual oasis being set in a densely populated countryside where the natural vegetation has been almost totally eliminated.
See Box and Table 2 for key species. Well over 200 species of birds have been recorded in the forest and on the adjacent barrages.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The site is currently the object of considerable effort by the government to establish it as a recreational nature centre. The significance of the site is augmented by the presence of several other locally important ones including three dams in Ouagadougou and others in the nearby towns of Pabré, Gonsé, Koubri and Loumbila. The adjacent botanic garden extends the habitat and protection from human disturbance, harbouring local bird species of dry woodland.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Ouagadougou forest (Burkina Faso). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/ouagadougou-forest-iba-burkina-faso on 22/11/2024.
