Data Zone
Country/territory: Burundi
IBA criteria met: A1, A3 (2001)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 8,000 hectares (80.00 km2)
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2021 | moderate | low | medium |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2001 baseline)
Located in the north of Burundi, immediately north of the town of Kirundo close to the Rwandan border, Lake Rwihinda, known in the past as Lac aux Oiseaux (Bird Lake), lies a little way upstream of the Akanyaru wetlands (RW005), to the north-west. The area of the lake is 425 ha, but the total protected area has been extended to cover 8,000 ha.
Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 3 for key species. In the past, this site held large numbers of breeding Phalacrocorax carbo, Anhinga rufa, Egretta ardesiaca, Ardea melanocephala and Nycticorax nycticorax. Large numbers are rarely observed today, however, due to decreasing water-levels, fishing and agriculture. There are records of Ardeola idea, Circus macrourus, Falco naumanni and Gallinago media. In addition, one species of the Guinea–Congo Forests biome, five of the Afrotropical Highlands biome and two of the Zambezian biome have been recorded, while a third, Calamonastes undosus, used to do so, but is now possibly extinct locally due to habitat loss (see Table 3). Indeed, the current status of a number of species at Rwihinda is uncertain.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Rwihinda Lake Managed Nature Reserve (Burundi). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/rwihinda-lake-managed-nature-reserve-iba-burundi on 23/12/2024.