By Toluwalogo Niji-Olawepo

 

ILORIN, NIGERIA,03 August. - (ANA) - One of Africa’s most insecure regions is also home to one of its largest waterbird populations, despite decades of conflict that have made the area nearly impossible to study, according to new research calling for greater conservation efforts to protect them.

 

Lake Chad now supports an estimated 2.48 million waterbirds—the highest number ever recorded there—according to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

 

The researchers combined aerial surveys with statistical modelling to estimate wildlife populations across the transboundary wetland shared by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, including an area of high insecurity due to the long-running Boko Haram insurgency.

 

The team directly counted more than 76,000 birds by air and concluded that the actual total was likely more than 30 times larger—a leap questioned by some independent scientists.

 

The researchers say the findings support the case for urgent international protection and long-term conservation planning for the wetland, coordinated by national governments. They recommend the establishment of a protected area and World Heritage status for Lake Chad.

 

“Before this study, Lake Chad was already known as possibly one of the three most important waterbird hotspots in Africa and perhaps the world,” said Pierre Defos du Rau, a research officer at the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) and first author of the paper.

 

“But for security reasons, the biodiversity of this area of global concern had not been comprehensively surveyed since 2008. It was becoming a huge gap in our knowledge of migratory birds, not only African birds but also birds coming from Europe to spend the boreal winter in the Sahel.”  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/03 August 2026 - - -