Data Zone
Country/territory: Morocco
IBA criteria met: A1, A3, A4i (2001)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 4,800 hectares (48.00 km2)
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2001 | not assessed | medium | low |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2001 baseline)
The site is a 32-km stretch of Morocco’s Atlantic coast between Essaouira and Agadir. Varying between 1 and 4 km in width, the site comprises the coastal strip, starting from the forestry post at Idbene Sag in the north, and incorporating the seaward side of the minor road to Imsouane port. From Imsouane, the boundary follows the ridge Talaf Brahim ou Lahsene to just north of Tildi, where it cuts east along the northern cliffs of Oued Tannkourimt to the village of Assaka. From Assaka the boundary follows the main Agadir–Essaouira road (RP 8), until it cuts inland at Imzi, via the villages of Timassinine and Id er Rais to Tamri. From Tamri the boundary continues west along the main road to Ait Ali where it cuts south to the Iggui Ouferni ridge to Ouroumi and finally crosses the road to the sea at Cap Ghir. Habitats include coastal cliffs up to 50 m high, the permanent watercourse and estuary of the Oued Tamri, sandy beaches and dunes, and a band of coastal steppe/unintensively used agricultural land between the coast and the foothills of the High Atlas.
Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 2 for key species. Tamri is one of only four known Moroccan breeding colonies of Geronticus eremita. The other three colonies are located over 50 km south in the Parc National de Souss-Massa (site MA038). All the pairs in the Tamri colony nest on ledges on a single cliff. In 2000, Tamri contained 30 breeding pairs, or 48% of the country’s and world population. The ibis use the steppe and fallow fields between Tamri and Cap Ghir and the steppe at Imsouane as feeding areas; there are also several other cliff roost-sites within this area which are used by the birds outside the breeding season. The Tamri and Souss-Massa populations do show some interchange outside the breeding season and so the remaining ibis may be regarded as a single population. Both Phalacrocorax aristotelis riggenbachi, a subspecies restricted to Morocco, and Apus unicolor, a restricted-range species (of the Madeira and Canary Islands Endemic Bird Area, EBA 120) which only occasionally breeds in Morocco, nest. A pair of Aquila chrysaetos have bred on the cliffs west of Assaka. Two species of the Sahara–Sindian biome occur (see Table 2).
Non-bird biodiversity: The site holds 17 species of amphibians and reptiles, including four Moroccan endemics, among them the reptiles Acanthodactylus busacki, Quedenfeldtia moerens and Chalcides manueli.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Tamri and Imsouane (Morocco). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/tamri-and-imsouane-iba-morocco on 23/12/2024.