Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

Ornithological information See Box and Tables 2 and 3 for key species. The park has only been incompletely surveyed, but has recently been found to hold an interesting mixture of species of the Sudan–Guinea Savanna and Guinea–Congo Forests biomes, including poorly known species such as the bulbul Phyllastrephus baumanni and the starling Coccycolius iris, both fairly common.

Site description Mont Sangbé is located north-east of Man, west of Séguéla in the north-west of the country, immediately west of the Sassandra river, which forms its eastern boundary. Sangbé forms part of the eastern end of the highland chain that extends through Guinea and northern Liberia. The terrain is rugged, with many granitic inselbergs and several peaks that reach over 700 m. The Bafing river, an affluent of the Sassandra, flows east across the southern part of the park. The vegetation is mostly dense savanna woodland with some small patches of deciduous forest as islands in the savanna or as galleries along watercourses. In the southern part of the park the savanna is of two types. On well-drained soils the dominant grasses are Brachiaria serrata and Andropogon macrophyllus and the principal tree species are Daniella oliveri and Lophira lanceloata, while on seasonally waterlogged soils there are few ligneous species and the grass Loudetia phragmitoides predominates. In the drier north, Sudanian woodland occurs in which Isoberlinia doka is extremely common. Average annual rainfall is 1,350 mm.

Populations of IBA trigger species

Protected areas

Protected area	Designation	Area (ha)	Relationship with IBA	Overlap with IBA (ha)
Mont Sangbe	National Park	95,000	is identical to site	95,000

Habitats

Land use

Other biodiversity Mammals of conservation concern include Pan troglodytes verus (EN), Colobus polykomos (LR/nt), Cercocebus atys lunulatus (EN), Cercopithecus diana rolowayi (EN), Epixerus ebi (LR/nt), Poiana richardsoni liberiensis (DD), Loxodonta africana africana (EN), Hyemoschus aquaticus (LR/nt), Syncerus caffer (LR/cd), Tragelaphus euryceros (LR/nt), Cephalophus maxwellii (LR/nt), C. rufilatus (LR/cd), C. niger (LR/nt), C. sylvicultor (LR/nt), C. dorsalis (LR/nt), Neotragus pygmaeus (LR/nt), Ourebia ourebi (LR/cd), Redunca redunca (LR/cd), Kobus kob kob (LR/cd), Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa (LR/cd), Alcelaphus buselaphus major (LR/cd), Hippotragus equinus (LR/cd). Two crocodiles of conservation concern occur: Crocodylus cataphractus (DD) and Osteolaemus tetraspis (VU).

Management considerations Mont Sangbé was created a National Park in 1976. Although eight small villages occur within the park boundary, the effects of the subsistence agriculture of their inhabitants are limited and not thought to present a serious threat. However, poaching and the fires lit by poachers do, especially the effects of the latter on the isolated forest patches. There has also been some illegal logging of these forests. The park benefits from a French regional aid project which, with funding from the European Union, seeks to improve the park’s facilities and management.

References Lauginie et al. (1996), WCMC (1991).

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Recommended citation  BirdLife International (2013) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Sangbe Mountain National Park. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 19/06/2013

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